Taste of independence

The first days of school were an interesting experience for our boys: they joined the summer school where everyone speaks French only. Actually, that was the whole idea that they would be totally immersed in French for 5–6 weeks. The absence of anybody to indulge them in English ought to speed up the learning process.

When I brought them home the first two days, they feigned not understanding what I was saying when speaking to them in French. I capitulated after about half an hour of exchanges during which I spoke in Voltaire's language and they in Shakespeare's, but I could tell they understood more than they were letting on, and this was after just two days. I heard the elder child singing the cacahuètes (peanut) song to himself in bed one night.

My boys reported to me on their interactions with some of the other children: they already found out which of the orientals could speak Chinese, and which could not. They also reported that they were involved in a dispute with a girl over a toy frog on their first day, and began showing some misapprehension of blacks. I had to remind them to share, and that 'good' and 'bad' were uncorrelated with a person's skin colour.

After their second day, they complained to me that some black child(ren) were behaving very aggressively. Of course, this is all alien to a child schooled in Hong Kong, where 95+% are ethnic Han; there may be one or two Indians in my children's school, but no blacks. Furthermore, most Hong Kong children are very well behaved; teachers survey them like hawks, and playground bullying is usually nipped in the bud. Boys, being boys, will have aggressive tendencies. Away from the rarefied Hong Kong atmosphere, I hope they will understand what it feels like to be on the receiving end of aggression at the tender age of 4 and 6, so as to learn to handle their own disputes better in the real world. To that end, I am glad that they have both been learning judo. I always remind them it is not something they should use as a first resort, but something they can use, in extremis.

Summer school

Maternelle at rue des Trois Bornes, Paris 11e

An IPSOS survey cited in a magazine article I read indicated that half of French families would be staying home this summer, implying that half would still be going away despite the financial crisis. Knowing how étatist the French are, I was only slightly surprised to learn that the state sector provides summer school for children in école maternelle (kindergarten) and école primaire (primary school). A small number of regular education establishments in each arrondissement are kept open during the traditional holiday months of July and August to cater for those parents who wish for their children to be kept out of mischief. These schools, designated Centre de Loisirs (Centre for leisure), are kept open by rotation. There is a weekly timetable, with outings and visits to the local swimming pool, and day-trips to parks etc. Under the school's auspices, children as young as 6 can be enrolled on excursions to farms or seaside resorts which last for 5 days or more.

The week's planning at summer school

These institutions have to observe strict staff:student ratios. Children are put into small groups, and each staff member (called 'animateur') herds them off into separate activities. The distinction is not subtle, as 'teacher' is called enseignant or instituteur/~rice. This nomenclature underlines the fact that the school takes on a different role, that of 'leisure provider', as the name implies. Parents enrol their children on a per diem basis. The staff work there on a month basis – it is a handed over to a different team in August. The IPSOS survey cited implied that the numbers going on holiday were down this year, so the number of children staying put would certainly be higher than last year.

Fees are charged according to a sort of means-testing, and daily fees range from EUR1.20 to EUR40 per child. Luckily, we had paid some taxes in 2007, which entitled us to benefit from the educational facility for a reasonable outlay.

When we put the kids into a nearby Centre de Loisirs on Tuesday morning, we got an insight into the logistical issues in trying to manage the operations which depend on a random number of arrivals each day. The centre ostensibly has capacity for 288 children. The day we took our boys in, we learned that there were 88 children under her care in the nursery section that day, to 8 staff. While we were filling in the paperwork – it only needs to be done once for each child – the centre's coordinator was busy calling in her numbers for the day's staff provision and meals.

Like in many inner-city areas in the western world, there is a diverse ethnicity. The Centre coordinator cited that over half the children were of non-French ethnic origin. Apparently, 40% of the children in the adjacent district, Belleville, were of Chinese extraction, of whom many did not speak French when they first arrived. Of course, there are also many 'magrebains' (North Africans), 'blacks' (Negroes) and 'beurs' (Arabs).