French Schools vs. American Schools

As I'm nearing the end of my contract (6.5 weeks of work left, WHAT?!), I realized it's high time I do a comparison on schools in France and the States. These are not blanket statements, they are just observations based on my own personal experiences. (It should be noted that my personal experience only includes two years teaching high school French in Texas and five months kind of teaching English in France, so I'm by no means an expert.) Maybe you have had a totally different experience with French students and/or American students. That's okay. (Add a comment if you want!) Also, these are generalizations, and there are always exceptions. This is not an attempt to prove that one system is better than the other, because there are good and bad aspects of both. It's just another glance into French culture and my life this year!

Students

In many ways, French students and American students are similar. There are more motivated students, there are less motivated students. There are more and less organized students. There are well-behaved and not-so-well-behaved students. It happens everywhere. However, there are some general differences.

French students are very organized. When you walk into a class at my school, you will see a trousse (pencil pag) on each desk. It will have pens, pencils, white-out (called TippEx because of the brand), scissors, tape, glue… the works. They regularly take exercises that their teacher has printed for them, cut them out, and tape or glue them into their cahiers (notebooks). They take notes to the point of obsession. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told “I forgot a pencil today” by an American student. (Seriously, where do they think they’re going, the zoo?! It’s school, bring a pencil for the love.)

trousses galore! 

from blablasblog.typepad.fr

from blablasblog.typepad.fr

from voixlibres.org

What I find most interesting is that French students are generally much more self-driven and self-motivated than American students. I have had many students in the States (especially last year) that would not do ANYTHING unless there was a grade attached to it. Here, even though what I do isn’t graded, students are almost always driven to complete it, and most of the time to give it their best effort. They seem generally eager to please, to the point of being adorable. (I realize not all assistants have this same experience.) In the States, we reward for everything. Everyone gets a gold star! Everyone wants a reward. Everyone wants a good grade, and if it’s not for a grade, we don’t care. It’s not about the practice or knowledge/skills acquired, it’s about the “what do I get” at the end. This is bad. Being intrinsically motivated makes you successful. Reacting solely to external motivation is not good, because if the “what do I get” isn’t easily visible (or attainable), we lose desire to continue with our task, even though the process is equally if not more important and educational than the end result. (Of COURSE there are many American students who are self-motivated and driven; I have also had the privilege of teaching numerous students with fantastic attitudes toward education, regardless of the external reward.)

Additionally, French students generally fear discipline from their teacher or their parents, despite the fact that discipline isn’t nearly as serious as in the States. They have a little notebook that’s their cahier de correspondence  (correspondence notebook) that goes home to their parents and they have to get signed if they misbehave. They don’t like when that happens.  I haven’t seen a student assigned detention. I haven’t seen a student sent to the office. Yet you threaten to tell their teacher something or write something in their cahier de correspondence (or take away their “going with the assistant” privileges), they generally get it together. Quick. In the States, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve told a student I’d a) call a parent, b) give a detention, c) call the office, d) whatever else, and the student just flat-out does not care. I believe that discipline goes back to the home, and that in the States many parents have the idea that they want to befriend their children rather than parent them. This leads to nothing good. If you aren’t willing to play hardball and reinforce the teacher’s/school's authority (i.e., give consequences at home), you take away all authority from the teacher. Congratulations, you’ve just decreased the quality of your student’s education. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to try to talk to a parent about something that happened in class only to have the parent tell you their student could never do [whatever thing you just saw them do with your own faithful eyes]. (I have also had tons of beautifully behaved American students and incredibly supportive American parents. I've been blessed that way. But again, these are generalizations.)

Teachers                                                                       

First of all, teachers here have to pass a more difficult test (the concours) than we do in the States in order to become teachers. (In the US, teacher certification tests are determined by each state.)

Second of all, they don’t get to pick where they work (or go on interviews for placement like we do). The education system is national, so you work for the Ministry of Education of the country of France, and once you're in, they can send you anywhere in France. There’s a point system, and the more points you get, the more pull you get in your placement. You get points by years of experience, amount of children, having a spouse who works, years worked in a ZÉP (Zone Éducation Prioritaire, like a low-income area school – Title 1, basically). They have even more job security than we do,* but there’s always a chance you might get sent somewhere you don’t really want to be (at least when you don’t have that many points).

Additionally, full-time secondary teachers give classes for 18 hours and have 1 supplemental hour of duty a week. That’s right. 19.hour.of.work.per.week. #?$?!%#?!?%!%%%!#?$$. (That was just an exclamation of speechlessness, not gros mots (cuss words – literally “fat words”).) The rest of the time they can use to grade, prep, etc. So that they can actually have lives. If you’re a teacher in the States, your jaw is dropped right now, I know. In the States, we work “40 hours/week.” Which usually means maybe 45-50 hours/week at school, minimum. And THEN we prep/grade. Time to move to France, mes amis professeurs?! In the States, young teachers regularly wear out and stop teaching within the first seven years of their career because it's just so time-consuming.

When a French teacher is absent for a day or two, they don't get a substitute.** They're just absent and class is cancelled. This seems like a huge issue for an American teacher, but keep reading; when you get to the "schedule" section, you'll understand what it's no big deal if there are kids with nowhere to be for an hour. A remplaçant (substitute, literally "replacement") is only called in for long-term absences.

The teacher-student relationship is also different in France. It varies, of course. I have some teachers who use the more traditional vous (formal you) to address their students, and some that use the increasingly common tu (informal you). I have some that have the students stand upon entering the classroom and only sit down once the teacher has greeted the class and given them permission to sit, and some that have done away with this tradition. However, regardless of the level of formality the teacher uses with her students, the relationship is still more distant than that between an American teacher and her students. On one hand, I find this beneficial as it lends itself to better behavior in general. On the other, I think that a lot of the joy from my job would be taken away if my students didn’t tell me about the 3-pointer they scored at their basketball game, or their weekend trip for their sister’s wedding, or come by just to ask me my opinion or advice on applying for colleges.

Administrators

Administrators are actually that - administrators - and not as much of disciplinarians as they are in the States. A good administrative team in the States will be visible in the school, walk around, observe classes, parole the hallways, etc. (Not all the time obviously, but enough so that the students and teachers are aware of their presence.) Here in France, the administrators mainly stick to the office. There is a department called la vie scolaire ("school life") that takes care of discipline issues (along with attendance, etc) before the administrators have to get involved.

Classes

In France, students stay with one group all day. They switch rooms and teachers, but they are always with the same group of ~25-35 students for one school year.

For their première (junior) and terminale (senior) years, they pick specialties (science, literature, technology, economics, marketing) and they study with a group of students with the same specialty. They can choose special designations (like the certification européene) which include extra classes and tests. I think that this is a good idea, because it creates an environment of similar-minded students and the teacher can cater her lessons to be interesting to a particular group. Plus, it’s known that certain specialties are more likely to continue to universities while others will most likely be finished with their education after high school. Again, this can help the teacher know how to tailor her class work. (It's extremely difficult in the States to teach Jimmy who doesn't even want to graduate high school, let alone go to university, in the same classroom as Johnny, who is applying to Ivy Leagues.) We have this idea in the States that everyone is the same, and it's not true. There's nothing wrong with a little differentiation.

Schedule

Classes at my school run from 8:00-6:00 Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, and 8:00-12:00 on Wednesday. (Some secondary schools have classes Saturday morning, but mine does not.) Neither students nor teachers have class all of those hours. Students may have class from 8:00-10:00 and 1:00-5:00 or maybe just 8:00-1:00. They have an hour or two spread throughout the day of off periods. This means that there are always students in the courtyards and outside of campus just hanging out during school hours. Which at first really made the American teacher inside me want to say “Where are you supposed to be right now?!” … but I refrained. And now I’m used to it.

By the way, lunch is at least an hour (compared to the possible 25 minute lunches in the States), and students and teachers alike have a 15 minute break at 4:00 called la récréation, or la récré for short.

Classrooms

Teachers and students switch classrooms all the time, so teachers don't have their own classroom. You can't save all your documents on the computer, write down your objectives at the beginning of the day (French teachers don't actually have to do that anyway), hang up notes from sweet students, or decorate with Ratatouille posters. If I taught in France, I'd miss having my own classroom SO much. You have no idea how much easier that makes it. (Also, as an assistant without actual assigned classrooms, I've gotten kicked out of a classroom so many times by other teachers and had to run around to scrounge up a new one at the last minute with 4-15 French students trailing behind me like baby ducks. That's always exciting.)

Grades

Grades in France range from 0-20, 0 being exactly what you think – the worst. Grades higher than 15 are very rare. Generally anything above 10 is considered “good,” from what I’ve been able to tell from my students. There is no concrete “fail/pass” line, like our 70 in high school or 60 in college. (This seems strange to me, as I feel like there should be some consequence for low grades in one area other than possibly failing a test three years down the line. However, think of the decrease in necessary parent contact if you eliminate the idea of failing a credit. Hmm.)

Structure

In France, the numbers of the “grades” start at the top and go down (confusing). So senior year = terminale, junior year = première (1ère), sophomore year = seconde (2de), and so forth. They meet up in the middle (I use that as a reference point)… sixth grade = 6e.

École maternelle: 3-6 years old

École primaire: 6-11 years old (starting with 11e and going to 7e)

Collège: 11-15 years old (starting with 6e and going to 3e)

Lycée: 15-18 years old (starting with 2de and ending with terminale)

BTS: (optional) This is a two-year post-high school program. You choose a specialty, such as accounting, international business, negotiation & client relations, etc. You can either stop after the two-year program or continue on to a university and complete one year of studies to get the license or license professionnelle, the standard three-year degree which is the equivalent of our four-year Bachelor’s degree.

The Bac exam

In order to graduate high school, you must pass the Baccalauréat exam, shortened to the Bac. Students sit for this huge exam at the end of their terminale year. It’s a national exam in every subject they study (including sports), and their accumulative score must be a certain number (I don’t know what it is, and I think it depends on the student’s specialization). It’s an exit exam, but an exit exam much harder than ours (well, at least more difficult than the TAKS test). It’s not just written, but oral as well, and not just the four core subjects. It’s a pretty big deal.

Additionally, it’s interesting to note that this test is the only thing that determines whether or not the students pass high school. They don’t fail classes. You could theoretically consistently get a 5 (out of 20, remember) in math every year and still keep moving on to the next math class. There’s no “getting credits” component of the diploma. It’s 12 years of preparing for one test that determines everything. (No pressure!)

Speaking of "no pressure," if a student fails the Bac, he or she repeats the entire terminale year over. The whole thing. The students seem to live in fear of this their entire academic lives.

Extracurricular Activities

In France, there aren’t really school-sponsored extracurricular activities. School is for class and that’s it. There are sports classes, but there are no team sports. There are optional music classes somewhere, I think, but there is no choir, band, theater, etc. There’s no student council, pep rallies, musicals, or football games. They don’t have school colors or mascots. They don’t have televised school announcements or school newspaper.

In a way, this is good, because it means that school is 100% about classes and education. There’s nothing to distract from what the actual purpose of school is. (It also makes education cheaper – the States has one of most expensive education systems in terms of tax dollars per student, mostly due to technology and extracurricular activities. Here's looking at you, football in Texas.) With less money and energy spent on extracurricular activities, we could focus more on improving actual education in the States.

However, I also see a negative side. Extracurricular activities do help students find a way to get involved, provide them with a place to belong, connect them to other students and teachers, promote well-roundedness, and help students to explore and develop other interests. They also create an environment of school spirit and a sense of unity (for those who get on board). Plus, it’s fun (for those who are into that kind of thing).

Technology

There's just not as much in France compared with what I'm used to in the States. Of course, this varies in the States as well (thanks to educational disparity, your school might have iPads for every student or you might have one old-ish computer in each teacher's room), but the States generally have more technology present in the room. I don't know an American school that doesn't do attendance electronically, whereas here someone comes around to pick up attendance sheets every class period. Some rooms have computers, some don't. Some have projectors, some don't. Some have speakers, some don't. It's pretty much just a gamble. Add in the fact that as a teacher you're not always in the same classroom and it's pretty exciting. What will work/not work today?! Will someone have stolen the speakers for another classroom?! Always an adventure.

National System

I mentioned that France's education system is a national system. This means that the curriculum is a national curriculum; you can move from Nice to Lille or Bordeaux to Marseille and have basically the same curriculum in all your classes, making transition easier. In addition, they don't have as much educational inequality as we do in the States. Because American school districts are funded by property taxes, of course the areas with nicer houses have nicer schools. The poorer areas suffer. This isn't fair. As a developed country and a world leader, we should look around at other developed countries and be able to see that.

*Ha. If you don't know me and therefore don't know why I say "Ha," and you'd like to know, read this post which tells my personal story.

**Substitute teachers are called supply teachers in England (and probably some other Anglophone countries). Random fact of the day.

..........

Well, these are the basics! I wanted to preserve this all for posterity in one post rather than in several. If you have any other questions about the French education system, let me know in a comment!