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1’ H E MAROON T IGER
Observations Abroad
WORKING ONE'S WAY IN FRANCE
By Prof. Theodore Rambeau
Working one’s way in a French school is indeed a
problem, especially for an American. There are two
reasons for this: First, the unsympathetic attitude of
the French people in general towards an American with
out money; second, the peculiar ideas most of the French
have with respect to combining education and work.
As everyone knows, the average American student who
goes to Fiance is little troubled by financial worries. A
good fat scholarship in American dollars or a well gar
nished personal budget enables him to float blissfully
through his entire academic career, utterly unaware of
of the unpleasant conditions that his less fortunate broth-
thers have to face. Of course, there is a certain dis
advantage in such an easy-going existence among for
eign people. It is to be feared, for instance, that most
Americans residing in France, including students, never
sense the real under-current of French life. “Money talks”
is the old saying; and there is much truth in it, but one
forgets to add that it seldom obtains an honest hearing.
Europeans, and especially the French, do not, as a
rule, seem to take Americans seriously. For them, an
American, student or tourist, comes to Europe chiefly to
have a good time, and he comes to have a good time
because he does not know what else to do with his money.
In other words, the “Yankee”, a term used indiscrimin
ately of all United Stalesians, is nothing more than a kind
of reversed slot machine; you insert a few petits varres
here, a smile there, a little bit of obsequiousness in anoth
er place; then, without even turning a crank, out roll the
dollars as if by magic. Fortunately, of course there
are exceptions to this rule. All French people are not
mercenary. The fact remains, however, that most of us
who go over are little equipped to find out those who
are not. So, an American without money, bent on ac
complishing something worth while, and ready to sacri
fice time and pleasure in order to attain it, is not likely
to be understood. One is just not accustomed to asso
ciate such a combination of character and lack of means
with the term “American.”
But French people do not expect a student to work,
anyway. No French student does. Higher education
in France is still considered, virtually, as a privilege of
the bourgeoise and the aristocracy. Parents of the low
er middle class and of the proletariat simply content
themselves with having their children fulfill the legal
elementary school requirements. Once the age limit is
passed, they are hired out to work wherever they can
get a job, or, if possible, are taught a trade, such as
carpentry, automobile mechanics, bricklaying, cabinet
making, etc. Not that higher education in France is so
expensive. Compared to the expenses in the smallest
American college, those in French schools seem a mere
trifle. But wages are slim in accordance, so that even
this trifle is a strain. Moreover, scholarship funds are
meagre and are destined for those exceptionally bright
students who have a small income sufficient to lake care
of themselves while they pursue their studies. Besides
the democratic idea that prevails in America of offer
ing wholesale to everyone at least a college, if not a
university training, is utterly foreign to the Frenchman’s
conception of education. For him, the educated man be
longs to an elite group, a picked lot, to which the masses
cannot rise and should not be encouraged to. Hence,
the general tendency to identify students with the more
or less well-to-do classes; that is, those who can afford
to pay their way and devote their entire time to study.
One can well imagine now the odds which a foreign
student, who has no income, has to fight against. Among
the university authorities the term “working student” is
almost a paradox: hence, no provision is made for him.
Nobody is qualified to give him advice or help him find
work, even supposing there were any to be had. Even
the foreign student’s committee includes no such duties
in its program. Their chief program is to tell a man
how to spend his money and not how to earn it. Among
the student body there is the same lack of sympathy for
the “working student.” A French student feels it be
neath his dignity to work, and such a thing as serving
in a private family (a means of support frequently re
sorted to by American students) is absolutely unheard
of. The proletariat express their disdain for this snob
bery and self-conceit on the part of students by class
ing them all as ‘“fils a papa” (dad’s kids). By that
they mean sons without any personal responsibility or
merit, since every difficulty is smoothed out by dad’s
pocket-book.
It only remains, then, for one to go out on his own
and apply for work in business offices, banks, private
families or elsewhere where some one who speaks English
might be needed. Failing in that, he may try for a
job as common laborer in some shop or factory. But
here again he will find it expedient not to let it be
known that he is a student, otherwise he is almost cer
tain not to succeed. The enormous labor turnover, so
common in America, which makes it possible for some
students to find work for the summer or part-time em
ployment is practically unknown in France. In the first
place, it is extremely diffiieult to get any kind of decent
job without a host of references, and you are expected
to work all day long for at least several years if not for
the rest of your life. Otherwise, you are not wanted.
Thus, with a little subterfuge and, perhaps, a year out
of school one can manage, if he is lucky.
To sum up: A penniless American and a student who
seeks to work his way through school are two paradoxes
which the average Frenchman cannot comprehend. Such
phenomena find no place in his social scheme. Moral:
If you are planning to study in France, make sure that
you have sufficient funds to finance such an undertak
ing.
INTERESTING IF TRUE
(NSFA)—From North Dakota State we learn that a
survey conducted at the College of Emporia shows that
the student body is more intelligent than the faculty,
that they stay at home more, and devote more time to
their work than do their pedagogues.