Part I - Abstract

In the three months that I have been living in France, I have met many wonderful families, and with the help of my "guide," I was granted an inside look at the French educational system. My primary guide for this project has been my daughter's 1st grade teacher, but I also consider the other parents who have shared their thoughts and feelings with me to be secondary guides. My questions when this project began were: What is the role of education, as provided by the state? What is the role of the parents in their children’s education? What is the role of the teacher? What are their thoughts on outside activities, like dance, sports, music?

While there are no hard and fast answers to these questions, the families I have met all have a similar outlook towards their children's education and activities. By spending time in my daughter's 1st grade class teaching English, getting to know her teacher, and meeting other parents, I have observed many similarities and differences between French schools and American schools. The greatest difference is that every young child living in France is entitled to free health care, subsidized child care, and free education from preschool through college.

To help illustrate the differences between the two educational systems, I will show a snapshot of a week in the life of a 1st grader in Marseille and a 1st grader in Ithaca, NY.