Who is to blame?

[Wendy]

Oh c'mon tmto, just look at the USA - just tell me what is american culture sans all the different cultures there?. Before the Jews, Italians, Chinese, Polish, Russians,Irish...what was it like before it adapted to them?.

[HLG]

I was stunned too -then I read that in Charente the majority of

immigrants had been British FOR THE PAST FIVE YEARS... and in some

parts of France, mostly the South West, British families make up to 75%

new immigrants! Bergerac, a small town in Dordogne, now has daily

flights to London to serve British expats who live in France and

half-work in England.. :-)

Let's face it: British people are the Bengali of Western France. :)

Tourangelle, I don't have stats, but you're right - it's

location-specific. I haven't heard of many British people settling in

Perpignan, Dijon, or  Aix Les Bains. :-) :-)

In Marseilles there is a strong Comorian population, in Alsace there

are many Kurds... Where do you think most "new immigrnats" come from,

in Lyon?

[HLG]

The point is that it DIDN'T. American culture didn't "adapt" to

foreigners. Foreigners had to adapt to whatever was in place when they

arrived, or pick up and go where they could make up their own laws.

The idea was that America would welcome ALL people (the poor, the

unwashed, yearning to be free, etc) as long as  the poor

understood that the majority's culture was to be adopted.

 Up until the 1960s immigrant children were thoroughly trained in

believing that there were "higher races" and "lower races". Up until

1968, Cajun children (from French speaking Canada) would be whipped for

using French in school. Up to roughly the same date, Aborigens (Native

Americans/Indians) were sent to special schools to be "whitewashed",

domesticated, and "purified" from any savage influence such as pagan

religion, long hair, native language and customs, etc. (The suicide

rate was reamarkable, which was seen either as a testimony Indians were

inherently unable to be civilized or that the alternate doctrine, that

of 'total elimination', was better.) Asians were forbidden to own land.

There were riots against Germans becoming too big a group and

corrupting culture in the Midwest.  In the early 1900s, Jews

successfully lobbied so that they wouldn't be added to the list of the

latter (as the Senate planned to.) It all changed in the 1970s and

1980s but you shouldn't be fooled.

Granted though, it's by the added layers of cultures becoming

progressively acceptable that the current American culture was built.

However I see little difference there with French or British cultures.

Americans are more vocal about it and the French aren't very aware of

it, but it's there nonetheless...

[Tourangelle]

I would have thought that here they  come from Eastern Europe or even Russia, but in any case not Basingstoke etc.[:D]

[tmto]

Wen, if new arrivals had adapted to American culture rather than the other way round, the native Americans would not be parked in reserves right now.

[Opalienne]

[quote user="tmto"]Wen, if new arrivals had adapted to American culture rather than the other way round, the native Americans would not be parked in reserves right now.[/quote]

 

Those who were not exterminated!   The US is about the worst example of new arrivals adapting to culture that I can think of.

[Beryl]

Looking closer to home, certainly the Bretons had a tough time trying to retain their mother language in the last century despite being " French" and at one time could not even have a celtic/ breton car sticker without attracting  the attention of the gendarmes. So any even limited concessions they make to foriegners is something.

[Berlioz]

What a super site HLG:

I have printed out some of the worksheets, just what I was looking for! 

I could not get the 'Evaluation' links to work, do you happen to know another link to these? 

Teachers in French College or parents of 10-12yo:

I am interested to see how maths is approached in France.   I'm just trying to explain a subtraction 'number line' in my daughters homework to her which to me (as Bookkeeper) seems very long drawn out and complicated for such a simple sum!  She wants to use the 'old' method that she understands from primary school and is getting confused.

She also has been taught to do a diagonal grid for multiplication which she does understand.  Where do these methods come form? Are they in use in French Schools? There are books on Amazon.fr covering maths 6eme that I could order but I need advice please, so I don't get the wrong ones.

Thanks

Donna

 

 

[HLG]

As far as I know, the math content of "Sixieme" is the same as that of

"CM2" except that the reasoning and approach are different - supposedly

they train children to think abstractly (? sp?). Scientific reasoning

is part of the package.

Up until parents can give you better ideas, here's one of mine:

You could invite a classmate over and have the classmate do one random

"opération" in front of you, (observse and take mental notes) then have

your daughter use the "English" approach. They could teach each other

under your supervision. This way it'd be kind of a mutual system but

you'd still figure out what the teacher wants with the "new" approach.

If the math teacher is open-minded, s/he might even be interested in

hearing about the "other" (English?) approach. I know of a class that

adored "Egyptian math" and would actually request exercises!!! So the

class and the teacher may use that as a pedagogical device (ie.,

there's more than one way to get to a solution.... something that seems

essential to me in science and thus should be appealing to a

"scientifique".)

[Mistral]

Most maths teachers I know seem to be surprisingly open to "different" ways of doing maths and generally say that the British way is just another way of getting to the same result. Some teachers in some situations have actually told me they find the British way clearer. The thing is that it's one of those fitting-in things, in the end it's more practical to do things the same way as everybody else because that is the method that's going to be written on the board for the demonstrations.

I'm afraid I cant' help on how to adapt or what the differences are because I take the cowards' way out and get my husband to deal with the maths homework (except times tables, even if I have to reverse them and stop at 10) Ironically I'm better at dealing with the French homework.

I can ask my maths teacher friends what books they would suggest with the "french" methods in them if you would like? These are the sites they suggest our pupils check out  http://matoumatheux.info/accueil.htm       http://mathsenligne.sesamath.net/

 

[Berlioz]

The links are great, it is very interesting to see how things are done, and areas that will need some prep work before we arrive.  We have started 'French in 10 minutes a day' Bilingual Books Inc. Which has phonics, flash cards, crosswords, stickers for objects in French, so our house will be covered in yellow stickers for a few months....

I would appreciate a book list for maths, I agree it is important to use the methods used in the classroom.