Category: France

An interesting meeting in the Mairie (town/village hall)

This morning, the residents of our estate and the surrounding streets had been invited to a public meeting in the village hall to discuss a problem of speeding on the main road. Several people had complained about the level of traffic and the speed of cars on the road just outside the estate. I went along with about 30 people from the neighbourhood to meet with the mayor and some of the other councilors. It was a first experience for me, and I really enjoyed it.

The mayor was a master at leading a meeting where everybody wanted to talk at the same time. He was quite down to earth, saying that speeding was a problem on many other roads. He also reminded us that often, residents who ask for improvement are the first to complain after the works have been done. But he is willing to do something to help. I also noticed he didn’t promise anything he couldn’t later achieve, which is fairly good for a politician.

The discussion was fun. I imagine you always find the same kind of people in this type of meetings. One was a lady who was clearly out of context and wanted to complain about something else in another part of the village. You had the specialist, a man who sounded like he knew all the laws and regulations concerning road works. I can imagine that he is retired and has time to spare to research these things. There was also the man who got worked up because he is a lorry driver and he is fed up with all the road improvements that have recently been made and make it difficult for a lorry to go through or turn.

But we all agreed in there were a number of problems on this road. amazingly, nobody knows what the speed limit is on that stretch of road. Not even the police. We agreed to have some speed limit signs put in place. It will now be 50 km/hr (30 miles/hour). We also agree that the council need to make some improvement on that part of the road where there is no pavement. They will mark a space for pedestrians so that the road seems slightly narrower and people hopefully slow down. None of these works will cost lot of money, but hopefully it will help.

If you had told me 10-15 years ago that I would one day sit in a town hall for such a public meeting, I would have laughed. But I enjoyed that experience, and it was an opportunity to meet some of the people living on our street.

The Bagad Guingamp celebrated 40 years

On Saturday, the Bagad Gwengamp celebrated 40 years. Bagadoù are roughly the equivalent of the brass band, except there are no brass instruments, only: bagpipes, bombards and drums. I went with Maxime, and we had fun. Several bagadoù had joined the party. They marched through the town center and gave a concert on the central square. It was loud and noisy. In the evening, they had a Festnoz to which we didn’t go.

The classroom

Last Friday, Jean-Baptiste’s teacher invited the parents of the class to a meeting. She was going to explain to us how she works and what the children will be doing this year. It was interesting to be back in a French classroom.

When you come in the room, there are several rows of desks, all facing the teacher. Each child has his/her own desk, with space under the table to put exercise books. And they are also facing a… blackboard. Yes, they still use proper blackboards, with chalk. There is no “interactive board”, no fancy technology around, there is not even a computer in the classroom. In France, teachers teach. I know that sounds silly to say, but that’s not obvious in some countries like the UK where computers have invaded the classrooms.

The teaching is fairly traditional. Children learn things by heart, they have writing exercises, reading exercises, maths problems to solve… They don’t decide what they want to learn, the teacher has a program to follow.

It was refreshing to visit the classroom and hear about the work they are going to do this year. Some things have changed, but overall, it seems very similar to the way I was taught.

Meetings, meetings, meetings

September is a month of meetings. Everything starts again, and there are all sorts of meetings to get things going. On Monday, I met with the secretary of the Breton cultural centre and another lady to discuss about the centre’s library and rota. Then on Friday, there will be two meetings following each other in the school. And last night was the meeting with Maxime’s teacher.

Nursery and Primary school teachers must organise a meeting with the parents within two weeks of going back to school, to explain to them what they are going to do, how they work… etc

Fourteen parents turned up last night. That’s excellent. Considering there are 28 children in the class, it means 50% of the parents came. The teacher explained how she structures the day, what they with the children do, when. She also explained her methodology with regard to learning how to write letters. She also encouraged parents to read stories to their children to help develop their vocabulary, imagination and other skills.

It was interesting and she wasn’t too long, but her intervention was followed by a long discussion with parents anxious about what they should read with their children, the effect of television, how parents could help their children. I thought the teacher had been pretty relaxed about these. But some parents seemed really concerned. I wanted to remind them that school is not compulsory until the children are 6 and that they should relax about it. But in their mindset, if you fail those initial (not compulsory) years, your child might fail in the future.

One of the contradictions of the French education system is that although nursery school (maternelle) is not compulsory, the first year of primary school builds up on what has been taught in nursery school. It means that although school is not compulsory under 6, you still need to send your children to school before because the primary school teacher will assume your child has already done the grounding work in nursery. Does that make sense?