Friday, April 25, 2008

The president is a w*nker

While teachers in England strike over pay, teachers and pupils in France have been doing the same thing for several weeks now. Not over pay, but over plans to reduce the number of teaching posts by not replacing retiring staff.

Last night, Nicolas Sarkozy gave a long interview to shore up his plunging ratings and, of course, the subject came up. There's a summary in Le Monde but for those of you who can't read French, basically he says he won't back down, that quality is more important than quantity and that his reforms make it possible to reduce the number of staff, without saying how. In particular, the question of how a high school teacher is supposed to teach modern languages to a class of 35 kids wasn't even asked! It's true that staff/student ratios in France are actually quite good compared to most other European countries, but that means nothing unless you take into account the hours worked: teachers in England teach 23-25 hours per week compared to 18 or even 14 in France, which means your average teacher in England can take more groups, making smaller classes possible in schools of comparable size.

But what really annoyed me was he says at the end of Le Monde article: Enfin, interrogé sur ses propos au sujet de l'instituteur qui "ne pourra jamais remplacer" le pasteur ou le curé dans la transmission des valeurs, M. Sarkozy a précisé : "Ils ne font pas le même travail". - OK, I know we don't do the same job (because what we teach is actually true) but can we really "never be able to replace a pastor or priest for teaching values"? I always thought school was exactly the place where kids were supposed to learn the importance of civilised behaviour, respect for others, the value of work and so on. And how does he think the children of atheists are going to learn "values"? Or maybe he doesn't. Even he couldn't be that stupid, could he?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

W*nker isn't the right word, over here all we hear is his bedroom exploits with his missus. I doubt he has the time nor inclination to indulge in onanism.

As for values, I'm sure his priest wholeheartedly approves of his 3 marriages and whirlwind romance with a dolly bird who's done the rounds. I know I can't talk, but I don't ask for validation from anybody, let alone the church.

Anonymous said...

Here's your hero, drunk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uxb0JHqzlA&feature=related

M. le Prof d'Anglais said...

I thought Onan was struck down for coitus interruptus, but I've no desire to know if that's what the President's ex-wives objected to.