5/27 - School, Porcelain and New Friends Oh my!!

Hi everyone! This is Hally and Leo here to tell you about our first full day in Limoges! 

First, we hopped on the bus and rode to a local elementary school that was connected to the University of Limoges. The school gets more funding than a typical public school because it is used as a laboratory setting for the University of Limoges's preservice teachers! We also met Jill and Sandrine who are professors at the university and helped set up our school visits as well as our dinners and other tours in the area! 

We split into groups to visit classrooms. Leo was in a 6-7-year-old classroom (called CP: Cours Préparatoire) and Hally was in a 10-11-year-old classroom (called CM2: Cours Moyen 2). At first, the students were very quiet but pretty quickly warmed up to us and became super excited to interact with us! The students practiced their English phrases asking us questions about ourselves and America! We all read the books we had brought to gift to the teachers in front of the classes. Molly and Elizabeth were able to show how they do long division in America and compared it to their French way! Others showed American money and others still compared the price of colleges!! It was so interesting to see that all of their English anchor charts and posters were centered around British English. 

Then we had lunch with the Limoges professors, a few teachers, and a very kind preservice teacher named Suna! She was 24 and doing her master's in education. She explained that here they do 3 years of undergrad in general study (she did English and Spanish) and then get their master's for 2 years! We chatted with her about university life, teaching practices, education program culture, languages, and her perception of America! It was so fun to connect with a student of our age!

 

Molly, Elizabeth, and Hally had a very thought-provoking conversation with a few of the professors about Laïcité, which is a French constitutional principle about the separation of church and state. This means that religion cannot be talked about in schools. You are not allowed to wear hijabs, crosses, or Star of David necklaces. We discussed how we believe it is important to teach about other religions in school, by reading books about upcoming holidays and teaching about other cultures in general, but we wouldn't necessarily celebrate them in the classroom which we feel would be pushing a religion on them. For example, we would have a holiday party instead of a Christmas party. Suna explained that none of that would be done in a French school. One of the professors piped up and said that she felt it was sad that there were no Christmas parties anymore because it was such a joyful time for all children regardless of religion. Hally then asked if she thought it was sad that Muslim children could not wear a hijab, and she replied that everyone should wear and celebrate what they want but the hijab was too much...

We later reflected on how lucky we were to live in America and be educated at UVM where there is such an open and affirming mindset to celebrating all cultures and religions. We think that this mindset of Laïcité and the killing of native languages that we saw in Nantes with Breton can be attributed to the French culture of wanting unity, but as we can see, it may also lead to unintended exclusion. Here you can see a poster we found about Laïcité in the Library of Education, and how it is a teacher's duty to remain neutral.  

Then we spent a little time in the University of Limoges library for education, which is accessible to education students as well as local teachers. They had picture books in both French and English, manipulatives ,and curriculum materials teachers could check out! We wish we had something like this at UVM!

Then we hopped on the bus to go to the famous porcelain museum, Four des Casseaux. Like how syrup is a main tourist attraction in Vermont, porcelain is a main attraction of Limoges and has been since the 1800s. We took a guided tour that showed us the steps to fire porcelain in 2400-degree fires! It took 10 total days from start to finish to make a porcelain item. Show below are pictures of the giant kiln and some finished porcelain items.

After the tour of the porcelain museum, some members of the group went to explore historic Limoges while others went to rest at the hotel! 

We had dinner with Jill and Sandrine at a lovely restaurant and were able to chat with them about their careers as researchers, writers, and teachers! It was interesting to hear about the lack of special education resources here in France. Sandrine was writing a thesis that touched on how they needed to implement a Universal Design for Learning approach in France, which is a staple in most US schools. It focuses on making all lessons accessible to students no matter their ability level. We again were grateful for our UVM education and access to resources at American schools! 

And now we are back at the hotel writing this blog and hanging with some other students in the group! 

Thanks for reading!