On Monday the 2nd of February, as we did not have classes at Divine Word College, I was proposed by my host mother to come and see the Senior public High School where she teaches, and to attend some classes. At the same time, one of my French friend proposed me to present France in front of a French class in the private High School Walhert, where his hostmother teaches. I decided to do both in order to have a broad point of vue of American educational system (in public and private schools), as I was proposed very various activities. In the morning, I attended classes of Government, Geometry, Multimedia, World History. Naturally, I preferred the Government and World History classes as it is more my subjects in College. I first observed that on 4 rooms, 2 had an American Flag and one had an Iowa flag. In the Government class, I could ask the teacher about a point we mentionned in my Local Government and Politics class at Divine Word College : is that true that if people do not know a lot about their Federalist political system it is because they do not really care about that? He answered to me saying that it was true, that it was so confusing and so complex that people were not interesting in it, neither in learning about it. I suggested that it was contradictory that people were so proud of their country and loved it but at the same time were not interested in knowing the way it works...
During this class, we pointed out some points I studied in my Local Government and Politics class : political parties are not mentionned in the American Constitution, but they cause gridlock in government and in Congress. We tackled the topics of Amendments and their ratification, balance budget, the idea of 3 Constitutions (the formal: the Law, the semi-formal: Court rulings ; and the informal: related to actions of people, like abortion, equal rights, etc.), the ideas of Executive agreement, of Judicial restraint and Judicial activism, etc. It was a real supplement of what I studied at College.
I noticed also that the way if teaching is totally different than in France. In France, students have to listen to the teacher, they naturally don't speak in class to say something or to give their point of view. In the USA, it is the contrary, sometimes we have the feeling that it is almost the studens who make the lesson: classes are much more interactive, students exchange their opinions, they have studied a specific point at home and now are able to discuss and give their point of view in class. The idea is that they are regarded as being able to bring something to the class.
In the afternoon, I presented France with two of my friends in front of three different French classes in Walhert Catholic High School. This time, students were shy to ask a lot of questions and we had to encourage them to do it. The difference between public and private High School is that there is not the same kind of people inside. As private schools are essentially funding by parents and friends, it is much more expensive. The religious signs are present everywhere (unlike France, where there is not always signs in Catholic schools). It was less big than the public High School and the classes we attended were most of the time smaller than in Senior.
My hostmother explained to me that the State would like the disabled children to be integrated in normal classes as much as possible. We attended in Wahlert a class of Biology, in which there was a really nice disabled boy. The condition to accept these children into classes is that they should be accompany and supported by an assistant professor in order to help him and do specific activitites with them. That is also one of the task of my hostmother's job.
This was another really good experience.
