Pippa comes home recently and proclaims, "I don't like President Hollande. I'm against him. My whole class is against him!" It is her first independent expression of political outrage, not one that's just repeating my own political outrage.
What on Earth could the French government have done to inspire this sort of unified opposition from a bunch of seven-year olds? It is threatening to introduce school on Wednesday mornings, where there currently is nothing but a day off. The day is used by most French kids with a stay-at-home parent or nanny for a little lie in, extended pajama time, and day of extracurricular lessons. We spend four hours in the gym every Wednesday afternoon for the girls to take gymnastics, for example. Wednesday morning in our house is officially known as "English Day," in which the girls read and write in English in an attempt to keep their skills up to snuff. The point is, we do it all in our pajamas. It's heaven.
But it's not just the elementary school students and parents who favor comfortable lounge-wear that are opposed (middle and high school students already have school on Wednesday mornings, at least, so are not affected). Public school teachers in Paris have gone on strike twice in the past few weeks to protest the proposed change -- which will not increase the number of hours of classtime, nor the amount of teacher's pay.
That bears re-stating, because it's highly counter-intuitive. In accordance with the Hollande-led plan, the Paris government originally proposed to take away 45 minutes of class-time on the four existing days -- Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Fri. These extra 45 minutes would be added to the approximately 1½ - 2 hour lunch time (depending on private or public schools), so that children would either go home for a 2-3 hour lunch break, or stay at school and have a full 1½ - 2 hour recess. If you realize that Parisian recess yards are essentially poorly-supervised, overcrowded, paved courtyards, this is not as enticing as it sounds.
Teachers, of course, would then be paid for the corresponding 45 fewer minutes per day, since they are only paid for actual class-time, not the total school day. If you were still required to be at school from 8:30 till 4:30, but now you were losing almost an hour of pay, you too would be annoyed.
Then, children -- and teachers -- would come in Wednesday mornings to make up those extra three hours. The teacher would have to come back in on what had formerly been a day off to make up the same amount of pay-hours they used to have. I think I'd go on strike over that, too. Meanwhile, the students would have absolutely no additional classroom hours and would, therefore, not be any further ahead academically. So, frankly, even as a parent, I see Pippa's point.
After the two recent strikes, the mayor of Paris has backtracked and announced there will be a small period of reflection, and it's possible these or revised scheduling changes (adding Wednesday, but making the school days end 45 minutes earlier) will be postponed until the 2014 school year. It's probably because of the leverage of the teachers' strikes and the parents' support for the teachers' cause. But, personally, I'd be a lot more afraid of a mob of angry seven-year olds.
What on Earth could the French government have done to inspire this sort of unified opposition from a bunch of seven-year olds? It is threatening to introduce school on Wednesday mornings, where there currently is nothing but a day off. The day is used by most French kids with a stay-at-home parent or nanny for a little lie in, extended pajama time, and day of extracurricular lessons. We spend four hours in the gym every Wednesday afternoon for the girls to take gymnastics, for example. Wednesday morning in our house is officially known as "English Day," in which the girls read and write in English in an attempt to keep their skills up to snuff. The point is, we do it all in our pajamas. It's heaven.
But it's not just the elementary school students and parents who favor comfortable lounge-wear that are opposed (middle and high school students already have school on Wednesday mornings, at least, so are not affected). Public school teachers in Paris have gone on strike twice in the past few weeks to protest the proposed change -- which will not increase the number of hours of classtime, nor the amount of teacher's pay.
That bears re-stating, because it's highly counter-intuitive. In accordance with the Hollande-led plan, the Paris government originally proposed to take away 45 minutes of class-time on the four existing days -- Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Fri. These extra 45 minutes would be added to the approximately 1½ - 2 hour lunch time (depending on private or public schools), so that children would either go home for a 2-3 hour lunch break, or stay at school and have a full 1½ - 2 hour recess. If you realize that Parisian recess yards are essentially poorly-supervised, overcrowded, paved courtyards, this is not as enticing as it sounds.
Teachers, of course, would then be paid for the corresponding 45 fewer minutes per day, since they are only paid for actual class-time, not the total school day. If you were still required to be at school from 8:30 till 4:30, but now you were losing almost an hour of pay, you too would be annoyed.
Then, children -- and teachers -- would come in Wednesday mornings to make up those extra three hours. The teacher would have to come back in on what had formerly been a day off to make up the same amount of pay-hours they used to have. I think I'd go on strike over that, too. Meanwhile, the students would have absolutely no additional classroom hours and would, therefore, not be any further ahead academically. So, frankly, even as a parent, I see Pippa's point.
After the two recent strikes, the mayor of Paris has backtracked and announced there will be a small period of reflection, and it's possible these or revised scheduling changes (adding Wednesday, but making the school days end 45 minutes earlier) will be postponed until the 2014 school year. It's probably because of the leverage of the teachers' strikes and the parents' support for the teachers' cause. But, personally, I'd be a lot more afraid of a mob of angry seven-year olds.
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