Ever since the English beat the French at the Battle of Trafalgar (although the French did get Admiral Lord Nelson in 
return) these two neighbors across the Channel have been sparring endlessly over the merits of roast beef and escargot, despite the fact that they manifestly need to get on better together.
The latest effort to create further Concorde comes thanks to French Education Minister Luc Chatel. Against a tide of traditionalist thinking this visionary has decided that French toddlers should start receiving English foreign language education from as young as the age of three.
Included in his commitment in a country where some adults still refuse to speak English (just as much as many English will not speak French) is an intention to introduce on-line language classes on the internet. Icon newspaper Le Monde (this means The World) reports skepticism among trade union 
educators who predictably still believe that only one human being can impart knowledge to another.
This raises an interesting red-herring that will hopefully neither obscure nor overtake French Education Minister Luc Chatel’s praiseworthy efforts. Can we afford to overlook alternate teaching methods for French toddlers in a world so short of teachers - just because those that we have are inclined to strike when they cannot get their way?
If the purpose of education is to prepare our kids to take their place in a world that is looking more like a joined-up 
village every day, and if teaching is a calling not a job, then surely we should all look forward to what could be possible tomorrow, as opposed to looking back over our shoulders at what worked yesterday.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, instead of watching mindless television French toddlers and other kids the whole world wide were getting foreign language education that helped them understand each others culture? Could this be the beginning of the end of misunderstanding and the start of a brave new world? Let’s give French Education Minister Luc Chatel a hand for his gallant gallic efforts to promote foreign language education.
