LATE BANGED TO RIGHTS

R has transformed himself into an organised and on-time guy following his entry into the prison camp otherwise known in this country as 'a school'.  He sleeps in his watch.  He has an alarm set to warn him when to get ready and knows exactly what time he must leave to be nicely early.

Despite this some censored on the front gate, running on bad temper and a faulty watch, has decided he (and the usual crowd of miscreants who get caught on the capricious whim of the petty dictators who pass for teachers in this country) was  LATE.

There is no questioning this judgement.  The ticket is written out.  She wrote 5 minutes late which cannot be true, I know what time he left, he left the same time as he has done every day for the last 3 months, he can only have arrived as the gate was closing (presumably early) not 5 minutes afterwards, and this is for 8.20 when classes start at 8.30, so no actual inconveniencing lateness actually took place.

Pupils are of course MARKED on a collection of statistics under the heading "Class Life" (in reality there is neither class nor life in any real sense of the word in this country's schools), arbitrary and subjective judgements are made with reference to tickets for:  lateness, absence, detention etc, R got 18.5 out of 20 for 'Class Life', but there is no statistical evidence or references available for why he lost 1.5 marks.  So he will suffer marks to be struck off for this affair which will go towards the final judgement of whether or not he is a Good Student (Bon eleve).  Anglophone schools just don't think like this, thinking of our children as 'good' (or not) students.  In the anglophone world we try to evaluate the progress of the child and we are unashamed to form a relationship with our children and to actually like them and want them to succeed.

Why do French teachers behave like this towards a child who is thoroughly respectful of the rules?  What do they hope to achieve?  What they achieve is at best indifference (shrug shoulders, "I don't care" ((about anything)), or hostility.  Which is perhaps whey they need a police officer to supervise the inmates at hometime.  By the way 'hometime' is not subjected to the same precision, they finish any time they want, tough if your child has an appointment at the dentist.

I don't have any recourse following this ticket injustice (or any other injustice), my option is to sign it.  I wrote 'not possible' underneath it but I doubt if anyone will notice and then I called the offending person a very rude word in front of my son.  He said I just shouldn't care.  I wish I didn't.