I thoroughly dislike disorganization.

Today I got to school around 10h30 to prepare for my 11am class. Got there and no students showed up. Slightly vexed, I marked all of them absent and then went back to the teacher's lounge. Fortunately, I had things to do but I already have a break between every class on Mondays, so I was planning to save those activities for then. I said something to a teacher since she was surprised I was back so fast. Her response? "Oh! Didn't you know? The foreign language oral exams are this week for seniors! Almost all of our schedules were changed. You should have been given a piece of paper about it." Did I get one? No. So, I went to three different secretaries AND to the assistant principal all who said either that they couldn't help me or that my schedule didn't change, thus why I didn't receive a paper. Content with the answer, I prepared for my next class at 1pm. Fortunately I had this group of kids - unfortunately they are one of the most disrespectful classes I have. After my 1pm class I had another break from 2pm-3pm. I started to run out of things to do since I had already had a two hour break. The bell rang, I went to my 3pm class and guess what? Cancelled because of the oral exams. So, I could have left at 2pm, but instead I twiddled my thumbs for an hour for a non-existent class.

All of this to say, French schools are INCREDIBLY disorganized. There are constantly problems with organization - you may be assigned to one classroom (you change every class), arrive, and there is another teacher in your class. Or there will be a class field trip but none of the teachers will be aware of it. Or, or, or -I could give tons of examples.

On top of that, most French people stereotype that Americans go to school a lot less than they do and that our education is quite bad. Yes, they do have higher scores than us in math and reading and yes they are at school from 8am-6pm (except on Wednesdays), but no, we are not illiterate and we have the same number of hours of school/week that they do. The only reason they have school from 8am-6pm is because of the extreme disorganization. Students will have 2 or 3 hours breaks (total) during the day because teachers have to wait for an available room or because they just don't know how to schedule. This ruins almost all chances for them to be able to do an after-school sport everyday (or play an instrument/do theater etc) since they have to go home, do their homework, eat, then go to sleep.

I really like France, but sometimes, I can't help but want to scream out in complete dismay and frustration.

Oh yea, and P.S. French people are allowed to work a max of 35 hours/week. And they get 5 weeks of vacation/year. Nice, huh? For those that do work more hours, like Marco's mom, they get 'paid' through days of vacation. France was voted the country with the highest standard of living for a reason! Maybe they should receive a few more awards as well....