Sunday, November 23, 2008

Part V - Wednesday

There is no school on Wednesdays at French primary schools. Since there are no school sponsored extra-curricular activities in France, Wednesday is often dedicated to art, sports, dance, or music classes.

Marie's mom is also off on Wednesday's, so she can take Marie to her Wednesday morning flute lesson. Wednesday evenings she takes classical ballet.

For working parents, there are child care centers that offer programs just for Wednesdays. At these centers the focus is on extra-curricular activities, like sports and art. While there is a cost for this one day of childcare, part of the allowance that families receive go towards covering this cost.

Many years ago Wednesday was dedicated to religious education. Once religion was removed from schools, there were no more classes on Wednesdays. Up until last year there was school on Saturday mornings, but now that has ended. This has left teachers in a tough situation as they still have to teach the same number of subjects, but with less hours (LeBon).

Zoe has school today, but she also takes dance class on Wednesdays.