On Mon, 11 Feb 2013 10:01:09 +0000, David Rance wrote:

The French were
taught English in a similar manner. Sometime in the 1970s the French
sorted out English teaching, most educated French can communicate in
English and write English well nowadays.

Well, I would strongly disagree with that, having been in French schools
on exchange visits and observed English lessons in the '80s and '90s.
From what I saw it wasn't much better than the way I was taught French
in England in the '50s. And music was even worse (that being my
subject). The music lessons were so bad that I was not allowed to
observe any classes because the teachers could not keep order. And from
what I heard through an open window, music lessons simply consisted of
learning to play tunes on a descant recorder. My last visit was to a
French private school where I *was* allowed into the classroom but it
was just the same except that the discipline was better. The pupils were
not primary school children but 14 - 15 year olds! No wonder they were
bored and played the teachers up!

Well, I certainly agree with David here. English has been a big
problem in the schools, and it was only recently (around 2000) that a big
effort was undertaken to "fix" it. The situation is somewhat better
today but still not great as a lot of the English teachers are French of
questionable fluency.

Music is far worse, it is taught at a decreasing level in most schools
and disappears altogether in upper school. However I've found kids to be
well behaved. I did a series of concerts in the Paris public schools,
about 15 years ago I guess, and the kids behaved flawlessly. Aside from
the instrument miming which is endemic to the age. Unfortunately the
concerts were sponsored by the parents association, and we were paid with
a huge sack of small change! I thought I'd be done for robbing a parking
meter (which there still were in those days).

-E

--
Gardening in Lower Normandy