Septembre - c'est la rentrée!
Back to school in September
C'est la rentrée! School's back! If you have spent any time at all in France in late August/early September you can't have missed seeing and hearing these words all over; from shop displays and newspaper headlines to adverts and radio jingles. But this expression means so much more than just the beginning of the school year. It refers to a period of time at the beginning of September (even stretching through late into the month), reflecting a whole change of pace, a return to normalcy after the long summer holidays.
In France, it is often said that the Emporer Charlemagne invented the school system, and there is a song frequently sung by students at the time of the "rentrée" which blames Charlemagne for the drudgery of school.
Have a listen . In fact "schools" existed well before Charlemagne in the monastries, for example. However, he wanted to develop the reading, writing and arithmetic skills of his subjects and this initiative is considered the birth of the free and secular schools of the future.
L’idee que Charlemagne a inventee l’ecole est une idee recue.
A la fin du VIIIe siècle, le futur empereur veut améliorer le niveau intellectuel et moral de son peuple. Pour cela, il décide de mettre en place un nouveau programme scolaire et fait ouvrir des écoles jusque dans les campagnes. Ainsi Charlemagne donne un nouvel élan à l'école mais il ne l'invente pas. Plusieurs siècles avant lui des monastères remplissent déjà ce rôle. Et on peut faire remonter l'existence d'établissements scolaires plus longtemps encore : a Athènes, au Ve siècle avant Jésus Christ, la plupart des enfants vont à l'école.
Il souhaite developper l’apprentissage de la lecturem de l’ecriture et du calcul : c’est la naissance de la future ecole gratuite et obligatoire laique.