Dr. Anny-Dominique Curtius is a Professor of Francophone Studies and the Director of Graduate Studies for French and Francophone World Studies at the University of Iowa.
You are a professor participating in the PSEO program by teaching classes that sometimes have high school students in them. What has that experience been like for you?
I have had four students take courses with me while being in high school. I’ve been teaching for 20 years, and the experience has always been extraordinarily beautiful because those were students with a clear goal of learning the language, but most importantly, of discovering all the context of the French language in terms of [its] literature, culture, and visual arts. I have had one of the students who ended up majoring in French, but not at Iowa–she did a major in French and when she was at Scripps or Claremont–I can’t remember which one in California, but she majored for a BA, and she continued with French. She is fluent, so to speak. She went to medical school but she kept her French. So I would really encourage everyone interested in French, just knock on my door, and take my courses.
Are you told in advance which students are high school students?
I know it from the class list. Because the class list tells you the [grade] level and the major for each student, so automatically, you see that there is someone who is a high school student–so that’s how I know beforehand.
Do you have to make special accommodations for high school students?
Never. Never, because all the students I’ve had have been at the top of the class, so no accommodations are necessary. All papers turned in on time, always in class, participating wonderfully, lots of insight, contributing to the intellectual dimension of the class. It has always been–they were part of the class. They were just like anyone else. So I was never in a situation where I would have to speak more slowly or give any sort of special assignment to the student in order to compensate. On the contrary. So no accommodations, no special treatment, no patronizing, these students are part of the class–and [their] classmates are [undergraduate] major’s, people whose first language is French, PhD students. . .
What is your advice to students who are coming into these classes?
Well, first of all, I think the simple fact that the students decide to take those classes [means] they’re not afraid, they’re not frightened by the community of students that they are going to interact with. So I take it for granted that those students are very curious, hardworking, and ready for the challenge. So I would just say to those students to keep on fostering, nurturing this curiosity that gives them the desire to take those courses. Because it’s a wonderful experience. This is probably the only experience that a student can have as a student because after that experience, you find yourself with people your age–when you major, when you decide to do your degree somewhere, so you’re just part of the regular group of people, that, you know, that you meet when you do your studies. But in those particular years [of high school], this is a unique moment to be in conversation, in dialogue, with a group of people that is so diverse, and I believe that this is the only moment that the student can really experience this. And I think that this is, for me, the way I see it, the first step toward many insightful collaborations in the future. I think that those kinds of courses teach students the ways in which they can develop astute collaboration with [other] human beings, people [who are] their age, or, not their age–most of the time, not their age. Because you are exposed to so many opportunities. I’m not sure if in high school, you are often exposed to those kinds of experiences where you can sort of discuss with writers. Meet the writer that you have been reading in class. Meet the translator of one of the texts. Or go to the museum. Go to the Stanley [Museum] or the Pentecrest and have this sort of gathering with people, with writers, or with visual artists, whose works are studied in the class. So to me, that is absolutely fundamental in the formation, in the ways a human being grows, develops, and it’s a wonderful intellectual challenge.
What kind of behavioral comportment do you think high schoolers should follow when in college classes?
As to the question of behavior, I think that they come with a positive attitude and the positive attitude, for me, comes from the curiosity that the student already has. So if you’re already curious, you will come with the positive attitude, and you will be the perfect type of student willing to take the challenge. So positive attitude, discipline, and open-mindedness. And there is also, again, I’m saying this because I’ve always had good experiences. But I think that the students who are willing to add–because it’s a lot of work, I would say, because you have the courses in high school plus. . . so taking the course is a challenge in terms of the workload, and you’re probably exposed to assignments that you probably don’t do in high school, like doing a summary of courses, or presentations, and the number of pages for an essay. I don’t know if writing a six-to-seven page essay with the bibliography is something that you do [in high school]. So to go back to the question, how to do you prepare yourself for the challenge, is, discipline, being positive, keep on being curious, because you are curious since you decided to take the course, but also be ready for the type of assignments that are different [than] in high school. As far as I am concerned, I don’t know what happens in other courses like in math or anthropology or business, I don’t know if you have the special treatment coming for students from high school so I can’t speak for them so as far as I am concerned and I think also I can speak for my colleagues who’ve had high schoolers in their courses as well, and they don’t change the syllabus for them. So they expose them to the material. And as I said earlier, students do very well. So I think the willingness and the curiosity is the first step. Once you have that, everything goes well.
There is also probably, of course, [that] everyone is different in terms of relations with human beings. Some people might be shy in terms of speaking and giving their opinion. This is something that the professor cannot really–they can help–but feeling intimidated by a student, for example, who is in the PhD program and you’re in high school–that can be intimidating, especially if the student is a French native speaker, depending on the class this high schooler in enrolls in–so it’s [important] to really think of the class as a laboratory where everyone contributes to the intellectual dimension of the course. So the idea of being intimidated by someone who supposedly knows more than you is a feeling that you, really from the very beginning, you have to get rid of. Since the graduate student, the PhD student, taking the same course because he or she does not know the material, and so is in the same process of learning. So it’s the same pattern. Of course the grad student will probably have more critical tools [to do analysis] or be able to more easily express their thoughts. They probably have some background [in the subject], and can rely on some readings done previously in the field to help them understand the material under study. But besides that, PhD or the MA or the major student is involved in a process of discovering and learning just [the same way] as the high school student. So that’s the reason the intimidating should not be something blocking a student [who might be] saying, ‘Oh no, I’m not going to do that, oh my God, no, no, no, I’m not going to be in a room with people who speak better than me, who have better ways of expressing themselves, and stuff like that–no, no.’ So once you’ve really gotten rid of [that], as long as you have the discipline, you succeed in the course, and you do very well.
Is there anything else that you would like to add?
No, I just hope to have a student taking my courses next spring. Hopefully I will have several students that are interested in learning French. I’m offering an advanced course in oral expression. And there are plenty of other courses–it’s not just me. My colleagues offer other, wonderful courses. So I look forward to hearing about students from City High registered in those courses.
I think more students should really know about [this opportunity]. It’s such a wonderful experience, both for the student and the faculty. Really, I mean it. It has always been a pleasure, a real intellectual pleasure, for me, to have this diversity of curiosity and this diversity of thought, from high school to PhD, that makes the courses so enriching.
