Etre et avoir **** 2002 France "To Be and To Have"
I live in Maine where the state motto here is "Maine...the way life should be." That's the thought that went through my mind as I watched this film. It stars George Lopez, a french school teacher and his one room school house in rural France. He has about a dozen pupils from age 5-11, and we get to know them through their interactions with Lopez as well as visits with them at home. His classroom has never seen ADHD, Learning Disabilities or Emotional handicaps. We only see children acting like children, and he prepares them for the next stage of their education; "middle school." That's when these farm kids will leave his cloistered classroom and enter the 'real world.'I admire Mr.Lopez. He has known his whole life that he wanted to be a teacher and he has passion about his chosen career. If only our children could have this experience. Maybe they wouldn't be computer literate, but they would have something more, 6yrs with a strong, sensitive, moral male role model. In his school kids learn to communicate and to problem solve. We watch the highest art of teaching children to read, write, think, and process.
You won't believe that watching a year in the life of a one room school in France can be such a "feel-good" time. It will make you wish they had an episode each year so we could share the joy Lopez must feel to see his children grow. Like I said, "It's the way life should be."
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