School Days (Part I)

Aside: From now on, the posts will be more thematic rather than directly chronological in nature. I want this to be a place for updates and reflection, not necessarily a day-to-day diary.

Since my time in Nancy, I’ve met a lot of students at my lycée by observing some of the English teachers. One striking division is between genders. The school’s secretarial and accountancy training programs are primarily (>80%) female, while the printing press program is overwhelmingly male. Some of the courses I’ve observed have been single-gender female courses with the rest being a mixed group, always with more female students. The young women at this school seem to be quite passive about their educations – it takes a lot of encouragement and prodding from the teachers to get a simple answer out of them. In contrast to this environment, most of the young men shout out several answers in rapid-fire succession. While it may take them awhile to hit upon the correct response, the energy level is completely different.

Another interesting bit of demographic data is that these students are very diverse with respect to ethnicity and national origin. Several have parents who come from North or Western Africa or other member nations of the European Union. When I asked if any had relatives living outside of the département (administrative district of France: check out Wikipedia!), many replied that they had aunts, uncles, cousins, and other extended family that had chosen to emigrate to the United States or Canada.

Their English skills, for the most part, are not that great. A lycée professionel (vocational school) tends to attract students weaker in foreign languages (and possibly other academic subjects) than a lycée general (general high school). But they are all very nice and have made me feel very welcome. The teachers have also been wonderful. Part of my luck is that V is a young, dynamique teacher who likes to interact with her colleagues in the break room. It’s still a bit strange to suddenly be a “Monsieur” after years of being a student!