A note on the French school system

This will probably be a rant. I really should have written this back two months ago when I left most classes 15 minutes late swearing in f&**ing English as I angrily ran to be swallowed by the 5 p.m. métro rush hour to my next class. I should have written it when I woke up, took the hour-long métro ride and sat in a class room for half an hour to discover that there was a "weird man" walking around the building and "security" wouldn't let our "professor" in. But we were allowed to sit there, sans any kind of information. Or maybe I could have written it when one of my teachers thought it was a good use of time to speak with one student about just their project in front of the whole class for an hour and a half. I should have written it then, it could have been more ranty.

But, since I am writing this now, when I only have to go back to the hellish halls of Paris VII one more time for my final, I have wise and balanced retrospect. Kind of. Seeing another country's higher education system has been educative, but not in the sense that I have actually learned much about any of my class subjects. I have learned that I love the American school system, both college and otherwise, and that I have been incredibly lucky to have had such passionate teachers, interesting and entertaining lesson plans and a culture that actually believes in time as a way to organize life. Maybe it's just because I've been socialized to like these things, but I really do appreciate them.

So...list of things I like about French school:
the lunch (but does this even count, because I basically just like lunch and it's just a coincidence that I have to eat it there)

List of things I don't like:
teaching style a.k.a. lecture and power points of their lecture notes (where's the Prezis?), lack of homework (my host-mom said it's because they're too lazy to assign it and have something else to grade), how everyone madly types notes (what are they writing????), lack of syllabi, don't respect my time! (classes routinely ending and starting at least 20 minutes late), how I discovered I still wasn't registered when I went to turn in my final project, the criticisms given to students' faces in front of everyone else after an oral presentation (didn't understand mine woot!)

But I'm done so whatever. Fall, I look forward to your syllabi, schedules and readings. I'll probably eat these words when I have to do actual work again, but hopefully they'll taste like crêpes or something.