Britexit

I was very disappointed to discover that if one has lived outside the UK for more than fifteen years you are ineligible to vote in the referendum on British exit of the European Union.  February was my fifteenth anniversary of living in France. 
What would I vote, if given the opportunity?  Probably against Britain leaving Europe.  I have personally benefited from the European Union and would feel like a hypocrite voting to leave.  As a student I had the opportunity to study in Europe under the Erasmus program.  Later when my studies were over,  I Interrailed around Europe passing national borders without difficulty.  Then I met a French woman and moved to France in 2001.  I was able to quickly and, fairly, easily start work and set up home.  All this thanks to British membership (with numerous opt outs) of the European Union.  How could I vote for Britain to leave Europe and deny the same opportunities to future generations?
In my opinion too much emphasis has been put on the economic consequences of European Union at the expense of the cultural and social benefits, but then again I have never really understood Economics.  I think that the European Union is a brave experiment.  Of course it is never going to be easy getting diverse cultures and languages to live together.  But surely trying to live and work together is better than the centuries of war that raged in Europe before. 
So I am disappointed that I can not vote in this referendum, but I console myself with the feeling that the presence of Britain in Europe is so important that the British people will vote to stay.  And anyway nothing will change for me personally.  A few years ago I took French nationality, careful to ensure I could also keep my British nationality.  I also registered my childrens' births in the UK, giving them the chance to choose their nationality later.  I did this partly to enable me to vote in French national elections, but also partly because I always suspected that Britain might try to leave the European Union.  At least with dual nationality I might avoid any bureaucratic problems of being a foreign national living in France.

Language changes

There is a lot of press at the moment about plans to change the spelling of certain words, and the dropping of the circumflex accent.  Or as I have always politically incorrectly called them the 'chapeau chinoise', because of its resemblance to a Chinese coolies hat.  I must admit to being a very lazy writer in French, so any simplification of the system is good for me.  However the debate has given rise to some reflections about French education.
I have two kids in the French state system and I have also had some professional experience of how things work.  My first eye opener was working for a technical school that trained young people destined for a career in logistics.  Beyond the fact that the students had no interest in learning English, there was the problem of marking.  Every term the different subject teachers had a meeting to discuss the students’ marks.  Naturally in line with France's democratic principals two student representatives were present at this meeting.  Students are routinely marked out of twenty in France and I had mistakenly given zero to a student I had never even met.  My colleagues were most shocked by this.  It seems that in the French system you can never give zero.  I don't remember what mark was eventually given.  
Later I was asked to examine candidates for the oral part of the Baccalaureate exam.  I had finished with my list of candidates when a colleague asked me to help her with a candidate.  The candidate in question was a giant, Malian who when asked to present the article he had read, as per exam procedure, was able to say 'basketball' and little else in English.  I tried to extract more English from him but quickly realised we weren't going to get anywhere.  The candidate was thanked and left.  Now we had to decide on a mark.  I felt that given his limited oral comprehension and expression we couldn't give more than four or even five, and that was generous.  My colleague, an American who had been living in France for a number of years and clearly knew how things work, didn't agree.  She felt that if we gave him less than nine he would be discouraged.  
After these two experiences I have developed a rule of thumb.  Anything above twelve out of twenty is good and students are generally happy, ten or lower is a disaster and should be used with caution.  We never give less than five and twenty is impossible.
Now at this point you may think I am exaggerating but read on.  Fast-forward fifteen years and my daughter has started college.  She is bilingual having been exposed to English since she was a baby.  Recently she had to make a weather report.  We coached her a little at home but there was really no point.  Then she came home with her mark eighteen point two five out of twenty.  Now this is an excellent mark and any French parent would be over the moon.  But I was curious about the one point seven five that she had lost.  Where did this come from?  She was word perfect at home and would have made a respectable weather girl for the BBC.  Well the explanation was simple, she seemed nervous when she stood up in front of her twenty five adolescent class mates to present the weather.  Of course how silly of me to assume that an English lesson was designed to teach and test your English level.  A could give more examples of strange marking of my daughter's work; like the point lost for naming Ireland as a country when it is in fact the Republic of Ireland, this was in English and not Geography.  However I do not wish to appear a pushy parent.
Now this brings me back to simplifying the French language and the storm that this has created.  In my opinion the French Education system needs deeper reform than just making the spelling of some words easier.  They need to stop measuring students on a scale out of twenty.  Most students are more worried about getting a good mark than actually learning, understanding or even, God forbid, enjoying the subject.  All that changing the spelling will do is lower the overall level, and improve some student’s mark without tackling the real problem of reforming the system.