Normandy is somewhere near Germany and I don't know what the Holocaust was - US college students and World War II history

Hitler was leader of Amsterdam, Normandy is near Germany and the Holocaust was 300 years ago - just some of the answers Rhonda Fink-Whitman received from Pennsylvania students when she asked them about World War II and matters relating to it, in her video.

Rhonda Fink-Whitman (screenshot from "94 maidens - the mandate video)

Fink-Whitman's goal was to show how big a gap there was in students' knowledge of modern history, and in particular those who had gone through the public school system - not matter how bright and articulate" they might appear.


She didn't set out with the intention to "embarrass, humiliate or shame anyone" but rather to show how public schools in the United States are failing to teach pupils about the Holocaust.

On the evidence of the answers given in the video, Fink-Whitman seems to have a point.

She doesn't say whether there were students around who could answer the questions.

But there were more than enough who gave what can only be viewed as jaw-dropping responses or simply claimed ignorance with an "I don't know".

Admittedly the video is a bit long and becomes somewhat predictable, but still...these are today's young American adults who've clearly not been taught the rudiments of modern history.

And it's not their fault - it's all down to the education system...or lack thereof.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V4bmm6yJMw#t=760

The "proper" way to smack a child

All right so it's not exactly what a report on TF1's prime time news on Tuesday evening was saying, but in a way, it surely wasn't far from it.

It's all a matter of interpretation.

"Bon usage de la fessée" ran the title of a three-and-a-half minute clip introduced by anchor Laurence Ferrari and although it has been tempered somewhat on the site to read "Pour bien punir ses enfants, tout est question de mesure" the underlying message remains the same doesn't it?

TF1's report was part of an ongoing series looking at the education - in the broad sense of the word - of children and featured a couple with three young boys.

The mother, Marie-Laure Vital, admitted, just as 80 per cent of French parents apparently do, that she occasionally smacks her children.

Vital sometimes feels "unable to cope" and because she reportedly often feels that the punishment - whatever form it might take - isn't doing its job properly or is inappropriate, she has joined a workshop which specifically teaches parenting skills.

"L'atelier des parents" is a one of a kind in France and on the agenda during TF1's filming was the subject of punishment, with one of the workshop's psychologists, Caroline Iruela, detailing what sort of discipline was unacceptable and the eight parents present exchanging their experiences.

So far so good.

But then up pops a doctor - a paediatrician no less - with over 30 years experience.

And while he maintains, just as you would expect from a professional that, "If smacking is carried out to hurt or publicly humiliate a child, it's not effective" take a look at his gesture as he begins this contribution.

Doesn't it seem to imply that an "appropriate" slap on the hands is perfectly all right as it doesn't really constitute smacking?

Last year after a woman was given a six-month suspended sentence for smacking her child, the lines of a 'phone-in programme on national radio were buzzing with indignation.

Listeners were appalled by the decision and critical of the invited guest, paediatrician and parliamentarian Edwige Antier. who has tried to introduce a law to ban smacking.

"A mother should be a 'protector' and what's needed in France is a law, as exists in 18 other European countries, abolishing the right parents have to hit a child," said Antier during the show.

It wasn't a point of view with which many listeners agreed and they're not alone.

A 2010 poll among health professionals showed that 88 per cent of them were also against the introduction of such a law.

While domestic corporal punishment, of which smacking is one form, is against the law in many European countries, it seems to be acceptable in France.

Screenshot from Council of Europe video "Raise your hand against smacking"

And while the prevailing thinking runs along the lines of "A smack from time to time has never hurt anyone," (read some of the comments to TF1's report), that 2008 Council of Europe "Raise your hand against smacking" campaign calling on all member states to pass laws prohibiting all forms of corporal punishment of children, including smacking, looks set to have little impact on lawmakers here.

Smacking's all right isn't it? As long as it's done "properly".

Cyril Couderc - Private school teacher fired for being openly gay files complaint

Almost a year after being fired from his teaching post for being gay, Cyril Couderc has decided to file a complaint with the French Equal Opportunities and Anti-Discrimination Commission (Halde).

(Screenshot from Daniel school promotional video)

In September last year Couderc came out publicly after he moved in with his partner.

His employers at Daniel school in the town of Guebwiller in north-eastern France knew of his sexual orientation but weren't happy at his being openly gay.

And as the national radio station RTL reports, the school principal sacked the 35-year-old who had been teaching at the school for 10 years.

Daniel is a private religious school, teaching children from Maternelle (kindegarten) age all the way through to the end of Collège or Junior High (14 or 15-year-olds).

"Its teachers are all believers," says the school's promotional video. "They're committed to passing on not only that faith but also a thorough education and an understanding of religious values and behaviour."



Values which Couderc said the principal of the school had told him had not been "respected" by his having openly declared his sexual orientation.

Interviewed by RTL on Tuesday, Couderc said the school principal had told him that his sexual orientation did not "respect the values of the institution" and he was given his marching orders.

"Not only was I told that I no longer had the right to work at the school, I was also informed that I was to have absolutely no contact with any of the pupils," Couderc told RTL.

"It was as though homosexuality was being defined as something 'dangerous'," he said, adding that he had also been offered a therapy to "deal with the torment of his homosexuality," - a proposition he declined preferring instead to look for another post in the public education sector.

Asked by the regional daily Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace (DNA) why he had waited 10 months to take his case to Halde, Couderc replied that he had been depressed after losing his job but had been motivated into taking action after he had seen a poster advertising Daniel's end-of-year festival.

"The motto was 'Vivre ensemble' (living together)," he told DNA.

"When I saw that, I knew I had to talk about it and they had to understand that what they did was unacceptable."

Defending the school's decision, Luc Bussière, the president of the organisation which is responsible for running Daniel, told DNA that the school had "lost confidence" in Couderc after he moved in with his partner.

"It was a problem of trust," said Bussière.

"We knew of his sexuality and his inner struggles," he told the newspaper.

"But there's a differences between having such tendencies and assuming them in a school which promotes Christian ethics."

Amen?

"We like the world" round-the-world Facebook journey

If you're one of those people who casts doubts on whether Facebook "friends" can ever exist outside of the virtual world, then a French family is surely set to make you think again.

In July Frédéric and Estelle Colas, along with their eight-year-old daughter Héloïse, will leave Paris to set off on a round-the-world trip with a difference.

They'll be staying with Facebook friends in every country they visit.

The Colas family (screenshot from YouTube video)

Yes that's right; people they don't necessarily know and perhaps have never met but who have become "friends' in that Social Network definition of the word.



But this isn't just a gimmick or a publicity stunt and it's not a trip dedicated purely to pleasure - although there is obviously some of that involved too - as Frédéric Colas explained to journalist David Abiker on Europe 1 radio on Sunday.

There's also a purpose behind it.

"Every time one of our Facebook friends puts us up for the night, we'll donate the money we would otherwise have spent on a hotel to a fund aimed at building a girls' school in Burkina Faso together with the association La voix de l'enfant," he said.

The couple, both in their early forties and professionals in communications and advertising see the project as being a combination of making a dream come true, taking a break and allowing their daughter to discover the world.

And at the some time, they'll be doing something much more important, as Fréderic writes on We like the world's website.

"It is the time to ask myself important questions about what I want to do about my life while keeping my feet on the ground," he writes.

"It is a year when I want to 'be' but also to 'achieve' something. As in any project, I anticipate having constraints and some form of pressure, because I want to see the school built thanks to all the people who are interested in our project."

If you would like to become a friend of the project, offer the family accommodation overnight at some point during their trip o simply follow their progress, then check out the Facebook page for We like the world.

The Colas family (screenshot from YouTube video)

"The question is often asked what do Facebook 'friends' really mean in terms of proper friendship," says Colas.

"Our aim is to show that with the help of a Social Network we can do some good, something enjoyable and something that exists in the 'real life'."

We like the world - french

View more presentations from Frederic Colas

Escaped UK schizophrenic found teaching in French school

Lewis Alexander Mawhinney applied for a job as a German teacher in the southern French town of Digne-les-Bains in December last year.

The 26-year-old, originally from Northern Ireland, apparently came with excellent qualifications.

As the national daily France Soir reports, because the local education authority was particularly short on German teachers, it immediately offered him a job under contract at two of its schools; the Pierre-Gilles-de-Gennes lycée and the Maria-Borrely collège.

He began on January 3. But not all was as it at first appeared.

Cloth embroidered by a schizophrenia sufferer (from Wikpedia, author - cometstarmoon)

"We had no reason to complain about his behaviour and I never heard the slightest negative comment about him from his colleagues, pupils or parents," Pascale Garrec the director of the lycée is quoted as saying in the regional daily Midi Libre.

"It was during a conversation outside of the professional context that I became concerned over some of the 'peculiarities' about comments he made."

Among them were claims made by Mawhinney that he was a secret service agent working for Scotland Yard, and that led Garrec to alert the local police.

His behaviour in the classroom was also somewhat unusual according to pupils who spoke to another regional daily La Provence, and some of them found him "weird".

"He didn't seem to know the rules of German grammar," one pupil told the paper.

"When we asked him a question, he wouldn't reply immediately and instead would give us the answers the next day after having searched the Internet."

Another commented on the teachers apparent "normality" inside the classroom but odd habit of "putting on his gloves to open and close the door so as not to leave fingerprints."

Investigations revealed that the man described as "discreet" had in fact escaped from a clinic in the Northern Ireland capital Belfast in 2008, where he was being treated for schizophrenia after a knife attack on a man the previous year.

Mawhinney has been fired from his post and is being held in a psychiatric unit in the town awaiting his return to Belfast.

Father forces son to eat school report card

Parental responsibility in education is something of a political catchphrase at the moment here in France especially when it comes to tackling the problem of truancy.

But one man in the western central city of Poitiers took his "duties" a step further by hitting his son for obtaining bad grades and forcing him to eat his report card.

Students holding report card, Wikipedia, author Aaron Manning

It's one of those tales that surely makes you sit back and wonder what could have been going through the parent's mind.

As outlined in the regional daily La Nouvelle République du Centre-Ouest, the man wasn't happy with the grades his son had obtained on a recent report card, and as a punishment he sent the teenager to his room but not before "Giving him a wallop on the backside".

His anger didn't stop there though, as he apparently followed the boy upstairs, forced him to eat his report card and then slapped his son across the face.

When the boy appeared in school the next day with a swollen lip, teachers contacted social services and the police, who charged the father with assault.

"Overstepping the mark" was how the national daily Aujourd'hui en France-Le Parisien described the man's behaviour, and one with which many readers seemed to agree in the newspaper's comments section.

But judges were more lenient when the man appeared before a court on Tuesday, finding him guilty of assault but handing down just give a two-month suspended sentence and ordering him to pay his son the sum of €1 in damages.

The relationship between the two has "improved" according to the man, who said during the trial that "Since the event (of the report card) I have no longer hit my son."

Well that's all right then!

France steps up H1N1 vaccination campaign

A large proportion of a still sceptical French public will decide for itself this week whether to be inoculated against "swine flu" (H1N1 or influenza A as it's more commonly called here) as the government's vaccination campaign steps up a notch.

On Monday the health minister, Roselyne Bachelot, announced that over one thousand special centres would be open from November 12 and around six million French would be receiving letters this week encouraging them to go along and get vaccinated.

Among those given priority in the next stage of vaccinating the population at large are parents and childminders of infants under six months of age, health workers who haven't yet had the jab and the "more vulnerable" among the French especially those with respiratory problems.

From the second half of November until the end of the month letters will be sent out to other sectors of the population according to their perceived level of risk.

Pregnant women, who are also considered a priority, will have to wait until the vaccine that doesn't contain the chemical additive adjuvant is given the government's green light, while vaccination of the country's 12 million school children is scheduled to begin from November 25, with the education minister, Luc Chatel, stressing last weekend that it would be entirely voluntary with the decision being left to parents.

Adults over the age of 18 and in good health will be the last to receive a letter inviting them to be vaccinated.

So all well and good with the government finally delivering on its promise to be in a position to vaccinate the entire population.

It has in total ordered 94 million doses of the vaccine.

But in spite of the government's campaign and an increase in the both the number of confirmed cases in recent weeks and deaths reported linked to the H1N1 virus, the French seem to remain largely unimpressed with the most recent poll indicating that only 21 per cent of them intended to get themselves vaccinated.

And although Bachelot remains upbeat about the 10 per cent of health professionals who have so far voluntarily turned up for the jab since the vaccination became available to them as a priority last month, even she has had to admit that the figure is "insufficient".

Reducing truancy rates in French high schools

A trial begins on Monday in France to try to cut the truancy rate among students at vocational high schools.

Playing hookey, skiving off, cutting class or whatever you want to call it, is apparently an increasing problem in France, with figures from a 2007-2008 study putting the rate among the country's roughly one thousand lycées professionnels, or vocational high schools, at 8.2 per cent.

In an effort to bring down the level, three schools in the Ile de France region surrounding the French capital will be taking part in a pilot scheme of rewarding attendance with money.

Each class at the three schools will be allocated an initial sum of €2,000 with the promise of being able to "earn" up to €10,000 by the end of the academic year depending on how well they have collectively managed to keep to the agreement of increasing attendance rates.

What happens to the money amassed at the end of the year will be determined collectively by the students and teaching staff at the school from the beginning of the project.

The scheme has come in for some criticism especially from those who feel it inappropriate that students be paid to attend class, but speaking on national radio, Martin Hirsch, the junior minister for active solidarities against poverty and for young people, stressed the collective rather than individual nature of how the pool of money could be earned.

"We're trying something new," he said.

"There are schools where the truancy rate is anything from five to 80 percent and this sort of financial scheme already works in other countries," he added.

"The project to be financed at the end of the year must be an educative one," he continued.

"It could be a school trip, the creation of an association, or the purchase of computer equipment or sports material for the class as a whole."

But not everyone is as enthusiastic about the idea as the minister.

Jean-Paul Huchon, the president of the regional council for Ile de France region and a member of the Socialist party, thinks that it could in fact have the opposite effect to the one intended.

Instead of giving students collective responsibility in an effort to try to reduce truancy rates, Huchon thinks the scheme might potentially lead to an increase in violence in the institutions.

"Far from giving students a sense of responsibility, the setting up of a scheme of a 'collective kitty' could in fact foster a feeling of injustice among classes and different courses of study within the same school," he said.

"And that (feeling of injustice) could also lead to a growth in violence within the school."

If the pilot scheme proves successful, it is expected to be extended to another 70 classes (around 2,000 students) at institutions throughout France in the year 2010-2011, at a budget of €560,000.

A French high school's "short" protest

La rentrée, the time of the year when the French return from their summer holidays and get back to everyday life, has of course come and gone.

And it hasn't been without its problems. This year perhaps first and foremost has been the accompanying and much-predicted rapid spread of the H1N1 virus, especially as children started the new academic year.

But for students at the Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire lycée or high school in the town of Etampes in the département of Essone, 48 kilometres south of the French capital, another completely different issue has been occupying their minds.

Last week more than 200 of them refused to follow a "request" made by the school's principal to dress "correctly" in other words for example to wear skirts that dropped beyond knee level or refrain from attending school in Bermuda shorts.

Instead they organised "The day of shorts" and turned up at school "inappropriately" dressed.

The move was undoubtedly inspired by the film "La journée de la jupe" (Skirt day) released in March this year in which among other things, the main character of the teacher Sonia Bergerac, (played by Isabelle Adjani) wears a skirt to school and in the process breaks a rule set by the principal.

Back to reality though, and the result of the demonstration was a three-day suspension for the main organiser of the "day of the shorts" which had quickly gathered support among students through social networking sites and of course text messages.

Far from being the beginning of a 1968-type student revolution, the action was, in the words of one student, "A way of making a point in as light-hearted a fashion as possible," especially as the weather was particularly hot.

And the protest is unlikely to rest there if some students have anything to do with it.

Another "event" has been planned and once again the Internet could prove to play a vital role in spreading the word as quickly as possible.

A Facebook group "The right to kiss" has been set up with over 300 members who apparently will be taking the opportunity to do exactly as the name suggests at the school on Tuesday.

A French end-of-school marking mix-up

The academic year is over in France, the baccalauréat exams have been sat and the results published, and students up and down the country have, depending on how they fared of course, been rejoicing (or not) and making plans for their future.

Except for around 800 of them in the Ile de France region, the area including and surrounding the capital, who received the wrong results and will have to wait a little longer to find out how they did.

Even the most brilliant of students can crack under exam pressure, but when around 800 end up with grades totally out of keeping with their academic records, suspicions are, not surprisingly, quickly roused.

Such has been the case in and around Paris over the past week, where the results of students having sat the baccalauréat, or bac as it's more "affectionately" and popularly known here, didn't quite tally with what had been expected.

Last Friday the results were published on the Internet, and there were some surprises, not necessarily pleasant ones, not just for the students, but also parents and teachers, in the results the French paper - of all things.

And among the schools left scratching their heads over what could have happened were some of the capital's most prestigious lycées including Henri IV, Louis-le-Grand, Claude-Monet and Stanislas.

"Around a dozen students rang to say how surprised they had been to find out that they hadn't done as well as they had expected," said Daniel Chapellier, the director of the Stanislas lycée.

"Similarly there were those who had pretty average results throughout the academic year who were surprised at how well they had done," he added.

Then there was the peculiarity of two students (again) from the Stanislas lycée, who were informed that they had been absent from the exams, even though they had in fact sat them!

A case not unfamiliar to those who remember a similar story covered here a couple of weeks ago.

A couple of anomalies and subsequent complaints might well be expected, especially as around 331,000 students sat the bac in France this year. But when there are around 800 cases, all concentrated in one particular area, there's likely to be something awry.

In stepped the le service interacadémique des examens et concours, which discovered that lo and behold there had indeed been a mistake in the marking process.

"Investigations show that the results entered by a person, not a machine, had been attributed to the wrong candidates," said Stéphane Kesler, the director for the Ile de France examination centre said on Thursday evening.

"It's unfortunate what has happened, but the error will be corrected and the proper results released as soon as possible."

So those 800 students will have to wait a little longer to find out exactly how they did, the previous set of results - released on the Internet - will not count, and obviously for some there'll be disappointment.

It surely makes those of us whose school years are a dim and distant recollection, glad that those days are behind us.

Exam woes for French high school student

It's that time of year again; the one many of us probably remember with somewhat less fondness than other childhood events - end of school, examinations and the results.

Here in France around 331,000 students have been taking their baccalauréat, more "affectionately" and popularly known as the bac, generally viewed as the passport for entry into the country's higher education system.

Spare a thought though in particular for one 18-year-old from the southern French city of Toulouse, who has gone through an experience with which many, who have "been there, done that" can probably sympathise.

Last Monday, along with the rest of her class, she sat her English exam, and according to the regional daily newspaper, La Dépêche du Midi, was "more than satisfied with how she had done."

All fine and dandy, except the following day after sitting her Spanish exam, she was hauled in to the centre responsible for marking to be asked why she hadn't handed in her English paper.

She maintained that she had in fact given her copy to the invigilator but the problem was there was no proof that she had done so.

As La Dépêche du Midi points out, during the bac the only requirement made of students is that they sign a paper to confirm their presence. There's no system in place to verify that they have handed in a copy of their work.

Faced with something of an impasse and the threat of not passing her bac, the only option left open to her was to contact the director of the school and plead her case.

And that's exactly what she did, with her requests being heard to the extent that it was agreed that she would be allowed to retake the paper.

So it was probably with a certain resignation and understandable lack of enthusiasm that she sat alone in the classroom on Wedesday afternoon to resit the examination.

"Naturally I was upset," the 18-year-old, who has not been named, told the paper.

"I didn't have the same motivation as I had the first time and I didn't understand why I was doing it.

"They were telling me that I was being given a 'second chance', but as far as I was concerned I had already taken the paper and performed well on the Monday."

But of course the story doesn't end there, because guess what!

At the end of the same day the director of the school rang her parents to inform them that the copy of her first paper "had been found" and that would be the one that would count towards her final mark.

So "All's well that ends well" and undoubtedly there's relief all round, not just for the 18-year-old but also the examining board and the school, both of which had perhaps done her a disservice in the first place by insisting that she hadn't handed in her original paper and then generously allowing her to retake it.

Perhaps they'll take note for the future and install a (simple) system which checks that not only are candidates are present, but that they have also handed in their papers.

France - a "working" week in the life of a country

Hello or "bonjour" from France, the country of liberté, égalité, fraternité - oh yes and of course industrial action.

Within the space of barely a week, pilots, train drivers, teachers and postal workers will all have been protesting, and what might from the outside appear almost a national pastime is from the inside just a way of life.

If somehow you managed to make it to France by 'plane last weekend, in spite of the Air France-KLM strike over government plans to increase the retirement age for pilots from 60 to 65, the chances are that when you landed you would have heard the usual sort of announcement.

You know the kind of thing. Something along the lines of....

"Welcome Ladies and Gentleman, we have landed at Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

"The local time is eight o'clock and the outside temperature is nine degrees celsius.

"Please remain seated until the aircraft has reached its final parking position.

"On behalf of captain Dupont and the rest of the crew, we would like to thank you for flying Air France-KLM, and hope to have you on board again soon."

Well that's more or less what you would have heard.

Of course what probably wouldn't have been mentioned, but perhaps should have been for anyone wondering what on earth is going on in France at the moment was that little "extra added value" resembling the following.

"As you know, our pilots have been on strike for the past four days, and if you thought that was the end of the story as far as industrial action in France is concerned, think again.

"On Thursday, primary school teachers throughout the country will be on strike over job cuts due next year, and as local authorities cannot guarantee the government's promised 'minimum service' many parents will have to take the day off work to look after their children.

"Next Saturday - November 22 - it'll be the turn of the post office, or La Poste as we call it here. Employees won't actually be on strike, they had one last month to protest privitisation plans in 2010.

"Instead this time they plan a massive march in the streets of Paris and most of the country's major cities. So in case you're hoping to do some autumn sightseeing of the capital's world famous monuments, or are taking a trip to Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Bordeaux or practically any other destination in France, you can expect some congestion.

"For those of you who were looking forward to the train drivers' strike on Wednesday, we're sorry to have to tell you that it has been postponed.....for the moment.

"Management and unions are still in negotiations over proposed changes in working conditions for freight train drivers.

"But don't worry, with a little bit of luck, those talks should break down and normal strike service will be resumed from Sunday.

"On behalf of captain Dupont and the crew, once again thank you for flying Air France-KLM, and we hope you enjoy your stay in France."

All right, so you'll probably never hear such an announcement, but what's striking about this week in particular in France is exactly that - striking.

Not of course that France is a country unaccustomed to industrial action, and there has been plenty of it, well documented over the years.

Just last autumn the country was brought to a virtual standstill when train drivers came out on strike over government plans to reform pensions, and there have been a series of one-day stoppages over the past 10 months.

Similarly in spring, teachers, students and parents regularly took to the streets to demonstrate against education reforms, and postal workers have also held a number of one day walkouts over the past year.

The French though seem to take it all in their stride.

They grumble about the impact it has on getting to work and everyday life, and then seem to just get on with it.

Perhaps though the most remarkable aspect of this latest round of disputes has been the deafening silence from politicians of all persuasions.

Even though unions reckon that around 70 per cent of primary school teachers will be on strike tomorrow, the education minister, Xavier Darcos, has dismissed the action as an almost "annual autumn ritual."

Meanwhile little has been heard from the opposition Socialist party, which of course is currently embroiled in a battle to choose a new leader.

So to all of you out there, who have made it to the end of this post, here's wishing you "bon travail" as some might say in France.

Battling with bureaucracy - one boy's struggle to learn a language

It's one of those simple stories that you hear about time after time in many countries around the world, when rules and regulations are followed "to the letter" no matter how nonsensical they might appear.

This one comes to you from France - the country of "liberty, equality and fraternity" and a modern, forward-thinking democracy, which prides itself on both its mix of national traditions and cultural diversity.

It involves an eight-year-old boy living in the in the town of Vitry-sur-Seine just east of the French capital, who wanted to learn Arabic but was old that he couldn't because.....he wasn't an Arab.

Martin Auxerre wanted to take a special course in Arabic available in some schools as part of the "enseignement des langues et cultures d’origine" or Elco scheme.

But when the principal of the school discovered that he had already attended one class Martin was told that he would have to stop.

"You don't have the right to learn it because you're not an Arab," was the explanation the headmistress gave the boy last month, according to a report in the national daily newspaper Le Parisien.

Apparently, even though he was eager to continue lessons, as far as the school and the local education authority were concerned, the issue was not up for discussion.

The course Martin wanted to follow was part of the Elco scheme which runs language lessons for around 80,000 children of north African immigrants living in this country.

Its aim is to help them learn and perfect their skill and understanding of Arabic, and the teachers are funded by the embassies of Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria. Courses can take place both during the school day and afterwards.

Martin's interest in learning the language reportedly came from the fact that he has a childminder of Tunisian origin, and his father, Christophe Auxerre, told the paper that his son had been wanting to learn the language properly for the past year.

When told that his son would not be allowed to continue attending classes, Auxerre contacted the cultural section of the Algerian embassy just to check exactly what the regulations were, and whether the head teacher had been within her rights to say "no" to his son.

He was informed that not only did the embassy not understand why his son was not being allowed to take lessons but that "the course was open to all children as long as there were places available."

Armed with such a reassurance, Auxerre then got in touch with the local education authority to argue his case, but was told that as far as it was concerned the regulations quite clearly stipulated that Elco courses were only open to the children of immigrants and therefore his son wasn't eligible.

In other words, the head teacher had been quite right to tell Martin that he would no longer be able to attend the course.

"I found that rule ridiculous," Auxerre said. "If my son had taken the place of another child I would have understood. But that wasn't the case," he added.

"We're talking here about an eight-year-old boy who is eager and asking to learn a foreign language, and what happens? The system blocks him from learning."

Still refusing to bow to what appeared to him to be non-sensical bureaucracy, Auxerre and his wife accompanied their son to his second lesson and the school authorities eventually agreed that "exceptionally" Martin would be allowed to continue the course.

In this instance then, one father's battle with bureaucracy has won the day, and Martin will be allowed to continue learning the language he has set his heart on.

But that didn't stop Auxerre taking the case to The French Equal Opportunities and Anti-Discrimination Commission (Halde) and the country's médiateur de la République (Ombudsman)

Such action shouldn't be necessary in the future though for parents of children in a similar position, according to René Macron, a high level civil servant from the ministry of education.

"Agreements have been signed with Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria to open up Arabic courses to everyone as long as there are place available, " he told Le Parisien.

The change to the regulations under which Elco operates are due to come into effect in September 2009.

France - Teacher who hanged himself - pupil admits he lied

The sad circle is almost complete on the story first reported here last month of the teacher who committed suicide following accusations that he had hit one of his pupils.

On Friday the 15-year-old boy admitted that he had made the whole story up. His teacher, Jean-Luc Bubert, had never hit him.

"He lied," Francis Les, a lawyer for Bubert's family told a press conference on Friday.

In a statement the public prosecutor of the northern French town of Laon, Olivier Hussenet, confirmed that the boy had admitted that he had never been hit.

"The teacher neither raised his hand to the boy nor hit him," he said in a statement. "And after medical examinations it was clear that there was no evidence that the boy had suffered a broken tooth."

You might remember the story. In September, Bubert, a teacher at the César-Savart secondary school in Saint-Michel near Laon, was taken in for several hour's worth of questioning after the parents of the pupil made an official complaint.

The boy had maintained that the 39-year-old science teacher had kept him back at the end of class and hit him during a heated exchange of words.

Bubert was eventually released because as far as the police had been concerned there didn't seem to be enough evidence to back up the claim.

But after almost a full day of questioning he went home and hanged himself.

At the time Hussenet, said that it had been one person's word against another's and that there had been no witnesses to the alleged incident.

He insisted said there had been no direct link between Bubert's detention and his later suicide, offering the more likely explanation that a combination of personal factors had been involved as Bubert had been going through a messy divorce.

"The detention and questioning by the police could have been the trigger that led him to take his life."

But in the intervening period since Bubert's death and the boy's admission not only had reservations been circulating about the veracity of the original claims, but also the role of the police, with the father of the teacher asking for access to files to prove his son's innocence.

As the mayor of the village in which Bubert lived told French television, the whole case highlighted the problem of how you assess the credibility of a child's accusations in relation to the reputation of a teacher.

"In France we have to find some sort of balance between the accusations a child makes and the presumption of innocence of someone until they're proven guilty," said Thierry Verdavaine.

"Unfortunately we have the tendency to go from one extreme to the other.

And that's a matter that concerns Bubert's former colleagues, and probably many others within the profession.

"On a purely human level of course we have lost a co-worker and it was an enormous waste of a life," said Alain Dambron, - a maths teacher at the school.

"It's also something that could happen to any of us, to be accused of something similar at any time. I know that under similar circumstances I would also find myself alone," he added.

So who's to blame for a man having taken his own life?

Was it the fault of the 15-year-old who made the false accusations, or more likely as Bubert's father seemed to imply a number of factors including a system that encourages the readiness of the police to accept a story based on little evidence without looking first to protect the innocence of his son.

"Justice had its own part to play in the way in which it went about investigating the case of Jean-Luc," he said.

The responsibility of the boy is of course enormous, but simply to burden him with complete and total blame for the affair would be also be wrong", he added.

The boy has since changed schools, but will face prosecution for making false accusations.

Family of teacher who hanged himself speaks out

This is the follow-up to a story reported here on a couple of weeks ago.

For the first time the father of Jean-Luc Bubert has broken his silence and spoken to the French media.

Bubert was the teacher who hanged himself last month shortly following his release from police custody, during which he had been questioned over allegations that he had hit one of his pupils.

On Friday his father, Jean Bubert, said the reasons that had led to his son's suicide needed to be fully investigated and he called on the local public prosecutor to allow the family's lawyer access to police files.

"My son has left us," he said at a press conference. "But the truth and his honour need to be re-established."

The case centres on the death of Jean-Luc Bubert, a science teacher at the César-Savart secondary school in Saint-Michel near the northern French town of Laon.

On the morning of September 18 he was taken in for questioning by police after the parents of one his pupils made an official complaint against him.

Their 15-year-old son alleged that Bubert had asked him to remain in the classroom at the end of the lesson, and reprimanded him for having turned up late. At some point during the discussion the boy claimed that his teacher had hit him.

During police questioning Bubert denied the accusation and was released, with the local public prosecutor, Olivier Hussenet, later saying that as far as the police had been concerned there were insufficient grounds to press charges.

The alleged incident had occurred in a classroom and there had been no witnesses present.

After his release, the 38-year-old returned home and hanged himself. His body was discovered the following morning.

In an interview with the regional newspaper following the teacher's suicide, Hussenet said that although the detention and questioning by the police might have prompted Bubert to take his life, there had also been number of personal factors involved which could have played a role.

The teacher had been going through a divorce and his house had been put up for sale.

But for Jean Bubert, the preliminary investigations surrounding the reasons for his son's suicide are insufficient, and he wants access to police records and for a full enquiry into the circumstances leading up to his son's death to be launched.

He also remains convinced of his son's innocence of the accusations made against him and maintains that another pupil has since confirmed that the boy who made the claims showed no physical signs of having been hit immediately after the alleged confrontation.

Furthermore, he wants the good name of his son to be restored.

"I'm asking for the truth on behalf his eight-year-old son, who now has to continue his life without his father," he said.

"A father who is no longer alive, and whose reputation has been tarnished - without doubt," he added.

Teacher left bloodied and bruised as pupil hits out

There has been a heated debate in the media here in France over the past few days over behaviour in the classroom and in particular the problems of discipline following an incident last week in which a teacher was hit by one of her pupils.

But this was not in a secondary school as you might at first imagine, but in a primary school.

The child was just 10 years old, had a history of behavioural problems and was also receiving special supervision.

It happened towards the end of lessons last Friday at the Jean-Jaurès de Persan primary school in a suburb of Paris.

When the teacher reportedly somehow "caught the boys fingers by mistake in a radiator," he suddenly became uncontrollable and in front of the rest of his classmates punched her and then started kicking her.

Some of the other children rushed out to look for help and returned to find the desks upturned and their teacher with a bloody nose.

She was left bruised and in shock, but not in need of hospital treatment, and has taken sick leave for this week.

In the meantime she has filed a complaint with the police, who on Tuesday interviewed the boy in the presence of his parents.

While the education minister, Xavier Darcos, has issued a statement offering his support to the teacher and saying that this sort of thing shouldn't happen, the head teacher said that the school still had a responsibility to teach the boy.

Education minister, Xavier Darcos

(© David Mendiboure - Service photo de Matignon)

He cannot be suspended, excluded or expelled she told the press. Regulations don't allow any of those options. "It's our role as a public service to provide the child with a suitable education," she is quoted as saying.

That's a view backed up by Simone Christin, an inspector for the local education authority who visited the school on Monday to talk to teachers and children alike.

"It was an isolated incident," she said afterwards. "One involving a child who was known to have behavioural problems and has for a period of time been monitored and received special assisted supervision."

In spite of the obligation the school and local education authority might have, it didn't seem of much comfort to mothers and fathers as they gathered in front of the gates on Monday afternoon to collect their children.

Emotions were understandably still running high and there was a banner hanging at the entrance as television cameras were there to capture the reactions of some of the parents.

"My daughter was talking about it throughout the whole of the weekend, said one mother.

"When I collected my son after lessons last Friday he was in tears," said another. "He didn't want to return to school this morning" said another.

The local public prosecutor Marie-Thérèse de Givry insisted that whatever the outcome of police investigations there would be no criminal proceedings brought against the boy as he is younger than 13.

She suggested that he would probably have a psychiatric evaluation to determine what sort of extra needs he might need within the education system.

Since the incident the boy has yet to return to regular lessons. When he does, it will not be with the rest of this class but initially at least on a one-to-one basis.

Not quite a French "Cold Case" - but almost

One of the most watched programmes on French television at the moment is the US import "Cold Case" in which each week Detective Lilly Rush (played by Kathryn Morris) reopens an investigation into a previously unsolved murder.

Perhaps events over the past couple of days here in France could do with a little of that "fictional" help if the truth behind what actually happened in the following tale is ever to surface.

For sure there was no homicide involved, but it resulted in a death nonetheless. And there are questions and issues that remain unanswered and unresolved.

The events concern what did or perhaps did not happen between a teacher and a pupil at the César-Savart secondary school in Saint-Michel near the northern French town of Laon, last week.

The science teacher was taken in for questioning by police after the parents of a 15-year-old boy made an official complaint.

The boy reportedly had told his father that the teacher had asked him to remain in the classroom at the end of the lesson, and reprimanded him for having turned up late. And at some point during the discussion the boy alleged that the 38-year-old man turned around and hit him.

When detained the teacher denied the charges and according to the public prosecutor of Laon, Olivier Hussenet, as far as the police were concerned there didn't appear to have been enough evidence to press charges.

"The alleged incident was in a classroom," he said. "There were no witnesses and it was one person's word against another's."

That might have been the end of the media interest in the case, had the 38-year-old not hanged himself a day later.

He left a letter but one which contained no mention of why he had decided to take his life.

And Hussenet insists there didn't appear to be a direct connection between the alleged charges, the police investigation and the man's suicide.

Instead he offers the possible explanation that it was a combination of personal factors involved.

"His house had been put up for sale and he was going through a divorce," Hussenet told a local newspaper. "The detention and questioning by the police could have been the trigger that led him to take his life."

But for the regional branch of the national teachers' union, Snes-FSU, accusations - whose veracity was unproven - had been made that would inevitably have had an impact on the teacher's reputation.

In an official statement it questioned whether the investigations by the police had been disproportionate to the allegations made.

"It illustrates a deterioration of the situation in which all teachers find themselves on a daily basis," the statement said. "Their numbers are not sufficient and they are sometimes not qualified to deal with the problems they face."

This latest case is not an isolated one of course and highlights problems that have received a fair amount of media coverage in France this year - namely discipline in schools and how or whether teachers should react when provoked. And just as importantly how the police handle claims of force used by teachers against pupils.

In August José Laboureur, a 49-year-old technology teacher from Berlaimont in the north of France, was fined €500 for having slapped an 11-year-old boy.

The incident happened back in January when Laboureur lost his temper after the boy insulted him during a lesson.

There was no disciplinary action taken against the teacher at the time, but the boy's father - a policeman - pressed charges.

The boy was suspended for three days but Laboureur had to wait months for the case to come to court, with parents of children at the school and teachers gathering more than 60,000 signatures in support of the teacher, who many thought had been provoked by a boy looking for confrontation.

The case raised questions as to whether the incident had been taken more seriously by police because the charges had been brought by one of their colleagues.

It also caused the education minister, Xavier Darcos, to step in remarking that the boy had not been suitably punished.

"Without defending the teacher's actions," he said "in a great majority of cases it's often the teachers who are the victims."

"They should not be insulted in public."

Whether the 15-year-old boy in last week's incident was telling the truth may never be known.

He's sticking by his story and his father is backing his version of events.

Interviewed on national radio on Saturday, the boy's father said although he regretted having made the decision to make a complaint, he still felt he was within his rights to have done so.

"He shouldn't have done what he did," he said. "We don't hit children, and that's that," he added.

Back to basics

Every so often it seems, a new government comes into power and starts looking around for ways to change society and quite often one of its first impulses is to begin with what it considers to be “fixing” the education system.

When he took office last May, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, immediately charged his minister of higher education, Valérie Pécresse, with responsibility for overhauling the country’s overstretched university system.

Now it’s the turn of primary and secondary schools with that most ominous of phrases so beloved of those who think they know what’s right, “back to basics”.

Sarkozy’s promised objective is by 2012 to have cut by a third the 15 per cent of children who cannot read or write by the time they enter secondary education. And he’s hoping his education minister, Xavier Darcos, will be able to deliver.

So after months of behind-the-scenes study, Darcos, announced this week a detailed outline of just what changes schoolchildren can expect from the beginning of the next academic year in the autumn.

Priority on the syllabus will be given to French and maths, both of which get a mighty boost in the number of hours allocated each week.

Darcos insists that if children can master both these subjects during their first years at school, it’ll provide the basis for making learning in other areas later on a great deal easier.

So from the age of 6, children will be taught 10 hours of French a week, with the emphasis being on a return to the old-fashioned approach of learning by rote, for spelling, grammar and vocabulary. In addition, they’ll get five hours of maths a week to start off with, and once again it’s a blast from the past with mental arithmetic being given precedence.

As far as the teaching of history is concerned, Darcos wants to see a return to learning dates, times and historical figures. He maintains that the methods used up until now have not produced the right results, and children are simply out of touch with important past events

But the major teachers’ union has criticised these proposals as heralding a move away from children actually understanding what they’re learning in favour of encouraging them to repeat almost parrot-fashion what they’re being taught.

The union has also urged Darcos to look again at his own arithmetic, which they claim just doesn’t add up. He plans to scrap schooling on Saturdays thereby reducing the time spent in the classroom to 24 hours a week.

At the same time he’s going to increase to four, the number of hours of sport, and maintain one and a half hours each week for foreign languages. Once the new scheduling for French and maths have been factored in it’ll leave just three and a half hours a week for that new history syllabus, as well as geography, art, science, music and civic and moral education.

Either teachers will have to become magicians or children will have to learn at a breakneck speed. Or both.

And ah yes, civic and moral education. Now there’s a wonderful Sarkozy-inspired term to grapple with, designed presumably to make French children model citizens.

It means that from the age of eight children must know the values of the French republic, the meaning of the flag and the symbol of the statue of Marianne as well as the national anthem. They’ll also learn about hygiene, the risks of the Internet and be taught the “fundamentals” of morals, which include the rules of politeness and behaviour.

A year later they’ll be made aware of sustainable development and start having to master the intricacies of the European Union (heaven help them) – its anthem, flag and members. And of course by the time they’re 10, they’ll be ready to “adopt” one of the 11,000 French children killed in the holocaust.

By anyone’s standards that’s a heck of a lot to pack into a shortened school week. And don’t think teachers are being let off the hook either. They’ll be subjected to assessments every two years, with a legion of inspectors grading them on their ability to teach and have the class progress as a whole.

The premise of much of the hullabaloo over the need for reform in France is Sarkozy’s conviction that the country’s education system is somehow failing its children. But in fact a quick international comparison – for what it’s worth – shows that France is faring no better, and no worse than many of its European neighbours.

The three-year Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) - a worldwide test of 15 and 16-year-olds educational performances - ranked France in 25th place in 2006 – a slip of three notches. That makes the country an average “student”. But there again so are both the UK and Germany.

Memory or marketing

It’s hard to know whether the latest brainwave to slip from the inner recesses of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy’s, grey matter is based on a fierce moral platform, or a ploy to appeal to the nation in the face of plummeting popularity ratings. But one thing’s for sure. It has sparked the ever-delightful polemic of which the French are so fond.

Sarkozy has proposed that every 10-year-old child in this country should “adopt” one of the 11,000 French Jewish children killed during the Second World War.

In a speech last week he maintained that nothing could be more moving for today’s generation than the stories of children their own age, and that they should be “entrusted with the memory of a French child-victim of the Holocaust.”

His proposal, which he wants to see come into effect from autumn this year, brought a swift reaction. And not all of it was in favour.

Most notable among those who have condemned the idea is the grande dame of French politics and a concentration camp survivor, Simone Veil.

She criticised the plan as “unimaginable, dramatic and above all unjust.” Veil, who is the honorary president of the Foundation for the Memory of the Holocaust, said her blood had run cold as she listened to Sarkozy’s speech and she maintained that asking today’s 10-year-olds to identify with a dead child was far too heavy a burden for them to carry.

Veil was joined in her opposition by a number of medical and education experts who argued that requiring children to identify with victims of the Holocaust could lumber them with the guilt of past generations.

But leaders of the Jewish community have not been unanimous in their condemnation – quite the contrary.

Serge Klarsfeld is a prominent Jewish historian and president of the Association of Sons and Daughters Deported from France. He has also spent years documenting the names and biographies of the country’s Holocaust victims. So his support for Sarkozy’s suggestions as, “courageous and profoundly moving,” added weight and confusion to the debate.

Other historians would beg to differ however. Some for example have suggested that it could be interpreted as a rewriting of the country’s past by distorting the extent to which France collaborated with the Nazi occupying forces.

Similarly while there has been some political opposition, with accusations that Sarkozy is trying to court public opinion ahead of next month’s local elections, opinions were once again divided. And that was especially true, yet again, within the Socialist party.

It was unable to form a coherent and collective opinion with the chairman, François Hollande giving his seal of approval, but the party’s defeated candidate in last year’s presidential election, Segolene Royal, saying the proposal showed a complete lack of respect.

Most striking then perhaps in the whole polemic is how once again Sarkozy has managed to divide opinion.

It’s also not the first time since coming to office that the president has sought to, at the very least, air his views on religious affairs.

Not only is that an especially sensitive issue in France where there is a strict separation of state and church, but for many it is also questionable how a three-times married, twice-divorced head of state – no matter how spiritual he may be – can lecture on morality and religion to the rest of the country.

Unfortunately, and again not for the first time in his nine month’s as president, Sarkozy seems have underestimated the strength of the opposition to an idea.

He failed to inform or consult before making the announcement and his office is reportedly considering a degree of back-pedalling by having a whole class, rather than each individual child, “adopt” a holocaust victim.