Going back to high school

The past few days have been very interesting for me.  I graduated from high school in 2005 and thought I would never be going back. It had never even crossed my mind or entered my wildest dreams that I would not only be going back to high school, but high school in France! 
My assistantship began with a training meeting that took an entire day - from 9am to 5pm, with an uncaricteristically short lunch break of a little over an hour (at least short for the French who often enjoy two hour lunch breaks.)  We did have a nice forty-five minute coffee/tea break somewhere in the middle there too...  The entire morning section was dedicated to telling us what exactly our responsibilities would be and what sort of procedures we would need to go through to be legal here in France.  I don't know if it took so long to tell us that because we are in France, or if it took so long because it was a Brittish man telling us those things all in French - probably the latter.  By one o'clock it was time for lunch and I had made some new friends and we all had a good kebab together.  The afternoon was more dedicated to principles used for teaching our little classes or groups of students.  It was strangely familiar - very similar to the trainings I went through to teach my French class at BYU, although I must say, and if you are reading this Mme Thompson, it is definitely a compliment for you, the trainings at BYU were MUCH more effecient, effective, enjoyable, and beneficial for me.  From one thirty to about four thirty, we all did ONE teaching practice and we were given about five minutes to do it, and on top of that we had to do it with a partner, which we will never have in real situations.  The practice was not too intimidating for me because I have done so many in the past and I feel comfortable in front of a crowd.  I could tell that it was much more difficult for some of the other assistants from the other schools though.
I was glad to be in my own school, Albert Claveille, the following day.  I was told that for the first TWO WEEKS of my time in Lycee Claveille, all I will be doing is sitting in on classes taught by other teachers in the school in all sorts of different subjects.  I have seen classes in English, French, Philosophy, Engineering, Auto mechanics, P.E., and I was supposed to have two different math classes as well, but it didn't work out.  I have one more week to go sitting in on classes, but just in this first week, I have decided how blessed and grateful I am to have been born and raised in the United States and in the US school system.  I know our system has flaws and I could talk about the flaws for hours, but seeing the way the French students are forced to learn was an eye opener for me.  My first class was an English class with the professor who is my "contact person" for the school.  She is a wonderful lady who means well, but I did not like the way she ran her class.  Students were pressured into talking in front of the class rather than invited or encouraged.  Rather than giving the open ended questions to answer and asking them for their opinions, they had to give very specific answers to questions the teacher asked.  If their answer was not what the teacher wanted, it was wrong.  Rather than looking for the positive in the answer, it was just deemed wrong.  If any student made any comment when he was not addressed, he was quickly scolded.  If I had started my language learning career in classes like that, I know I would not be where I am today.  I had such good language teachers in high school.  They treated me like a student, with the distance that required, but I also felt like I was a friend.  I need to make a point to go back to my high school and thank my Spanish teacher for her hard work.  I fell in love with languages because of that class.  That took me down a path to French and now I'm living in France.  I'm living a life most people could only dream about and a lot of it is thanks to my high school Spanish and French teachers.  I know that I would not have liked my language classes if they were taught like the ones I have seen here are. 
I thought to myself that perhaps it was just the one class that I didn't like... until I visited others.  Other English classes were the same.  Students would have an idea that they wanted to share and they were cut off and scolded before they could express any of their idea and other students were asked to correct their mistakes.  How discouraging for them!  Then the teachers wonder why no students want to participate in class!  I was sent to one English class, on the other hand, that was much better.  The teacher had not really warned me ahead of time, but when I got to the class, he basically asked me to stand in front of the class and let the students ask me questions about anything and everything.  We talked a lot about the differences between French and American school systems, life, politics, sports, hobbies, careers, etc.  I don't say it was better because I was talking the whole time, but rather it was better because the students were interested in the subject matter, they had opinions and questions and comments, and they were allowed to express them - EVEN if they made mistakes when doing it.  I respected the teacher for that.  One student wanted to tell me his futer plans, what he was studying to become, but said in French "I don't know how to say it."  The teacher told him, "just try and explain it."  It took a couple sentences, and there were definitely a couple grammatical errors, but I now know what he wants to do with his life and it was very interesting to me.  I told him I was interested in that and the rest of the lesson he was actively involved.  If he had been shouted at, I'm sure it would not have been the same.  He seemed like somewhat of a trouble maker, but he was well behaved the entire class.  I hope to run my little language groups the same way.  Open communication about interesting topics for the students.  This cultural exchange, this sharing of ideas and opinions is why I wanted to come do this assistantship in the first place.  I love the multi-cultural exchange that takes place naturally if you let it. 
Other classes have been more or less interesting as well.  Some I like while others I definitely did not like.  It seems that students are not encouraged to "take notes" in the way that most American students think of it.  Rather, the teacher presents a topic, asks for one or two students to comment, then gives them the "correct" answer in a Word for Word sentence that they are to copy down into their notebooks and study for later.  Every student has the same notes.  Every student has the same SENTENCE that is the "correct" answer to the question of the day.  This way of teaching was particularly bothersome to me in the philosophy class.  The teacher presented a text about artists and inspiration and whether the concept of "inspiration" in a work of art really exists.  Being an artist myself, I was excited to hear the comments of the students.  Sadly there were none.  The text had several "comprehension" questions at the end and the teacher answered them with her pre-written sentences.  No discussion, no debate.  Question.  Answer.  Same thing in the French litterature class.  History.  Everything.  I would not have done well with the one sentence answers to every question if I had been in French schools.
I suppose I can see some of the benefits though.  If you are in class, you will have the important notes in your book for sure.  I remember sometimes sitting in classes writing things as fast as I could as the teacher spoke, studying everything I wrote only to find out on test day that I hadn't written the right thing and did poorly on the test... but tests aside, I feel I learned the material better seeing it being used.  Language for example - in a class, a teacher would explain a concept such as pronouns or verbs.  I didn't necessarily understand right away.  Then in open conversations in class, with the teacher and with students, I figured it out.  There was a light bulb that suddenly turned on and I never forgot how it worked.  I can still remember some of those "ah ha!" moments to this day.  Could something like that exist if all I had to study were the sentences I was forced to write every day?  I suppose if I had been raised like that from birth I would have managed, but it is not in my personality. 
I'm looking forward to being finished with my high school attendance and being able to finally start what I came here to do - speak English with French students.  Help them love speaking English the way I love speaking French.  I will be able to teach them and talk to them in my own way.  I can talk to them the way I did in that English class the one day I was allowed to talk to them.  At the end of the class, the teacher told the students I would not be going back to their class because there were too many other classes I had to work with.  The students started complaining and said, "Isn't there some way he could come back here?  It's not fair!  He is the best English assistant this school has had and we don't even get to talk with him!"  I take that as a compliment.  The fact that he would even ask that means he enjoyed the class, the conversation, the exchange.  If I can make it so that every student enjoys the class periods they spend with me, I will consider my time here in France well spent.  I know I won't make any students fluent in English, that is their own path to follow.  If they want to speak English fluently, they need to practice.  My job is to make them Want to practice and hopefully it will come as naturally to them as it did to me.