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| It's the French teachers that make the schools | It's the French teachers that make the schools |
| (8 days later) | |
| It's the teachers that make the schools. That's why I'm going to tell you about Monsieur Fillon. He has the same surname as Sarkozy's former prime minister, but has nothing to do with his political namesake. M Fillon was charged with taking into a special class students who had arrived at the school with insufficient French to fit into a normal class. I am unable to imagine a more noble or useful job than his. | It's the teachers that make the schools. That's why I'm going to tell you about Monsieur Fillon. He has the same surname as Sarkozy's former prime minister, but has nothing to do with his political namesake. M Fillon was charged with taking into a special class students who had arrived at the school with insufficient French to fit into a normal class. I am unable to imagine a more noble or useful job than his. |
| There were, among others, Uruguayans, Argentinians, Moroccans, Vietnamese, Americans, Senegalese, and one Spaniard: my daughter. I don't know how he did it, but through a combination of tact, sweetness, conviction, wisdom and that special something that is so important for the progress of humanity, M Fillon got my daughter – who had touched down in trepidation in an unknown land halfway through the course, without knowing a word of French – integrating, little by little, day by day, into the Gallic education system. The next year, she studied in a normal class, in her own year group. | There were, among others, Uruguayans, Argentinians, Moroccans, Vietnamese, Americans, Senegalese, and one Spaniard: my daughter. I don't know how he did it, but through a combination of tact, sweetness, conviction, wisdom and that special something that is so important for the progress of humanity, M Fillon got my daughter – who had touched down in trepidation in an unknown land halfway through the course, without knowing a word of French – integrating, little by little, day by day, into the Gallic education system. The next year, she studied in a normal class, in her own year group. |
| It's also the heads that make the schools: during the three years (2008 to 2011) I spent in France, I was amazed every morning and afternoon to see the heads of the two schools my children attended welcoming their students at the school gates, and bidding them farewell in the same way: they knew every child and they were always there, available and open to parental questions, doubts and comments. | It's also the heads that make the schools: during the three years (2008 to 2011) I spent in France, I was amazed every morning and afternoon to see the heads of the two schools my children attended welcoming their students at the school gates, and bidding them farewell in the same way: they knew every child and they were always there, available and open to parental questions, doubts and comments. |
| There are other things, of course: the strict secularism, the free books, the insistence on the primacy of reading, and the emphasis on students' expressing themselves verbally and in writing (and in a good hand, to boot). | There are other things, of course: the strict secularism, the free books, the insistence on the primacy of reading, and the emphasis on students' expressing themselves verbally and in writing (and in a good hand, to boot). |
| There was also the fact that on Wednesdays, for reasons that now escape me, there was no school, leaving a horrendous hole in the weekly timetable of working parents; and the fact that the economic crisis – and Sarkozy's education cuts – have put the whole model at risk. | There was also the fact that on Wednesdays, for reasons that now escape me, there was no school, leaving a horrendous hole in the weekly timetable of working parents; and the fact that the economic crisis – and Sarkozy's education cuts – have put the whole model at risk. |
| But I am convinced that thanks to what they learned, and lived through, my children will never forget their years in the French state education system. And neither will I. | But I am convinced that thanks to what they learned, and lived through, my children will never forget their years in the French state education system. And neither will I. |
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