deadbeat Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Hello, this is my first message here.My son is 14 and has been to French school in France for the last 6years. We are not very happy with the standard of schools here in ourarea and his education is suffering. He is also very upset at the everydaybarrage of anti British sentiment aimedat them by the teachers. All little things but all are coming from someplace nasty. One must wonder what it is that these people (French Teachersnot French People) fear...Only last week he was told, whilst studying the UK in geography, that theBritish are Xenophobic, that they manufacture nothing, that they refuse to turnback the clocks in winter and forward in Spring...!! (Evenbeing told that at the moment Paris is GMT +2 hours!!!)... He was refusedentry onto a school trip because he had no French ID card (although he did havea British passport). He was also incorrectly told that the British hatethe EU. In fact it was the French who stopped the UK joining the EEC in1960 and kept them out for another 13 years. The teacher spent 2 classesgoing on about how the British are the only country in the world who drive onthe left (In fact there are 74, one is India with a population on 1Billion). He also claimed that we use yards and pounds when in fact t isillegal in the UK to sell anything in pounds. I could go on but I don'twant to sound like I hate the French.. I do not.. I guess it isteachers... They are the same the world over... They live amongstchildren and want to be men....I am not being anti French, I love the French... but it has to be said thatthere is no hope for the French ever to understand the Brits if this is thefilth taught in schools.Anyway, we don’t think any kind of Nationalism is good for a young mind so nowwant to teach him at home, partly for his educational needs and mostly for hiscultural and social needs... I presume there is some sort of process thatmust be undergone to do this. If anyone has experience of this I would be gladto hear from you. We hope to teach our son ourselves and not use hometutors. We are not qualified teachers but are degree educated (I have adegree in Civil Engineering and an LLB and my wife has one in Psychology).. As I say... not qualified teachers but wevery much fear the lobotomy required in Teacher training school.Kinda strayed from the point there. Brendan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clair Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Start here:http://www.lesenfantsdabord.org/index.phphttp://www.cise.fr/indexhttp://laia.asso.free.fr/http://www.cpli.eu/http://arboressences.com.free.fr/index.php?lng=frOfficial texts: http://www.cpli.eu/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=5Good luck [:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joanna Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 How extraordinary - I've educated three children here in a mixture of private and public schooling, town and deeply rural and I can honestly say that none of mine have ever come across this sort of prejudice from the teachers. At one rural school my youngest got a lot of stick from the boys for being English but as she realised herself it had a lot to do with a)being a girl, b)being taller than they were and c) being much cleverer than they were and going to the top of the class in her first week.Obviously you can't allow this to go on - have you tried talking to the school? If your son is actually being given the wrong facts you've got a strong case for complaint. If that doesn't get you anywhere have you considered sending him to a private school? They really aren't very expensive, I'm out of date now but I do know that at the college we sent our children too the bill for the school meals came to quite a bit more than the bill for the tuition. Most private schools are Catholic but even if you're very anti-religion you don't have to worry about children stuffed with dogma, private schools that receive state funding (and most of them do ) aren't allowed to have religious instruction in school hours and any religious stuff is voluntary anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boiling a frog Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 The teacher was correct about one thing at least France is GMT plus 2 hours at the moment. GMT is 1021 am UK time is plus one hour ie 1121hrs and France is GMT plus 2 hours ie 1221 hrs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 [quote user="deadbeat"]Hello, this is my first message here. we want to teach him at home, partly for his educational needs and mostly for hiscultural and social needs... [/quote]I can appreciate that you might wish to educate him at home for academic reasons, but not for cultural or social ones.Interreaction with other children is essential for social development, and if he is to develop a fluent French also.You don't say which region you live in but it sounds a bit like Brittany. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybananasbrother Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 With due respect NormanH I believe that to be a myth. The idea that a kid needs to spend loads of time interacting with others is just too simplistic to hold water, though I do agree for the fluent French. I would also be worried because it sets him further apart in his adopted country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 I think we agree: when I wrote 'social' I was using it with the idea of fitting into the society in which he lives, ( in this case France) , which implies that he communicates enough with other people of his age to share in their common culture and references.One of the problems of older people settling here is that they obviously haven't got that tissue of shared experience which bind a community, but it would be a pity to deny that to a young person who has the time to develop it.That is assuming that the move to France is intended to be permanent, and that the parents accept that the child will become more French than English in certain respects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitty Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 I home educated my 4 children for a number of years. It was an evolution and not a revolution. It started when one of them was not progressing in school and slowly, one by one, all my children opted to be schooled at home. Home education is why I now live in France. I came here intially for them to learn French and then they decided to join the French education system. One of my children continues to be home educated because that is better for her. Home education opens windows to children's minds and offers horizons not dreamed off in the conventional educational system.And as for social interaction, there are two sides to that - the bad side is the bullying, the sexual pressure, the drug taking, the prejudice etc. Home educated children are protected from that for longer. They can get their social interaction from all sorts of activities, such as sports clubs and scouts/guides etc etc.Brendan (deadbeat) - I've sent you a PM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitty Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 The best book on Home Education is edited by Terri Dowty and is called 'Free Range Education - how home education works'. I recommend it to anyone thinking about home schooling.http://www.amazon.co.uk/Free-Range-Education-Home-Works/dp/1903458072/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207916394&sr=1-2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadbeat Posted April 11, 2008 Author Share Posted April 11, 2008 [quote user="Boiling a frog"]The teacher was correct about one thing at least France is GMT plus 2 hours at the moment. GMT is 1021 am UK time is plus one hour ie 1121hrs and France is GMT plus 2 hours ie 1221 hrs [/quote]My apologies I mean to say BST + 2. Many people may have inferred that from the text. Forgive me for the error and thanks for pointing it out... Sir. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadbeat Posted April 11, 2008 Author Share Posted April 11, 2008 [quote user="NormanH"][quote user="deadbeat"]Hello, this is my first message here. we want to teach him at home, partly for his educational needs and mostly for hiscultural and social needs... [/quote]I can appreciate that you might wish to educate him at home for academic reasons, but not for cultural or social ones.Interreaction with other children is essential for social development, and if he is to develop a fluent French also.You don't say which region you live in but it sounds a bit like Brittany.[/quote]Dordogne.He has lots of French Friends (all in fact) whom he sees most days after school and on weekends. I think he will be fine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Cathy "Home educated children are protected"I think that is what worries me!A comparision would be to try to protect children from a flu virus, by keeping them away from other children. When they finally catch it they have no immunity from previous exposure.Isn't it better to let them have experience of the big bad world and pilot them through it with a close family support?The original poster's son is 14, and will come across the negatives soon enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now