This week was “la rentrée”. Children went back to school and everything started again after the August Break. “La rentrée” is always a big thing in France. Supermarket revamp their isles for the occasion. A big part of the shop floor is dedicated to school supplies from mid July to September. There are hundreds of pens, rulers, files, millions of sheet of paper…
The medias also make a lot of it. Ten days to a week before children go back to school, you’ll have the traditional media reports that the prices have gone up (they seem to go up every year). They follow some families in their shopping for supplies. They speak about the staffing problems (there will never be enough teachers). Usually, they mention a possible strike in the coming weeks…
Education is big business. It is also very important in the French people’s collective consciousness. Lot of people say they didn’t like school, but everyone takes school very seriously. You wouldn’t dare criticize the French school system. Education has almost become a god. It is the solution to all our problems.
Anyway. Our children went back to school on Monday, both Maxime and Jean-Baptiste. Jean-Baptiste is in primary school. He will learn to read and write and count. Maxime starts nursery. He will go in the mornings until we decide to put him in the afternoon (although the teacher would like him to go in the afternoons as soon as possible).
On the first day, Maxime was happy to go until we reached the classroom door and the teacher spoke to him. He then freaked out and started panicking. I pushed him back into the classroom and we quickly made an escape. The teacher said he cried on the floor for about half an hour, until they had a bite to eat. After that, he was fine. If you give Maxime food, he will always be happy. He was happy to go the next day, although I think he was a bit apprehensive. Wednesday is off, so he is going back this morning.
I was surprised by the number of parents who were there for this first day. But again, I suppose it is because people here make so much of school. Even at lunch time there were more than usual. I suspect some people take the day off.