Le brevet

Le Brevet

The boys passed the brevet exam, assez bien. The assez means fairly, and steals from the bien, but the grade itself means with honors. This is the examination taken by kids graduating middle school or college, around age 15.

The brevet is quintessentially French: The students are tested on French, Mathematics, Social Studies (including European history of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, the geography of France, and civics of the French government) and Art history. 

The last involves a presentation to include power-point slides and sound files before an audience of external examiners who assess the students' spoken French and their understanding of art in its social context. The topics are chosen from music, dance, architecture, sculpture and painting.

My boys rehearsed their presentations in which they contrasted Miles Davis’s Summertime to Louis Armstrong’s rendition of It’s a Wonderful World, and Frieda Kahlo’s My grandmother, my mother and me to Van Gogh’s Self portrait. They studied Steve Reich and Sidney Bechet, Stravinsky’s ballet Rite of spring, and the architecture of the Empire State building.

There is no science exam for the Brevet. The French have their priorities. Every city has a Rue St. Exupery, a Metro station in Paris is called Picasso. On a visit to the tombs at the Pantheon, we saw fresh flowers on the graves of Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Dumas, and Braille, the man who brought poetry to the blind.