Boston Book Festival

Samedi 25 octobre, je me suis rendu au Festival du Livre de Boston en compagnie d'autres membres du club des English Educators. Au programme, une conférence par un ancien conseiller du ministère de l'éducation finlandais sur comment la Finlande arrive toujours en tête des classements PISA (ne me reste qu'à lire le livre original, qui a l'air fascinant !), un peu de slam et de burritos, de bonnes conversations, une visite guidée de Boston avortée, une entorse à la cheville et un rossignol bleu. C'est parti !

The English Educators Club organized an outing to the Boston Book Festival. Our first stop was the excellent lecture Finnish Lessons, by Pasi Sahlberg, a former Finnish Ministry of Education official. In an ideal world, my own career will be dedicated to educational policies, so I listened intently. During question time, I asked what were his feelings on the current French reform on school schedules "réforme des rythmes scolaires". His answer? You should not need to give more hours of teaching to children. Repeating is less important than providing high quality education from the start. I'll let you ponder.

The not so happy PISA ranking, whether you look at it from the point of view of France or the US. First column was reading, middle column is maths and the last one is sciences.

I hope you LOVE that picture of a blue robin Sara spotted because while I was looking at it in the air, I saw at the last minute a fallen branch and badly twisted my ankle on it. Two days of bandages and icing later, I can happily affirm it was only a minor sprain, but still a less-than-ideal situation in the midst of midterms, moving out and generally  playing tourist.

The happy gang!

Apparently, in the US, tackling tough topics in young adult litterature means talking about sex, from abuse to the quest to find one's own identity to simple coming-of-age stories, if it evokes sexuality even slightly, then many people will find it taboo. I'm sad to think such similar puritan movements are gaining visibility in France too. I believe teenagers should be able to access without shame books depicting honestly every aspects of real life, even the not so rosy ones.

This is me with my foot in a sink full of icy water. Praise the Holiday Inn for free, unlimited ice machines.