Kind, respectful teenagers? I must be joking!

I'm really busy with schoolwork and getting ready for the end of my stay here in France, but I really wanted to tell you all about my internship at a French high school that I'm doing this semester. It's been one of the absolute best things I've done during the last eight months. I love the kids, I love my fellow teachers, and I love the course material. It's made me so excited to graduate in a year and actually get to do this for real and get paid for it. I've been at the school for a while now, and have some really great stories and observations and things to share with you all.

I have to start off by saying I've wanted to be a teacher basically for as long as I can remember. My mother has a picture of me somewhere from kindergarten career day; you know, that day when all the cute kids come to school dressed up in their "what I want to be when I grow up" outfits. This picture exists somewhere in the piles of pictures at my parents house, featuring 5-year-old me in a pretty church dress with my hair tied up with an absolutely enormous hair bow. We even had a chalkboard at home that I used to teach a class of stuffed animals and dolls, if I remember correctly. So when I say I've wanted to be a teacher since I was a little kid, I'm completely serious. Personally, I think there were two major contributing factors to this deep-seated (which some might call crazy or self-destructive) dream of mine. First, my mother and her creative forms of discipline. We didn't have TV growing up; we had one, but it was only for movies and only on the weekends. So when I did something bad, generally the punishment wasn't taking away TV or video games or whatever for a week, it was writing an essay or a letter of apology. If it was something really awful, she might even take away my Harry Potter books (if you know me, you know that that is a borderline violation of my 8th amendment rights). The second major contributing factor had to be all those fabulous teachers I had. In my entire public school career, I can really only think of two or three teachers who were actually bad, as in they had no business being in a classroom. That's out of about twenty-five or thirty teachers from kindergarten through twelfth grade. And I still actually talk to a lot of them. My point is, being a teacher is what I've wanted to do for a really long time. And now I'm actually getting to do it!

A little information about the school I'm working in: it's called Lycée Technique Privé Saint-Nicholas, and it's located in the 6th arrondissement, which is pretty much right smack in the middle of the South side of Paris, near Montparnasse. "Lycée" means "High school," so basically it's a high school for students who are preparing to do engineering or computer programming sort of work. It also specializes in students who have had academic difficulty at other schools. Some students are there because they have a learning disability, or perhaps French isn't their first language, or because they just don't care much about school. I teach students ranging in age from around fourteen all the way up to students close to my own age. I'm there around eight hours per week, rotating between the three different English teachers. They try to make it so that every student who takes English gets to interact with me once every few weeks. It's really good for them to hear me speak because while the English teachers are very good, they are not native speakers. Every class is different, but for the most part, I'll do one of two or three things: 1) Talk to the class as a whole about a cultural point or current event, then open the floor for questions, usually speaking very slowly and simply for about five minutes, and answering questions for the next thirty minutes or so. They're so curious! 2) Set up a work space in the back and have each student individually come and talk with me for two or three minutes each while the teacher does a lesson with the rest of the class. Or 3) Listen to the students do an exposé (an oral presentation) on a subject of their choice, then critique them. So far it's been really fun.

Over the course of the last few weeks I've made some really interesting cultural discoveries. I haven't had a lot of opportunities to interact with French high school students before, so it's been really cool. One thing that has really hit me is the culture surrounding heritage and origins in France. I've taken all my French and Francophone culture classes, done a lot of studying both in the classroom and out, so I know the theory; but seeing it out there in real life is different. For those of you who don't know, French is spoken in over fifty different countries as well as being the official language of diplomacy and the Olympic Games. French features in a lot of different cultures, therefore there is a lot of diversity in France itself; they get a lot of immigrants from French-speaking third-world countries. That being said, it is actually really difficult to become a French citizen, and even more difficult to be considered actually "French." I took an entire semester course on this question, so it's really complicated, but the main thing is that French people are very proud of coming from France. In order to truly be considered French, you have to have several generations of ancestors who were all born and bred in France. It's a big issue. When I took that class back in my first year at Agnes, I thought that that sort of mentality promoted racism in France. Now, after eight months in France, I've come to realize that it really doesn't.

Here's why. In the States, we pride ourselves on welcoming people of all races, nationalities, and economic situations, bringing people to the Land of the Free where anyone can have a piece of the American Dream. Everyone (well almost) is from somewhere else in the world, so being born and bred in the USA isn't as big a deal to us. To be clear, I'm not saying that's how it actually is, but that's how we like to think it is. France doesn't have that culture. This became really clear to me when I started talking to my students about where they're from and general info. Most of them would tell me they were from West Africa, or Portuguese, or Chinese, or something. When I asked them more about their family, it became clear that they meant their family two or more generations ago had been from somewhere else. I got a small taste of this culture my first week in Paris when my first host family asked me about my origins. Because of my dark hair, I get a lot of questions about whether I'm Latina or something, so I just told them I was American. And they were a little confused and asked where my family was originally from. It's not something I've really looked into much, so I wasn't really sure. I know there's some German on my Mom's side and some Native American and maybe English or Welsh or something on my Dad's side, but that's not an important part of my identity. Here in France, it is. And in my opinion, it's not about prejudice or racism or anything like that; it's about pride in one's heritage.

So now for some lighter, fun stuff. I've got a couple of really cute stories. The first one centers around the whole horse meat scandal that happened here in Europe. Last week, we split them up into two groups to do a debate on something they were interested in. Because I'm from Texas, they've been asking me a lot of questions about the Death Penalty. This is a very conservative school, but conservative in France doesn't always mean the same thing it does in the US. They're very Catholic, so the idea of the Death Penalty is crazy in their eyes since the Pope condemns it. They're also really against guns being available to the public. Anyway, we decided to have them do a debate in English on the pros and cons of the Death Penalty. The pro group was having problems coming up with arguments in favor, so I was helping them. I made it pretty clear that I didn't agree with the practice, but I know the arguments pretty well since I grew up in Texas. One of my boys, just as a joke, came up with this as an argument in favor of it: "After zhe bad mans eez dead, we can give zhe corpses to zhe 'orse meat peoples et zhey can redistribute eet." Yes, that actually just happened. He just suggested we go all Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett on Death Row. I about died. Definitely could not keep a straight face on that one.

Second story also has to do with my kids asking me about stereotypical Texan stuff. With nearly every class, I get asked about guns. Whether I have one, have I ever shot one, what's my opinion on gun control, etc. (No to the first, no to the second, I think you can guess how I feel about the third) So one boy stood up and asked me "Madame, do you wear arms?" For those of you who don't speak French, this might take a little explaining. In French, the verb porter means "to carry" but it can also mean "to wear" (like clothing). The French noun armes is a blanket term for pretty much all weapons, but particularly firearms. There is a French word for "gun" but it generally refers to a hunting rifle or a musket or something. So when this kid asked me if I wear arms, he meant to ask if I own a gun. The teacher and I both laughed a bit, and I said "Why yes, I do wear arms! I take them off at night and put them back on in the morning! What about you?" Poor kid just looked really confused, so we immediately explained how to correct his error. It was pretty funny.

All in all, I'm really happy with my school. I have groupies who wait outside the teachers' lounge during break times wanting me to come out and talk to them for a while. Sometimes the students call out to me, trying to persuade me to come to their English class instead of the one I'm scheduled for. It's adorable. I've even been hit on a few times during the one-on-one conversations. Generally something like "So, do you have boyfriend back in Texas? Why not? You is so belle, there must be many boys at home, yes?" Once, a boy even asked me if I had plans that night. It's flattering and sort of adorable, but occasionally a little awkward since some of these boys are really close to my age (17 or 18, some even older). I love that I get to speak French outside of class with the teachers, and that they all treat me like a peer, (I use the familiar "tu" with them) and are really interested in me and my studies and my life and everything. I feel like a bit of a celebrity when I'm there, since everyone from the teachers to the students are so nice and crowding around me to talk and ask questions and things. It's really quite wonderful.

That's all for this week. Coming soon is a visit to the Château de Versailles. I'm thinking about going to Disney too. Never been to a Disney park, so why not go while I'm here? Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Leave them in the comments below! I love to hear from you all!