Some interesting posts came out of the first discussion posted on Franglais Kids including differing teaching methods of maths & english between the UK and France.
I'm interested in finding out more about the differences you have experienced between the French education system and the UK's.
Another point which concerns me a little is that of analysis skills, some of you said that the French system doesn't appear to encourage analysis & questioning of facts but prefers our children to learn the facts as the teacher teaches them. As a business analyst myself, I would find this difficult to accept so I foresee some difficulties in the future.
As a child I was encouraged to question everything and to keep on searching for evidence to support facts not just to believe what someone told me.
I'm interested in your experiences & thoughts on the systems and advice on this topic...
Suzanne
www.UK4Me.co.uk
UK Stores Delivering Overseas
One thing we need to remember about the system here is that it is education nationale and doesn’t run like where I was from in the States with a smaller school board and the PTA parents could really have a say in what was being taught.
some good points there, I discussed this with my other half yesterday and we both agreed that we should support the teachers but outside of school we can expand on their thinking. Having taken lots of exams myself in the past, one thing I learnt was that somethings you just have to learn & recite even if you don’t agree as it’s the only way to pass the exams…exam technique which was only taught to me after I left university!
One thing we can say is that we certainly don’t want to instill rebelliousness into our children or make them difficult to teach. We want to make the most of the upsides of the french system and I guess try to compensate in some way for the downsides if possible.
Perhaps joining the school parents association would be a good idea, I recall my Dad joined mine when I was at primary school in England many years ago, as we’re in a small village I already know a few parents & they seem to be active in the school’s activities which I think I’d enjoy.
Hello Suzanne,
Of course it depends which age group you are talking about, but here are my general thoughts on the subject.
I agree that children have to be curious about everything about them, but can you imagine if every child in every class asked the ‘why’ question for each subject taught, not much teaching would happen. As parents we are there to answer these questions, the teachers in France or any other country are there to teach basic guidelines. I have three daughters of 20, 18, and 14 and can say with honesty that I have never had a problem with the French education system. They have their ups and downs like any other children, but have all obtained good grades, made good friends and are happy and fulfilled. I have also been very involved and active in the parent teacher group which helped me to make friends too!