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11/04/2008, 10:27 deadbeat Joined on 11/04/2008 Posts 7 Home Tuition Hello,  this is my first message here. My son is 14 and has been to French school in France for the last 6 years.  We are not very happy with the standard of schools here in our area and his education is suffering.  He is also very upset at the everyday barrage of anti  British sentiment aimed at them by the teachers.  All little things but all are coming from some place nasty.  One must wonder what it is that these people (French Teachers not French People) fear... Only last week he was told, whilst studying the UK in geography, that the British are Xenophobic, that they manufacture nothing, that they refuse to turn back the clocks in winter and forward in Spring...!!    (Even being told that at the moment Paris is GMT +2 hours!!!)...  He was refused entry onto a school trip because he had no French ID card (although he did have a British passport).  He was also incorrectly told that the British hate the EU.  In fact it was the French who stopped the UK joining the EEC in 1960 and kept them out for another 13 years.  The teacher spent 2 classes going on about how the British are the only country in the world who drive on the left (In fact there are 74, one is India with a population on 1 Billion).  He also claimed that we use yards and pounds when in fact t is illegal in the UK to sell anything in pounds.  I could go on but I don't want to sound like I hate the French.. I do not..  I guess it is teachers... They are the same the world over...  They live amongst children and want to be men.... I am not being anti French, I love the French... but it has to be said that there is no hope for the French ever to understand the Brits if this is the filth taught in schools. Anyway, we don’t think any kind of Nationalism is good for a young mind so now want to teach him at home, partly for his educational needs and mostly for his cultural and social needs...  I presume there is some sort of process that must be undergone to do this. If anyone has experience of this I would be glad to hear from you.  We hope to teach our son ourselves and not use home tutors.  We are not qualified teachers but are degree educated (I have a degree in Civil Engineering and an LLB and my wife has one in Psychology)..  As I say... not qualified teachers but we very much fear the lobotomy required in Teacher training school. Kinda strayed from the point there.  Brendan    Report

11/04/2008, 10:41 Clair Joined on 23/08/2004 ------- Forum Moderator ------- Lot Posts 6,275 Re: Home Tuition Start here: http://www.lesenfantsdabord.org/index.php http://www.cise.fr/index http://laia.asso.free.fr/ http://www.cpli.eu/ http://arboressences.com.free.fr/index.php?lng=fr Official texts: http://www.cpli.eu/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=5 Good luck Clair, a Real Virtual French Person La vérité est si obscurcie en ce temps et le mensonge si établi, qu'à moins d'aimer la vérité, on ne saurait la reconnaître. (Blaise Pascal)    Report

11/04/2008, 10:56 Joanna Joined on 01/02/2008 Posts 25 Re: Home Tuition How extraordinary - I've educated three children here in a mixture of private and public schooling, town and deeply rural and I can honestly say that none of mine have ever come across this sort of prejudice from the teachers.  At one rural school my youngest got a lot of stick from the boys for being English but as she realised herself it had a lot to do with a)being a girl, b)being taller than they were and c) being much cleverer than they were and going to the top of the class in her first week. Obviously you can't  allow this to go on - have you tried talking to the school?  If your son is actually being given the wrong facts you've got a strong case for complaint.  If that doesn't get you anywhere have you considered sending him to a private school?  They really aren't very expensive, I'm out of date now but I do know that at the college we sent our children too the bill for the school meals came to quite a bit more than the bill for the tuition.  Most private schools are Catholic but even if you're very anti-religion you don't have to worry about children stuffed with dogma, private schools that receive state funding (and most of them do ) aren't allowed to have religious instruction in school hours and any religious stuff is voluntary anyway.    Report

11/04/2008, 11:21 Boiling a frog Joined on 06/09/2004 Charente 16 Posts 539 Re: Home Tuition The teacher was correct about one thing at least    France is GMT plus 2 hours at the moment. GMT is 1021 am UK time is plus one hour ie 1121hrs and France is GMT plus 2 hours ie 1221 hrs             Boiling a frog    Report

11/04/2008, 12:14 NormanH Joined on 10/04/2008 Posts 179 Re: Home Tuition  deadbeat wrote: Hello,  this is my first message here. we want to teach him at home, partly for his educational needs and mostly for his cultural and social needs...  I can appreciate that you might wish to educate him at home for academic reasons, but not for cultural or social ones. Interreaction with other children is essential for social development, and if he is to develop a fluent French also. You don't say which region you live in but it sounds a bit like Brittany.    Report

11/04/2008, 12:46 woolybanana'sbrother Joined on 18/01/2008 Posts 1,001 Re: Home Tuition With due respect NormanH I believe that to be a myth. The idea that a kid needs to spend loads of time interacting with others is just too simplistic to hold water, though I do agree for the fluent French. I would also be worried because it sets him further apart in his adopted country.    Report

11/04/2008, 12:58 NormanH Joined on 10/04/2008 Posts 179 Re: Home Tuition I think we agree: when I wrote 'social' I was using it with the idea of fitting into the society in which he lives, ( in this case France) , which implies that he communicates enough with other people of his age to share in their common culture and references. One of the problems of older people settling here is that they obviously haven't got that tissue of shared experience which bind a community, but it would be a pity to deny that to a young person who has the time to develop it. That is assuming that the move to France is intended to be permanent, and that the parents accept that the child will become more French than English in certain respects.    Report

11/04/2008, 13:16 Cathy Joined on 07/03/2006 Mostly near Bordeaux; Sometimes near Bristol Posts 1,688 Re: Home Tuition I home educated my 4 children for a number of years.  It was an evolution and not a revolution.  It started when one of them was not progressing in school and slowly, one by one, all my children opted to be schooled at home.  Home education is why I now live in France.  I came here intially for them to learn French and then they decided to join the French education system.  One of my children continues to be home educated because that is better for her.  Home education opens windows to children's minds and offers horizons not dreamed off in the conventional educational system. And as for social interaction, there are two sides to that - the bad side is the bullying, the sexual pressure, the drug taking, the prejudice etc.  Home educated children are protected from that for longer.  They can get their social interaction from all sorts of activities, such as sports clubs and scouts/guides etc etc. Brendan (deadbeat) - I've sent you a PM.   Cathy ----- Your children won't remember you ironing their pyjamas but they will remember you reading them a bedside story.    Report

11/04/2008, 13:24 Cathy Joined on 07/03/2006 Mostly near Bordeaux; Sometimes near Bristol Posts 1,688 Re: Home Tuition The best book on Home Education is edited by Terri Dowty and is called 'Free Range Education - how home education works'.  I recommend it to anyone thinking about home schooling. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Free-Range-Education-Home-Works/dp/1903458072/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207916394&sr=1-2 Cathy ----- Your children won't remember you ironing their pyjamas but they will remember you reading them a bedside story.    Report

11/04/2008, 13:31 deadbeat Joined on 11/04/2008 Posts 7 Re: Home Tuition  Boiling a frog wrote: The teacher was correct about one thing at least    France is GMT plus 2 hours at the moment. GMT is 1021 am UK time is plus one hour ie 1121hrs and France is GMT plus 2 hours ie 1221 hrs     My apologies I mean to say BST + 2.  Many people may have inferred that from the text.  Forgive me for the error and thanks for pointing it out... Sir.    Report

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