French Education

The French education system is known world wide for being rigorous and very challenging at all ages. I seriously call into question this reputation. But before I go into that, I am going to start with some basic differences between the US and France in regard to education.

The French start school at the age of 3. I am not sure if this is 'preschool' in the eyes of Americans, but it is required. They end school at the same age as Americans, 18. The break up of grades is different as well: Maternelle (3-6ish), Primaire (aka Elementary School -6-11ish), College (aka Midde School -11-15ish, so there are 4 grades), and Lycee (aka High School 15-18ish, so three grades). I am going to focus on 'lycee' since that is where I am and what I know best.

The average day for a student looks like this (Except Wednesdays, they always have a half day on Wednesday):
Start class at 8 or 9
Break from 9:55-10:10
More class
2 hour lunch break
Class again
Break from 3h55-4h10
Class until 5 (6 at the very latest)

Why I say that is the 'average' day, it is because this schedule changes everyday for the students, and for the teachers. Students and teachers come and go according to when they have classes. For students it normally adds up to about 7ish hours of classes a day and teachers normally have about 16 classes a week (so about 3/day - not bad, huh?).

So now I am going to start my criticism. Not only are teachers rarely at school but they don't have office hours either, so it's impossible for students to get help outside of class. If a student is struggling, they either have to hire a tutor outside of class or just flounder for the rest of the year. I can't even count how many times I saw teachers during office hours during middle school and high school. That time was so valuable to me in order for me to be the best student I could possibly be. If teachers did NOT have office hours in the US, there would be an uproar since it obviously hinders education. Not only this, but teachers AND students switch classrooms every class, so it's not like the teachers have their 'room' where students can always find you for a quick 2 second question. I also think it makes teaching much more difficult when you have to spend all that time packing up, moving to the next class etc. This also means that your teaching materials must be very portable, limiting your activities. There aren't computers in every room either.

The teachers have a 'teacher lounge' plus some other smaller rooms where they stay between classes. In the main room there are little lockers for all the teachers to keep their things. If the students have something they need to give to a teacher they knock on the door and ask whomever answers to put it in their cubby. Unfortunately, the teachers find this INCREDIBLY annoying and half the time no one answers the door. Whenever I hear it, I answer it, even if it's harder for me to understand French than the French teachers....

Anyway, since students have this 'very hard, long days' they get very little homework - maybe an hour maximum a night. And also, from what I've seen in classes, not very much is demanded from the students. They work in trimesters and maybe there are 4 grades maximum for the students per trimester which include tests and quizzes. Homework is never checked and if they don't do it, the teachers might even give them time in class to complete it. Can you imagine that in the US? Yea, right!

During their junior/senior year they take the 'bac' which is like the SAT in the US. This is in order to graduate and depending on your score, determines if you can go to an upper level university. It is different than the SAT in that almost every subject is covered. I might hand it to them that this one is a little more difficult.

Overall, I am unimpressed. I think my schooling was much more vigorous than what I see. Granted I went to a somewhat elite high school and this is a very average one, but even so, if the French educational system is supposed to be that amazing, shouldn't they be at least equal?

Footnote: I don't want to give you the impression that I am unhappy where I am. It's quite the contrary! I love it and am lucky to be at my lycee. This was only to further discuss France vs US and to also vent a little bit :)