the french school year

For most French children the school year is drawing to a close and as always I am drawn to reflect upon the pros and cons of one country's educational system compared to another.  Did I do the right thing leaving them in the French system,  Should we have moved elsewhere? ...  Everyone does this, right?

When students leave French high school with the Baccalaureat , they can be sure of holding a qualification that means something and that is respected worldwide.  However, they can also be sure that they worked really hard to achieve it, and didn't have that much fun or creativity during their school years.

The advantage of the French system is that they keep their options wide open right up to, and including, the baccalaureat.   Even if they specialise in science or literature or economics, they still have to study maths, history, languages and philosophy!  The inevitable downside of this broad scope of subjects are the long hours - up to 40 hours of lessons a week plus a couple of hours of daily homework. They usually go to school 6 days a week.

But I think that what bothers me the most is the lack of praise and encouragement.  Both are surely vital to learning.  In the Anglo-saxon tradition we continually  encourage and build up confidence.  In France they prefer to use critique and the fear of failure.  This week thousands of French students will wait to know if they have ' got through' to the next school year, or if they are to be kept down to do the year again.

I am mostly happy with the education my four children have had or are receiving.  We worked hard at home to balance the lack of sport and creativity, and anyway this is where we wanted to live so we had to find the best local schools and do all we could to make them work.

So what I wonder is your attitude, do you just pack them off with their school bag and trust the system?  Have you been willing to move the whole family closer to the best school system?  Did you resort to boarding schools?  Or are they all grown now, and you just think that actually whatever the education they received, it all works out in the end?  I'd be interested to hear.