La Rentrée (returning to school)

Photo: Les jardins du Champ de Mars par Robert Doisneau

Le Cancre

par Jacques Prévert

Il dit non avec la tête

mais il dit oui avec le coeur

il dit oui à ce qu'il aime

il dit non au professeur

il est debout

on le questionne

et tous les problèmes sont posés

soudain le fou rire le prend

et il efface tout

les chiffres et les mots

les dates et les noms

les phrases et les pièges

et malgré les menaces du maître

sous les huées des enfants prodiges

avec des craies de toutes les couleurs

sur le tableau noir du malheur

il dessine le visage du bonheur.

Translation:

The Dunce

by Jacques Prévert

He says no with his head

but he says yes with his heart

he says yes to that which he loves

he says no to the teacher

he stands at the front

he is questioned

and all the problems are posed

suddenly laughter seizes him

and he erases all

figures and words

dates and names

sentences and snares

and despite the teacher's threats

to the jeers of child prodigies

with chalks of every color

on the blackboard of misfortune

he draws the face of happiness.

This summer has slipped away so quickly! Yesterday, in the early evening, something in the chirping of the crickets made me realize that the beginning of the school year is peeking around the corner. Children are counting down their remaining days of sunshine, forts in the backyard, dripping popsicles, and laughing dashes through the sprinkler on the front lawn. (Parents are perhaps counting down the days with as much eagerness for their own reasons.) Stores are filled with back-to-school sales for everything from schoolgirls' plaid skirts to lunchboxes sturdy enough to withstand the adventures of eight year old boys. Because I'm a university professor in a school of education, and before that I was a classroom teacher, la rentrée is always a delicious mix of nostalgia and excitement for me.

But what about those who aren't educators? A few recent articles in The New York Times (here) and (here) have me thinking a great deal about what most Americans who aren't educators think the purpose of school actually is. Yes, standardized test scores matter, academic achievement matters, but what gets lost in the overemphasis of these? What about things that can't be tested with a No. 2 pencil and a multiple choice test?

Jacques Prévert's poem I learned so many years ago in Madame Berven's class came back to me. Education should be about so much more than "figures and words / dates and names / sentences and snares"; it should nurture the whole child as much as their minds. After all, simply because things like childhood happiness, joy, original thinking, and creativity could never be evaluated with standardized tests, it doesn't mean they are any less important than knowing that 7 x 9 = 63.

Music I was listening to while I wrote this:

"Father and Son" by Cat Stevens

Regardless of what one thinks of his political/religious beliefs, it's a beautiful song about looking back on our own childhood and forward to our children's lives.