How would you like having to travel an hour and a half every day, just to get to school? Staying at school until 6 pm? Having to take three different science courses in the same year? Being unable to purchase food, due to the lack of a school cafeteria? Never being able to play sports, as the school does not offer them?
Welcome to my life at the French International School in Washington DC, which I attended last year. The French system of education could not be different from the American system. Classes began at 8:30 A.M. and didn’t end until 6:00 P.M. In the French system, you have to learn absolutely everything by heart. In our American system, you still memorize, but there is more focus on higher-order thinking skills. It seems to me that the French system is promoting individual achievement, while in the American system the priority is given to teamwork and collaboration.
Teachers are much more friendly at Langley than at my old school. This has given me more confidence and self-esteem. Also, while the French system had no guidance counselors, the American system provides guidance counselors to help students with course selection, college preparation and any other problems teens are facing.
In addition, the wide range of electives we have in the American education system, such as fashion, journalism, computer graphics and art does not exist at all in the French system. The newspaper at the French International School is published by the school, without student input. If I were still at my old school, I would not have been able to write this editorial and have it published.