I have parent teacher meetings at the girls’ school this fortnight. This is when parents sit with the teachers, usually the principal teacher for each grade, to talk about their child’s semester results. I really like that I can go in and talk with the teachers. I guess you could do that anytime during the semester but teachers are usually so busy I always think I get a better result if I just wrote out my questions and then presented it to them on the night. Having homeschooled our children I am more thoughtful about the teachers now and respectful of their time; even the crappy ones. Because I was a crappy teacher! Both girls are doing very well and we couldn’t be prouder of them. I don’t often brag about my children but they have all, even Christian, done very well in school. Françoise is top of her grade again. She also did very well in the brevet blanc, which is a practice exam for exiting ninth grade (highschool in France begins in tenth grade). I don’t know if they present the top students in the states—I know we did when we went to school; and that for the most part they were students whom everyone liked because they were good (as Quintilian is known to describe “good” as). Anyway, everyone here knows who the top students are and I think my daughter is deserving of that title. :) One might think that that was intellectual elitism and maybe it is. But money can’t buy one a degree here because education is free (or rather it’s paid by the tax payer unless one sends their children to a private school in which case it will set you back 20 euros a month per child). Not that I think degrees are everything but it doesn’t hurt to have one still. Why do I even mention this? Because I see too many students entering college, specifically in the states, that aren’t prepared for college work. Is it a shame to repeat a grade? Is it a shame to not have gone to college because one may either not choose to go, but more especially because one is not prepared for it? Does one really deserve an A grade if what they put into their work was less than mediocre? Does one even have to be entertained in class! There is also no such thing as social promotion from one grade to another. If you don’t do well in your studies (it’s the same in New Zealand for highschool), you repeat the grade again like what I would have had to do in 11th grade (I finished school in 11th grade). When I went to school I knew many that redoubled. I knew a few that tripled. Everyone may have chuckled about those who tripled a grade but the few that had to, and chose to go back and repeat, have gone on to being very productive citizens. To redouble a grade in France is not uncommon, in fact many do. If you don’t do well, you repeat. I find it interesting though that the only ones complaining about how strict and dry everything is here are those from the states. But what I am in awe about is that students don’t think they’re stupid like how they would feel back in Texas. They just work harder next time round. It’s not to say that there aren’t any students that do stupid things because there are. Education in France isn’t perfect but there are things about it that I like still.