Lazy is as Lazy Does or Doesn't

Well, yes...it's been ages since I last wrote. My apologies to anyone who actually has attempted to read my blog regularly....please leave a comment or email me if you do! So, May, June, July...I can easily account for: moving house. More on this later. But while I'm on the subject of seeming quite lax....

Americans think the French are lazy. They always seem to be on holiday. Take May, for example. Between Labor Day May 1, Victory Day (1945) May 8 and Ascension (the Day Jesus was airlifted into heaven) and Whit Monday (which has nothing to do with people being Oscar Wilde-like with language on that day) not much gets done. Teachers scramble to finish their curricula when they all fall on weekdays and "bridges" are created on Fridays when they fall on Thursdays leaving entire families with 4 day weekends throughout the Merry Month of May.

The French think Americans are lazy because we apparently don't work hard enough in school. Because American kids go to school from 8-3:30 instead of 8 to 6pm as they do in France, my Frog points out that perhaps they don't work hard enough. (Primary school kids go to school from 8:30-4pm, middle 8-5pm and highschool 8-6. ) I put the shorter American school day down to good organization--the class scheduling and lunchtimes are just more efficient. And classes ending before the sun goes down allows for extra-curricular activities, essential in the American system to allow for well-rounded individuals.

So, lazy? Hmmmm....that brings me to the summer holidays. It is perfectly normal for a very normal French family to take the entire month of July OR August off. Generally the more educated upper and middle classes take the month of July off while the lower classes take the month of August and entire factories shut down. It's how things are done here.
But, still whether white or blue collar, families have an entire month together to recuperate and get ready for the new school year. I guess if that's being lazy, well I'm all for it.

Seems to me the French educational system as something to learn from the American one--at least in terms of class scheduling while the Americans have something to learn about from the French in terms of having a real holiday. Time for family. Time for the important things in life.