Becoming a French Teacher

I finally understand my role as a teacher in the French classroom. It is this: ask questions, provide answers to questions, allow students time to copy down answers verbatim, give students a week or so to memorize everything, then wrap things up nicely with a test in which they recite all the answers I've given them.

That's it. Asking students to think for themselves? Not so much. Asking students to think at all? Nope. As far as I can tell, the routine (at my school at least) is, "Don't think, just memorize!" (One of my colleagues phrased it as, "They have to give back what you gave to them." It was all I could do not to vomit.)

I never thought of myself as a touchy-feely American teacher, but it turns out I am. (The things we learn about ourselves!) All of my cues are geared towards self-reflection and letting students figure out the answers themselves, as in:

S: What's the difference between X and Y?

M: You tell me.

This is appalling in the French system. It suggests that I am incompetent and don't actually know the answer. There's also an element of, "I am the teacher, how dare you attempt to give me information?"

The bottom line is, my students don't want to think, and I'm tired of fighting them. It's been a month, and it hasn't gotten any better. At all. So in an effort to salvage my tattered self-esteem, I am throwing in the towel. They win. As of tomorrow, I will revert to the read-the-chapter-answer-the-questions-at-the-end-take-a-test method of teaching.

Look at me, kids, I'm a coach!*

*This is teacher humor. Coaches stereotypically always a) teach social studies and b) use the read-the-chapter-answer-the-questions method.