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My dear fellow-stagiaires:
THE IUFM MUST BE REFORMED IF NOT ABOLISHED!
We are on the home-straight of a long and difficult journey. What began for me in
the Autumn of 1999 as I got to grips with Carver, Manifest Destiny, and the intricacies
of translating from English to French and vice versa is about to reach its goal:
barring a disaster or two, we are about to become fully-qualified teachers.
But now, what stands between us and the status of fully-qualified teachers ?
Yes, of course the IUFM. Just as the IUFM have stood between us and our chosen careers
ever since last September.
This is my subject - the PLC2 experience is nothing short of a wasted year!
This is a national scandal! How can we stop it? Is there any way to make IUFM training
useful and interesting for future stagiaires?
Before I continue, let me make one thing very clear: I want you all to know that,
having taken the CAPES myself as a native speaker of English, and seen just what
a high level of English is required to get the bloody thing, I have nothing but the
highest respect for any francophone who passes it. I consider you all magnificently
qualified to teach English (more so than many of your counterparts in my own native
country who teach French).
I have never felt in any way "superior" just because of the mere accident
of birth that made me a native English speaker.
In fact, in many domains of our career, the rest of you have an edge over me, in
that you can more clearly understand the difficulties of young pupils in France coming
to grips with the English language, as you did yourselves not so long ago.
You are better placed and equipped than I am to explain the intricacies of what appears
to me to be a head-wreck of an illogical bloody language.
Hats off to you: youĞre good at what you do, and don't let the IUFM tell you otherwise.
But enough of the flattery. To get back to business, dear colleagues, let me remind
you that we have a demi-journée bilan on the 14th of June.
Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but I for one intend to let those useless
parasites know to what extent they have fouled up my year. And I would like to know
if I am alone in my opinion.
My opinion is briefly as follows: The IUFM do one or two things well, but in general,
they're an annoyance, a hindrance, an obstacle between us and the job we want to
do.
They need to be RADICALLY reformed, if not abolished.
The few things that the IUFM actually do helpfully could be taken over wholly by
the Rectorat, leaving this parasitical body with absolutely no raison d'être.
So, what is it that the IUFM actually do well?
The hours that we do in our collège/lycée are great. This is the job
we took the CAPES for.
The stage de pratique accompagnée is quite good.
It's good to observe, and be observed. For the same reason, the little visits from
our maîtres de stage are a good thing.
So are the visite-conseil and the visite d'inspection, although I appreciate that
not all of you saw eye-to-eye with the IUFM staff-member who inspected you.
Even the mémoire, à la limite, can be seen as useful, in that it encourages
us to take a long hard look at a specific aspect of our job.
No bad thing, in theory, except that time constraints and general lack of motivation
will mean that many of us will hand in hastily cobbled together pages of jargon and
made-up research.
But that's it. Those are the only positive points I could come up with after long
reflection.
Now, let's get negative. Not that difficult, really, when it comes to the IUFM:
I firmly believe in the wisdom of that fine old French proverb, c'est en forgeant
qu'on devient forgeron.
The IUFM, however, seem to believe that on apprend à être forgeron en
regardant les autres, en suivant des journées théorique sur l'acte
de forger, et en regardant photocopie après photocopie des IO sur les forgerons.
The IUFM have got it wrong.
I only have four hours in my lycée: the rest of my so-called training is a
waste of time!
Teaching requires three essentials: talent, vocation and experience.
Talent can be worked on and improved. Vocation must be there in the first place.
Experience will come with time. But NONE of these three things can be given by the
IUFM. In fact, because they reduce us to 4 or 6 hours a week, they actually prevent
us from gaining experience and sharpening our talent.
Now, I'm not going to be arrogant here: I'm far from being a perfect teacher.
I have learnt a lot this year, and still have a lot to learn. But by God, I never
learnt anything in an IUFM.
On the other hand, I sure as hell picked up a lot in my lycée.
On two occasions I had journées de formation with people who later inspected
me in class. (for the record, I'm talking about M. Martin and Mme Albury: they evaluated
me, so why souldn't I return the compliment?).
When they inspected me, they were lucid, helpful, constructive and insightful.
They pointed out very clearly what was good in my teaching, and what was bad. I followed
their advice, and saw positive results straightaway.
At the journées de formation, however, these same people were far from inspiring.
Which just goes to show that the formateurs aren't necessarily bad, it's just the
nature of the IUFM to stultify thought and training.
After a year of studying for the CAPES, by God I was broke. Financially, that is.
I needed extra teaching hours. I needed money. And a certain institute in town which
provides English classes for adults needed me.
I'd worked for them before, and theyĞd told me if ever I got the CAPES I should knock
on their door again. Which I duly did, to be welcomed with open arms. Only to learn
later from the IUFM that a stagiaire is not entitled to do extra hours.
Thanks for nothing, IUFM.
Oh and while I'm on the question of money, why can we not receive our monthly pay
slips in our schools, like any normal teacher?
We are in our first year of teaching.
What we lack in experience, we make up for in youthfulness, dynamism, freshness of
approach, desire to get down to the job. Our competences may be incomplete, but our
grasp of the subject we teach, and our enthusiasm for it, cannot be questioned.
All of this energy, instead of being harnessed and used for the common good, is being
turned stale in the dull classrooms of the IUFM.
All because a bunch of faceless civil servants choose not to trust us.
Edmund Burke once remarked that for evil to prosper, it is sufficient that good men
do nothing.
Considering the challenges facing society and education today, and the need for good
and motivated teachers, I believe that the inactivity and blandness of the IUFM is
nothing short of a form of evil.
Right. I've finished. Now it's your turn. Apologies for not taking the time to write
this in French, which could have been understood by stagiaires in other disciplines,
but at least the anglicistes will understand me, and appreciate my inimitable razor-sharp
prose style in my native tongue.
Besides, my capacities for expression écrite en français have been
all but exhausted by my mémoire.
A vos claviers. Perhaps you'd rather say nothing. Perhaps you'd all rather sit there
in silence, swallowing the nonsense the IUFM is pushing on you, and just waiting
for the freedom in September to teach the way you want.
In that case, you perpetuate the problem, allowing the IUFM to preen itself in its
arrogant inefficiency, and you yourselves become, in turn, good men (and women) who
do nothing.
`
It's up to you.
Eog.
