to glue or not to glue?

As I was at the paper cutter this morning, trimming the white margins off my Thanksgiving worksheets, I realized that I've never dedicated a blog entry to the French student's notebook. When I began the school year, I had been warned about their extremely organized cahier. What I didn't realize was that it was up to me to specify how to organize it. Lessons on the left page, exercises on the right. Or if the teacher prefers, lessons in the front, then flip the notebook over and write the exercises in the back. Write the date (long format, please) and underline it in red. Glue down every single piece of paper the teacher gives you, unless she specifies not to glue. If it doesn't fit on the page (or even if it does), work your origami magic and fold it before you glue. No matter how carefully your teacher trims the excess white off of your worksheet, drive her crazy by cutting it down even more. And by all means, the teacher must remember to do a trace écrite (lesson summary) for the students to copy in their notebooks every day, or the parents and students won't take you seriously.

The students have been trained to write in the same color as the teacher. If I happen to grab a green marker because the blue one has dried out, they switch pens. Which brings me to their pencil cases. Although small in size, la trousse somehow contains all sorts of supplies: green, red and blue pens; pencils (called un crayon de bois in this part of France); a compass; a souris (white-out tape) or an illegal tube of blanco; scissors; extra ink cartridges for their fountain pens; an effaceur pen with one end that erases the fountain pen ink and a felt-tip pen on the other end; an eraser; a glue stick or a tube of liquid glue. Rulers are inevitably on the desk, and therefore often used for impromptu fencing in class. And the trousse is never zipped closed, so when it gets knocked off the desk (which happens at least once a class period), the contents are scattered all over the floor.

This is not the only irritating thing that happens in class on a daily basis. The students don't have desks; instead, they have individual tables and chairs, perfect for leaning back and falling down. Tubes of glue and blanco are often cut open "to see if there's any more inside." And my latest discovery: students collect the tiny ball that's used to keep ink cartridges closed until you put it in your fountain pen. The ball is then pushed inside the cartouche, which the kids then cut open once it's almost empty, resulting in ink all over the desk and their fingers. "It's okay Madame, I can erase it." Then they put the bille inside their fountain pen so it will rattle. That said, I don't have problems with cell phones, video games or iPods in class this year. They're simply not allowed at school.