“When I was around eight or nine, I told my parents I wanted to be a Special Education teacher. I discovered this profession because I became godmother to a little boy and the other godfather, who was much older, was a special education teacher. So I found that fascinating.”
“At the time, becoming a teacher seemed out of reach for me. I come from a generation where the esteem for the teaching profession was very, very high. It meant something socially, unlike perhaps today.”
“Very quickly, I fell in love with Language Arts, so everything having to do with French and literature. I was a very, very avid reader (…) [At university] I studied Literature with minors in Theology and Philosophy (…) I did that until I got my Master's degree. Then I got into my teacher training.”
“In France we have a year of student teaching (…) So I was student teaching, with my classes to teach on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, and on Wednesdays and Thursdays we were training in different locations.”
“So in France the big issue (…) was priority education, so what we call (…) ‘Réseau d’Education Proritaire’ --‘R.E.P.’ Especially since I was very young—I was twenty-two or twenty-three at the time—I saw clearly that there were good reasons to go to R.E.P. So I agreed to volunteer to do student teaching in R.E.P."
“In France, in public education (…) we are required to travel all over France. In fact, we go to the areas where there is the greatest need. Obviously, I wasn't married, I didn't have children, so I was sent to [a region where there was a great need for teachers and where I stayed for five years]. And there I was thrown completely into the R.E.P..”