la rentrée, thumbs up or thumbs down?

[mint]

I used to love la rentrée.  Made me feel eager to get back to all the things that had stopped for the summer, French classes, gym, walking clubs, etc etc.

This year, I do not feel quite ready to be doing things again.  During the summer, I have had lots of excuses not to do things, too hot, too lazy, too busy doing nothing, too entrenched in couch potato mode.

Since I gave up French class, it no longer feels like a new year at school and all the anticipation of new textbooks and moving up one class stuff that still come back vividly and enjoyably to mind has been truly lost.

My French neighbour keeps telling me that it's good to reprendre le rythme but she is built like a Welsh mountain pony and has energy to spare.  MY rhythm is leisurely at best and this year, I have had a wonderful summer with NO ill effects from the heat, no skin erruptions, no sleepless nights, not even the usual thousand and one mosquito bites.

Must be getting acclimatised and must be embracing the inner me or whatever it's called.

How do other people feel about la rentrée?  I mean as it affects them as it would obviously impact more on the lives of those with school-aged children?

[NormanH]

I don't remember the same general fuss being made about it back in the UK, but that was 20 years ago.

If you weren't directly concerned because you had children life just went on as normal.

Is the emphasis on it over here because of the fact that they all go on holiday at about the same time  and go back to work with the children ?

[Loiseau]

I think it's so very evident in France because the supermarkets give over such a massive section to all that school stationery stuff, seemingly from July 1 onwards.

I look at "La Voix du Nord" newspaper online from time to time, and one day last week the headlines of the first seven stories contained the word "Rentrée".

Angela

[Chancer]

Its a tiresome big deal about nothing and herd mentality, everything has to stop during les grande vacances.

 

I am now untouched by it as I have worked all summer as always, my sport now being mainly running the clubs thankfully continue training during the summer months.

 

I will just have to endure people asking me "alors, ça était les vacances?" and me responding that they were not holidays for me, that I worked 7 days a week like I have for 11 years in France without ever taking a holiday, the exact same thing that I have said to the exact same people every September for the last 11 years, I am going to get a card printed [:P]

[Tancrède]

[quote user="mint"]How do other people feel about la rentrée?[/quote]A load of hyped up clap-trap as far as I am concerned.  And mystifying, too.

I have never succeeded in get a French person to explain, to my satisfaction, what the rentrée actually is, or why it should have any more than a passing significance in anyone's mind or life.

Despite not having been to England for many years, my diligent enquiries amongst those of child-rearing age lead me to suppose the Going Back to School there is exactly as simple today as it was in the last millennium.  Namely, one simply goes back to school.  ('Pick up your blazer from the cleaner, and get your hair cut.')

One French mother told me that the rentrée demanded (as it seemed to me) an overweening degree of attention, because little Émilie would be changing class.  The conception that this representative of an indulged and overly-fragile generation might simply make efforts to discover for herself what room she was meant to be in, and navigate to it under her own steam, was apparently inconceivable. 

And now I discover that  -  at least in the view of the coordinator of these things  -  that the students in my English classes cannot possibly begin their lessons this week because of, hahaha, la rentrée.  They managed it last year and the year before without serious damage to their mental health, but this year not. 

The fact that only one of them had any sort of 'child' for which they evinced the remotest concern (in this case a grandson in Martinique) was brushed aside as irrelevant.  La rentrée is la rentrée with the same inexorable and disruptive finality that Brexit is Brexit.

[Chancer]

Well explained!

 

So many times in France I want to scream "just fecking do it!" but as you say, it would be inconcievable, everything has to be dramatised, the simplest decision overcomplicated, everything become un projet.

[idun]

It is a big deal on so many levels  it is a very hectic time, and for those without

children, probably makes little sense, only happy that their association

is starting up again.

As had been said, all the associations start, not only for adults, but

the kids too, suddenly there are very very long school days, and

evenings of homework and activities, which can soon mount up not only in time, but costs too.

 I believe that it reaches another intensity when kids start college. This is because the arrogant profs are so exigent about 'their' requirements, intractable, with no thought for their eleves or the pockets of said eleves, parents. Some get a fairly generous allowance from the state, this because it costs so much, others do not receive this benefit and just have to cough up unquestioningly, because questioning is heretical and not tolerated.

[YCCMB]

One thing which I guess makes the whole rentree thing such a big deal in France is the issue of having to buy stationery. It seems you can't just turn up with a few pens and pencils and some paper, oh no. You have to have the right pens and the right paper for each class and teacher. Which seems totally ridiculous. Not that mention that there's a whole fashion code that your kids need to follow. They can't be seen dead with the wrong clothes or backpack. The stationery aisles in supermarkets seem clogged with haggard parents consulting lists.

I guess it's quite a big deal for a lot of people who have been wanting to get things done for several weeks but have ended up having to wait because everyone whose help they need, from plumbers to hairdressers, has been on holiday.

Conversely, now that the holidays are over, both our village butcher and baker have closed for a holiday, so people will just have to take up smoking and eat chocolate for a couple of weeks. The Tabac people have re-opened after taking their holidays at the end of August.

When I popped into our bar for a coffee on September 1st, I bumped into several friends (and the bar's proprietors) who seemed very happy and relaxed, having just dropped their children back at school. So I guess that there's also a big sigh of relief from many parents, after a couple of months at home with the children.

One of my close friends, who has a very big extended family, will be delighted that she has her life back, after playing host to most of them for the whole summer. She is finally alone after having had up to 23 people staying with her since late July.

[alittlebitfrench]

I think you miserable Brits are missing the point.

The rentrée is the start of the new year in France which then finishes in July next year. That is how it works in France. I like this rythme. Even diaries in France work this way.

What is everyones problem here ??

OK the stationary lark is a complete con. I think we paid about 100 euros per child to start back at school this year.

[Chancer]

Its certainly a money go-round and makes the economy work, its a big deal to the French because thats what they are conditioned to accepting and doing, unless they have lived overseas they just cannot comprehend that it could be any other way.

 

Me personally I would like to be able to buy a good variety of correctly priced stationary all year round and not just the last 2 weeks of August, the same with bedding only being available in January, thankfully I can go to the UK. I would like my sport clubs, the gym classes etc to be for the whole year except for when the coach takes his/her holidays rather than only 35 weeks a year, in fact they have never even managed 30 weeks, most wont start for another couple of weeks and in 7 weeks time they will stop for 2 weeks. 2 of the clubs I belonged to a scuba diving club and AVF were closed all summer arguably the best/only time they should run.

 

Rentrée for me in the 70's, mother had died, zero parenting or support from my father, the first I knew of the need to return to school was having no mates to play with on a Monday, I wandered into school and got bollockings for weeks for not having uniform, sports kit, shoes etc.

 

Rentrée for a 17 year old starting his first year at the aéronautique lycée opposite me, comes with parents in May for entry tests, they compete with the other parents to find a logement, pay me an acompte for a years rental starting in September, they will have spent the summer dealing with the CAF for the rent, bourses etc and getting the Young man equipped, they move him in on Thursday 1st September, mummy stays the night with him to show him how to get up in the morning and make a bowl of cereal,  he attends lycée Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, Daddy tales afternoon off work to come and collect them.

 

Sunday mummy and daddy come I assume to drop him off for the week but no they sheepishly tell me that he has changed his mind, he will now take the train and bus with his mates (except for when there is bad weather or a strike) they spend the day moving out all the stuff they moved in just 3 days before, cleaning and handing back the keys, I was kind and refunded their caution but kept the €500 for the months rent, everyone is telling me that I am stupid and they should pay me for the 10 month rental as per the contract.

 

So for that family at least la rentrée is a big deal, but does it need to be? - I say no.

[Gardengirl]

albf, do you think such diaries don't exist in the UK? I had one each year when I taught, dating from the 60s.

In my head the year still starts in September, even though New Year sets us all onto a different digit and NY's Eve was always a big event in our part-Scottish family.

But returning to school just isn't the big event in the UK that it is in France. I feel sorry for families hunting stationery supplies ready for educational establishments and the amount they have to pay out.

Chancer, I think you were very generous to return most of the rent to that family. As I read your account I could picture it as though it was an old film, pre-soundtrack, with the piano accompanying it all.

Our branch of AVF in the Gard has a good summer programme with mainly visits to theatres, art galleries, museums and concerts. Most are arranged by an American member, who spends months arranging activities while he's back home in the USA. My favourite activity he arranged was visiting some of the lovely medieval houses in town and being taken around them by their owners. One in particular was part of the town walls, which no longer exist as such and where part of the film 'Cyrano' with Depardieu was filmed.

[dave21478]

My sister took her son shopping a couple of weeks back and I went along too for the ride and I was shocked by the school requirements.

This many notebooks of that type of paper with this many pages in....this many sheets of graph paper... that many sheets of this type of drawing paper and this many sheets of this type of drawing paper.....this many folder with that many dividers....this type of pen.....these colours of highlighters....this range of paints and a brush.....plus he now needs a scientific calculator....All in for nigh on 150 Euros!

All the time as we traipsed up and down the supermarket aisle scoring things off his list a dozen other parents were doing the same, exchanging tutts and sighs and "isnt this ridiculous" comments.

Meanwhile, the boy was huffing along behind us practically tripping over his own bottom lip because his mother wont buy him a smartphone despite apparently all his friends having them.....11 years old!

I remember my back to school requirements were a roll of brown paper to recover our school-supplied jotters and textbooks with.

[suein56]

[quote user="dave21478"]

I remember my back to school requirements were a roll of brown paper to recover our school-supplied jotters and textbooks with.[/quote]

Weren't we lucky, if we had but realised.

Being of the female persuasion brown paper wasn't to my taste. I remember going to the local wallpaper and paint shop and asking if he had any no-longer-needed sample wallpaper books - as the samples were exactly the right size necessary for covering all the subject notebooks and some text books. Great fun. [:)]

Sue

[Chancer]

Its all part of the conditioning/brainwashing that makes French people so frustratingly predictable, its all about jumping through hoops and eventually wanting hoops to jump through to feel good about yourself, the rentrée shopping trips program the kids and for the parents its reinforcement of their own childhood programming. As adults they will never question why someone demands that they jump through a completely unecessary hoop and they will feel rewarded when they do jump through it and eagerly await the next one.

 

The result is a mentality that says nothing may happen during the holidays even when it makes sense like a scuba diving club diving in warm clear waters when they are free, for AVF jeunes actifs who are working away from their families who have no social life whatsoever for 3 months.

 

Its not as if things actually start on the 1st of September, any business owner will tell you that all the staff do for at least 2 weeks is kiss each other and talk about their holidays and the hoops they jumped through for la rentrée, would you not prefer your surgeon tand anaesthetist o be concentrating on the operation and their skill sets than wittering on about whether or not they could find the right pencils, whether their allocation was enough money?

 

I have just been to the Office De Sport, another unnecessary expense for a small town, 5 people behind desks staring at their Smartphones, I wanted to know about the yoga classes, last year I went along 3 times to the correct salle de sport at the correct time and there was no-one there, I left 4 messages with the woman and she did not reply, they said Oh the courses dont start till the 12th maybe you went before then, I said that I tried over several weeks, when I looked that the flyer she gave me the courses dont start till the 19th [:'(] less than a month before the half term break, because of course "you cannot do anything during les vacances" and the end of those is rather a fluid concept, and of course you cannot return the call of someone who has left 4 messages because well, its only 3 weeks after la rentrée, how dare he call!!!!

 

It was probably my 2nd year when I decided joining AVF would be a good idea, they had their own locale and the sign said that there was a permanance twice I week, like a naive dickhead I went there multiple times throughout July and August before the penny dropped, I had left multiple messages on their answerphone which were not picked up until a couple of weeks into September.

[YCCMB]

ALBF. Is your Achilles hurting?

You really need to understand that having feelings, or an opinion about something is not, by definition, a complaint.

[idun]

 I was complaining, I don't always, but the education nationale is something that is a red rag to this bull.

[Loiseau]

QUOTE Dave

This many notebooks of that type of paper with this many pages in....this many sheets of graph paper... that many sheets of this type of drawing paper and this many sheets of this type of drawing paper.....this many folder with that many dividers....this type of pen.....these colours of highlighters....this range of paints and a brush.....plus he now needs a scientific calculator.

END QUOTE

And is there ever anything of this lot left over at the end of the année scolaire? If so, can one not just use it up in the new year?

Angela

[idun]

You do well to ask, and the explanation will perhaps illustrate exactly what sort of 'creature' most profs are at secondary school level.

Not only would my children be asked to get excersize books A4 size, ie 21x29.7, usually 200 pages and always with the carreaux, sometimes big sometimes little carreaux. This for any subject, why, I have not a clue.

And then there are the prof even more gonfle, and they require a 200 page cahier, so even bigger and heavier, 24x32.

And on those days tres charge, not only do the eleves have to get these cahiers to school and home again, but also the actual textes books too  and if there was sport, well, their gear and extra shoes, no towel, who on earth would think of showering after sport. 

My friend toute menue, has daughters, one of which was in my son's class and her daughters are built just like their mother, meaning that the eldest's cartable, fully loaded weighed more than half her body weight. How good is that for a growing girl. I know that after two years at college, my eldest started to get a bad back, something which plagues him now and has become serious. Incidentally, the associations for the Parents d'eleves always had something to say about the weight of the cartables, but nothing was ever done.

http://www.afpssu.com/dossier/cartable/

Did they ever use all these pages, JAMAIS! Were they allowed to continue it to the following year, JAMAIS, in fact we ended up with many of these cahiers at home to be used as scrap.  When asked at the various school council meetings, the prof would insist that the eleves, HAD TO HAVE THAT MANY PAGES, AND THAT SIZE CAHIER!

My youngest went to FIVE different colleges, the eldest, just one. So one way or another, I have encountered too many of these dreadful people who say they are professeurs and care not one iota about the well being of their pupils, just that the kids do as they say, a power trip for the majority as far as I could see. I encountered very very few decent ones and the decent ones were hated by the other teachers, I know this because they told me, and I had no reason to doubt it especially as one dreadful woman, had the audacity to tell me that it was not her job to do as Mme X did with the pupils, she was simply there to give her lessons and if the child had not understood, then that was their problem. 

Just add to that having a child with real problems and that attitude and it is a true catastrophy.

I am simply glad that I did encounter a handful of decent ones.

And we are still using some of the pages from these excersize books and my kids are in their 30's!

[Loiseau]

Sacré bleu, idun !!

[Chancer]

I can confirm that the decent minority are indeed treated as outcasts by the majority, a big reason is that their conscience wont allow them to strike despite peer pressure, they are treated as scabs, as the enemy, a very common emotion in my area.

 

They are also the ones likely to say "but this is crazy, why are we doing this?" which would be fine if the schools promoted on merit, they would be in a position to influence change for the better but the very people who should be running schools are always held back.

 

I dread to think of the bullying that I would have recieved from the students and especially the professeurs at a French school, can you imagine me turning up a day late not knowing that school had restarted, without any books, stationary or even decent clothing? I had to use a plastic carrier bag to carry my stuff around luckily the school supplied all the books.

[alittlebitfrench]

I only took a pen to school for the exams.

In fact, the only time I took a pen to Uni was for the exams.

My little girl is quite short. Packed with all the books and stationary her 'sac a dos' is about 2/3 the size of her.

It is flipin madness this stationary lark.

[suein56]

[quote user="Chancer"]

They are also the ones likely to say "but this is crazy, why are we doing this?" which would be fine if the schools promoted on merit, they would be in a position to influence change for the better ...

[/quote]

Ditto in the hospitals. When my OH had a problem with his foot and was encased in plaster for a while a nurse came every day to the house to give the necessary blood thinning jab. One nurse stood out as was particularly pleasant, calm, gentle and reassuring - quite different to the others who were fine but ...

She was apparently a newbie - she had got so fed-up with not being allowed to put the patients first, always having to follow the we-always-do-it-this-way mentality plus being overlooked for promotion for years solely due to the system of ancienneté that she left the local high-dependency cardiac unit after 10 years and became a self-employed community nurse.

A gain for our community but what a loss to the Hospital.

Sue

[NormanH]

I believe I have mentioned previously that before getting a more congenial post working for the region I was for a while a supply teacher on a daily basis.

I applied to be taken on as a 'contractuel' i.e on a year's contract, so had interview with an Inspector from the Academie. This was early days for me in France so I enthusiastically explained how I would deal with mixed-ability classes, using worksheets and small groups  etc so they could work at their own pace (all the sort of things that were done in a 'child-centered' Uk school).

I got a frosty reception and was told that I was not suitable for a contract though they did continue to call me in on a daily basis. Apparently I would have found it difficult to 'understand' the French system.

Needless to say the 'daily' became six months and when I found a better job in a Grande Ecole for  a while I told the Principle that I was no longer available.

He said "but I haven't given you authorisation to be absent" to which I pointed out I hadn't got a contract either [:P]

[Cendrillon]

There was a good Gloria cartoon in Sud Ouest Femina magazine last week, which made me smile.

For those that haven't seen it, cartoon character Gloria (slightly dippy mother , housewife) is shopping for La rentree.

[suein56]

[quote user="NormanH"]

Needless to say the 'daily' became six months and when I found a better job in a Grande Ecole for  a while I told the Principle that I was no longer available.

He said "but I haven't given you authorisation to be absent" to which I pointed out I hadn't got a contract either [:P]

[/quote]

Gosh, I bet saying that gave you great satisfaction ! [:)] I can imagine the scene.

Sue