Leah Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 I saw this last night, loved it, and am quite intrigued by it! Any body see it and want to talk about it? Or does anyone have personal experience with attending school in France? I would love to know if several of the scenes portrayed are normal. :) This movie fascinates me. I have read that the story is very accurate, so that is certainly informing my reactions and thoughts about the film. I was surprised at the state of the French school-the level of discipline and all the time wasted. I'll don't think I've thought about it much before, but I guess I had a picture of European schools as markedly better that American schools...I know, such a broad generalization. The various levels of bureaucracy in the school and all of their committees also stood out to me (but this seems very French to me.) I'll stop there for now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leah Posted April 17, 2009 Author Share Posted April 17, 2009 Trying again! Anybody?!? It is a great movie and you should go and see it. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 Yes! My husband, 17 year old son and I all gave the film thumbs up. Admittedly, we attended as part of "school" since my son and I are learning French and we wanted to take the opportunity to hear French. My son was taken aback by the level of disrespect and disruption in the classroom. It was such a tiny room, though, and the students were practically on top of each other. Several things I really liked about the film: seeing French republicanism at work (i.e. the ballot box at the committee meeting); the glimpse of modern, multicultural France; the teacher's explanation of the subjunctive (a conversation that has occurred in my own home!) Are these young urban teens all that different from young urban teens on this side of the Atlantic? I don't think so. I am curious to hear the reactions of my public school teacher friends to this film, but I fear that, since the film itself has not yet been distributed widely, that may take some time. Jane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet in Toronto Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 It's been shown in theatres recently here in Toronto, but I didn't get to see it. I'll try to rent it (if it's out on DVD). DH and his younger sibs went to school in France in the late 70s/early 80s, and we have lots of nieces and nephews in the system now, so it should be very interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leah Posted April 17, 2009 Author Share Posted April 17, 2009 Yes! My husband, 17 year old son and I all gave the film thumbs up. Admittedly, we attended as part of "school" since my son and I are learning French and we wanted to take the opportunity to hear French. My son was taken aback by the level of disrespect and disruption in the classroom. It was such a tiny room, though, and the students were practically on top of each other. Several things I really liked about the film: seeing French republicanism at work (i.e. the ballot box at the committee meeting); the glimpse of modern, multicultural France; the teacher's explanation of the subjunctive (a conversation that has occurred in my own home!) Are these young urban teens all that different from young urban teens on this side of the Atlantic? I don't think so. I am curious to hear the reactions of my public school teacher friends to this film, but I fear that, since the film itself has not yet been distributed widely, that may take some time. Jane I am also looking forward to more reactions from teachers! I roped my mom into going with me, and her first response was also that the teens seem much the same as American teens. I enjoyed the actual teaching scenes, able to relate much of the discussion of archaic French to our Latin class. What really stood out to me was the teacher's obvious desire to relate and engage with his students, and yet failing often. I loved seeing the glimpses of his teaching dialogs, empathized with the tendency to take rabbit trails, and ached, just ached with his apparent choice to stick to his right as the teacher to "say things that students can't" even when he seemed to know he shouldn't have said what he did. I am totally fascinated by the idea that they would have a class meeting with all of the various subject teachers PLUS two student representatives and then proceed to talk about every student in the class-their strengths weaknesses, failings in school, academic potential... Do they really do that?!? Wouldn't they expect that the student reps would tell the other students what had happened in the meeting? And the ending was very un-American. I liked that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 I am totally fascinated by the idea that they would have a class meeting with all of the various subject teachers PLUS two student representatives and then proceed to talk about every student in the class-their strengths weaknesses, failings in school, academic potential... Do they really do that?!? Wouldn't they expect that the student reps would tell the other students what had happened in the meeting? And the ending was very un-American. I liked that! Leah, These comments from the students on how the film was made are quite interesting. Thanks for raising the point on student reps in teacher meetings. I had assumed that they really would do this because it seemed so egalitarian, so French. Awaiting others comments. Jane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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