Today and for the rest of the week, my daughter Chelsea, will be doing her final exams for the BAC S1 (Final tests for the French high school diploma.) In France the baccalaureate is serious business.
The French BAC is set up so that each student is tested anonymously. A few weeks before the BAC each student is told where they must go to take the test. They do not have their usual teachers, nor their classmates in the same room. In France the test are set up and controlled by the government, and they are based on a core knowledge for each subject. The students’ names are replaced by a number, and each day during the week there is a four hour test.
Today every French high school senior will take the first test for their BAC. The subject is Philosophy.
This morning at breakfast Chelsea told me that if a student is caught cheating they can go to jail for a few months, and that they are not able to take another BAC for couple of years. I told her I was glad I went to school in California.
Later in the week Chelsea will be tested on physics and math. I asked her if she could use her calculator during the tests, and she said yes. But she quickly added that she must also explain in mathematical detail how she arrived to the answer. Chelsea summed it up by saying, "… having the answer is one thing, but how you arrived at the answer is another thing, equally as important."
I smiled. I told her life and math sound similar.
French husband drove Chelsea to school this morning. When she left I started to cry. Having children is one thing, but watching them grow and leave home is another thing. Happy tears.
Photos: A little French girl arrived in California. She took her doll, her beret and wore a plaid skirt that used to belong to her Mother. (Chelsea two years old.)
Note: A wonderful story "Gilbert got his Wings" on Mountain Mama’s blog.
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