On fait grève!

Let's face it:  You can't spend more than a few weeks in France without experiencing a strike.  Just thinking back through my four months spent in Rennes my junior year, I can recall at least one postal strike, a planned SNCF (national train system) strike that miraculously didn't wreck my weekend trip to Paris, a library workers strike that closed the school library and left me with nowhere to study, and a teachers strike that closed the elementary school where I was an English intern.  The French penchant for la grève can be difficult to grasp for the American mind that prizes efficiency and customer service, but I guess that's kind of the point:  it's SUPPOSED to be inconvenient, dang it!

I had barely been on French soil 3 weeks when I experienced une grève firsthand.  I had noticed signs left by various teachers at Breney informing their students' parents that there would be no lessons on Thursday the 23rd because the teachers were going to be grévistes.  At the time I had no idea what was at issue, but it was going to affect me all the same:  When schoolteachers go on strike, many parents decide to keep their children at home.  For those who work, however, the schools are required to provide les service minimales--essentially, day care.  No lessons can be taught during this time, since it would be like bringing in scabs to replace the strikers, but clearly someone has to be there to watch over the little darlings.  That's where I came in on Thursday.  The teachers for both of my Thursday morning classes were striking, so I helped one of the aides watch a GS (kindergarten) class.  About half the students had stayed home, so we only had 1o kids, and frankly, it was a ton of fun.  The students spent a lot of time coloring and playing with blocks and legos, and between helping them build an airplane, complimenting them on their beautiful artwork, and taking them to their 4 recesses, the day passed very quickly.  I also enjoyed having the opportunity to get to know the aides and the non-striking teachers better since I ate lunch (Breney has AMAZING food, by the way) and spent the whole day there.  The only negative thing was that I wasn't able to teach my afternoon CP classes at Fracasse because I was still needed at Breney.  That seemed a bit unfair to me, but I am definitely the lowest person on the totem pole (side note:  French people are OBSESSED with Indians.  As in Native Americans.  It's bizarre.) so I couldn't protest.  

And what was the strike about, you ask?  At recess I heard the aides and teachers discussing pensions and retirement, and that proved to be the issue.  This New York Times article  states it better than I ever could, but essentially Sarkozy wants to raise the retirement and pension-receiving ages, and the French workers aren't pleased.  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/world/europe/24france.html?_r=2&hpw

The strike only lasted one day, and as far as I know there aren't any more on the horizon.  Still, this is France.  La grève, c'est attendue. 

The beautiful drawings I was given by some of my GS students.  I thought they would help jazz up the white walls of my bedroom.  And really, how could they not, with the number of ladybugs, rainbows, and hearts that are featured?