{"id":23521,"date":"2016-06-21T05:11:28","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T03:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=23521"},"modified":"2017-10-25T13:04:51","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T11:04:51","slug":"ecole_le_samedi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/ecole_le_samedi\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00c9cole le samedi ?!! *"},"content":{"rendered":"

C\u2019est la fin de l\u2019ann\u00e9e scolaire (en France comme aux Etats-Unis).<\/em> \/ It\u2019s the end of the school year (in France and in the United States). \u00a0In many ways school in France isn\u2019t all that different from school in America, but in other ways, it\u2019s quite different.<\/p>\n

School in France is highly centralized, and as a result every \u00e9l\u00e8ve**<\/strong><\/em><\/em> in France in a given grade or program is doing the same things whether he or she lives in une grande ville comme Paris, Lyon, ou Marseille ou au fin fond de la campagne<\/em> (a big city like Paris, Lyon, or Marseille or in the furthest corner of the countryside).<\/p>\n

When I lived in France in the 80\u2019s and early 90\u2019s, young children in l\u2019\u00e9cole primaire<\/em> (primary or elementary school) didn\u2019t have class le mercredi<\/em> (on Wednesdays) while older kids in le coll\u00e8ge<\/em> or le lyc\u00e9e <\/em>had half days, a tradition going back to the start of formal public education in France which gave children a day off during the week for religious studies (remember, France is traditionally a very Catholic country). This mid-week day off was much loved, but it also meant that many kids went to school le samedi matin <\/em>(on Saturday mornings) to make up class time. In fact, Saturday classes were quite common.<\/p>\n

Saturday classes were abolished in 2008 for primary schools, and for older kids in 2009. However, since elementary school children didn\u2019t go to school on Wednesday, this meant they only had 4 very-busy days of school. And so in 2012, the newly elected government of Fran\u00e7ois Hollande decided to reinstate the 4 \u00bd day week for elementary school children, to spread out the learning time. While most schools opted for Wednesday morning classes, about 2.5% of schools in France decided to bring back Saturday morning classes (most notably in the departments of le Nord, la Seine-Maritime, la Seine-Saint-Denis, et la Val-de-Marne<\/em> as well as the two \u201cd\u00e9<\/i>partements d\u2019outre-mer\u201d (<\/em>overseas departments also refereed to as \u201cDOM\u2019s\u201d) la Martinique et La Reunion.<\/em><\/p>\n

And I know I shared it once before<\/a>, but this time I’ve added les paroles <\/em>(lyrics) and translations.<\/p>\n