Le Lycee Francais de Los Angeles - Actualites Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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Valedictorian ' s speech Mark Cuenette Salutation, I have always felt that commencement was a funny name for the formal conclusion of one ' s high school career — after all, once today is over, it ' s adieu to Le Lycee Francais de Los Angeles forever. Well, at least for a long time Nine years ago, I showed up bright- eyed and bushy-tailed for my first day at my new school. It was already a month or so into the school year, and my uniforms wer- en ' t ready yet. As I made my entrance Into class, I must have stuck out like a sore thumb. I don ' t remember much of that day, except that Mme. Cani was teaching French class and was giving a test, and that Mme. Sage followed at some later point in the day (maybe after lunch). It was to be the first of many such days, and my embarcation on a new and highly original voyage to somewhere quite like France. At first, I was a little disappointed to find that they served milk and cookies at recess, just as if it were any other school. 1 rather had my heart set on escargots and Dom Perignon. What I liked that fateful day, I still like. What I didn ' t, 1 learned to tolerate. Arriving in the middle of a school year is a little hard, but I adapted more or less socially, and quite well scholastically. My French had improved by leaps and bounds, and I was able to slip into the sacred A section midway in the next year. 1 ceased being Mark (with a k ) Cuenette, Seme B, and became Marc (with a c ) Cuenette, 8eme A. If I was turning French, I was going to do it correctly. The French section is the really special part of the Lycee — I became a little French schoolboy overnight. 1 had a pen-pal some- where in Alsace, and we were more or less doing the same things. Across all those miles, we managed to receive the same education. Of course, it was not without its detects. I will die if I am ever forced to wear another pair of grey flannel slacks; you can get pretty embarrassed looking for the bathroom if you don ' t know that garcon means boy; and I am only able to do long division upside down. But it really doesn ' t matter as long as the answer is correct. But these problems are nothing when compared with the bane of any Lycee student ' s existance: being asked what school you attend. I have actually lied in the past, naming any one of a dozen public schools that came to mind at that most dreaded moment. If I decided to be intrepid and to tell the truth, 1 was usually sorry. Pronouncing Le Lycee Francais de Los Angeles takes long enough, but then your interrogator looks at you with his eyes sort of crossed Le WHAT?!! It ' s a French school, you try to explain. Fither they are charmed and begin to babble at you in non- French, or they ask you what you ' re doing in such a place instead of playing baseball. Why? Why not It ' s a unique chance to learn a second language, develop future business contacts all over the world, become well- versed in the mysteries of Sartre, as well as those of Plato, and collect parking tickets. It ' s a different way to be educated. How many kids on my block will have a Bac to call their very own? How many kids even know what a Bac is — assuming that they ' re not already French in the first place? Here lies the secret to the entire Lycee process: the chance for a person to become, as Cershwin so aptly put it, an American in Paris. I am an American without ques- tion — I have documents to prove it. But, somewhere down there, there is a distinctly gallic heartstring. I have managed to become much more that bilingual: I have become bicultural. Certainly, I ' ve missed out on little league, and the Boy Scouts, and Mother never welcomed me home with oatmeal cookies and milk. But these are only adjuncts of the American culture. 1 am fully on top of what is happening in my country, and feel no qualms whatso- ever as I set off into mainstream American schooling. The Lycee keeps us more that amply in touch with our immediate surround- ings. It also keeps us in touch with life in France. The constant influx of new students from France keeps the entire student body in tune with the French dernier cri — and what other school has had the presidential elections in one y»ar: first Reagan, then Mitterand? This feeling for things French pays off at unusual times. At a boarding school last summer, while languishing with homesickness, I overheard two girls speaking in French. I threw myself into their conversation with disarming force, and discovered a bunch of peo- ple with whom I had a bunch of things in common. Who would ever have expected such a thing? Aside from the joy of being able to understand both lists of ingredients on a Yoplait container, the Lycee education gives you a whole other country you can call home. It doesn ' t seem possible that this can happen about fifty feet over beautiful Overland Avenue in a building which I am convinced has been stuccoed with Rice Krispies. In nine years, the physical plant has changed (first there was Down the Hill, and now we have Way Down the Hill, home of us lucky seniors), as have many of the faces and customs. But nevertheless, some things have re- mained constant: M. and Mme. Kabbaz are still running the place, and there is always someone speaking French too fast for his own good Many of the people with whom I am being graduated have been around ever since that fateful day when I first set eyes on Le Lycee, some have been here for many years, and some have entered my life only recently, but one thing is true: that in some measure, we are all somewhat glad that we ' ve had this peek at the French way of doing things. Aside from the people, there are a lot of things I ' m going to miss: all those little vicissitudes of daily life. Certainly there will be other annoyances in my life, but Lycee annoyances have sort of endeared themselves to me — somehow. What other school will always run out of the book you need the most before you get there? What about Cahiers de Textes: will I ever see one again, or will all my college assignments be scrawled on little bits of paper? And that hike up the hill that always makes you think twice before you decide to visit M. Kabbaz? And the orange rocket that no one ever goes into? Oh, and Refukio and his bullhorn: no matter where it ' s pointing it always goes off in my ear I am going to miss being Primo Llomo Assoluto of the Lycee Opera, and running around from class to class collecting money for whatever dance the Student Body had cooking. There ' s a lot being left behind — and a lot of me, and of everyone else here too — that has gone into it. Easy it hasn ' t been. Fun it ' s been some of the time. Annoying it ' s been much of the time. Rewarding it will prove in the long run. As 1 go on to commence whatever the next chapter may prove to be, I can rest assured that the one just finished has been most interesting. Maybe even a little too interesting? Thank you, everybody, for everything. Merci. 14

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Valedictorian ' s speech Pascale Le Draoulec I ' avais six ans lorsque je franchis pour la premiere fois la haute grille du Lycee Francais. Malgre mon petit uniforme cartesien qui me donnait un air important, cela n ' allait pas sans apprehension. ]e me souviens que ma mere avait du me pousser avec fermete, mais je savais qu ' elle aussi avait le coeur gros. Mm. Hayek m ' avait pris par la main et sans me retourner j ' avais disparu parmi la foule d ' eleves en uniformes avec mes deux tresses mon beret bleu mes gants blancs, et mon cartable sur le dos qui etait rempli de livres et de cahiers d ' ecriture qui ont ce parfum si particulier. C ' cst ainsi que sur cette colline couverete de palmiers je m ' em- barquai sur une longue aventure remplie de souvenirs que je n ' oublierai jamais. Mon premier jour a la grande ecole, je sentai malgre mon jeune age que tous ces professeurs, tous ces eleves, le vieux batiment par lui-meme allalent jouer un role tres important dans ma vie, mais lequel? L ' education que j ' allais y recevoir s ' ajouterait a celle deja prodi- guee a la maison et eventuellement cela devait me preparer a I ' ecole de la vie Enfin c ' est ce gu ' on me disait, mais pour moi II n ' y avait qu ' une ecole mon ecole avec toulc sa physionomie propre. Je dois avouer que le debut etait tres difficile. Par exemple je me rappelte de la premiere fois que j ' ai ete punle par M. Kabba7, Du haut de mes six ans j ' avais ose braver I ' ordre etabli en montant au plus haut de cette fusee metalliquc qui orne notre cour. La voix tonitruente de m. Kabbaz quand il m ' avait apercue resonne toujours a mes oreilles. je me souviens aussi de ma premiere fete costumee au Lycee. )e me ' etais trompec d ' une jour- nee entiere sur la date de cette fete et j ' etais arrivee a I ' ecole at 8:45 precise comme tous les matins deguisee en vendeuse de fleurs, parmi la foule de jupes grises, de vestes bleues et de cravates rouges. Moi, je n ' y voyais aucun inconvenient et me voila un bou- quet de geraniums a la main en train de vendre mes fleurs dans la cour, joyeusement lorsque je me fis drolement grondee. ) ' en avals pleure toute le journee tant j ' avais ete vexee. Vous devez vous demander a present (omment j ' ai pu endurer pendant douze ans cette dis ipline de fer eh bien! C ' est facile j ' aimais I ' ecole, ou plutot j ' aimais mon e( ole. L ' ambiance y etait bonne, les professeurs sympathiques et les camarades nombreux et de ce fait je n ' ai jamais considere I ' ecole comme une obliga- tion ecole qui m ' etait imposee. je crois que c ' est pour cela que je suix si reconnaissante envers le Lycee qui a su creer puis maintenir en moi le desire d ' apprendre. Ccrtes il existe dans tous les enfants la capacite d ' apprendre. Cela est un phenomenc de la nature. Cependant ce sont la volonte et le desir d ' apprendre qui font defaut chez les enfants. En ce cas la le role du professeur, plutot que d ' cnseigner au sens commun du mot, est de creer les conditione favorables dan lequelles I ' enfant peut le mieux apprendre par lui-meme, et voila ce que les profes- seurs ont fait pour moi depuis douze ans. C ' est maintenant alors qu ' a la fin de ma scolarite je peux prendre un recul sur moi-meme et rcflechir a la question suivante: Est-ce que l ' education que j ' ai recu au Lycee Francias m ' a bien prepare pour la vie d ' adulte, celle qui commence aujourd ' hui? Je crois que la reponse est oui . Bien evidemment au niveau scolaire et educa- tif, le bilan est positif; je suis entree au Lycee a six ans ne sachant lire ou ecrire ni en francais n i en anglais et j ' en ressors a dix-huit ans parfaitement bilingue. Les avantages de pouvoir dominer deux lan- gues differentes sont nombreux et evidents. Surtout j ' apprecie le fait de pouvoir parler avec mes parents dans leur langue natale alors que je suis nee et que nous habitons aux Etats-Unis. Grace au Lycee I ' ai pu gardcr mes racines francaises lout en possedant une grande culture americaine. D ' autant plus j ' ai eu le privilege a la grande difference des etu- diants americains de mon age de prendre des cours de philosophie, de literature francaise, de latin d ' espagnol d ' histoire mondiale et d ' economie qui non seulement m ' ont beaucoup interesse mais qui m ' ont donnee egalement les bases d ' une culture generale. Platon a dit que l ' education est la premiere et la plus belle des choses que le meilleur des hommes puisse posseder, Je crois que le Lycee m ' a donne ainsi qu ' a tours les autre eleves la possibilite d ' acceder a u rang des meilleurs. Cependant l ' education ne concerne pas I ' intellect seulement. A une epoque ou les etablissements d ' enseignement n ' existaient pas, la plupart des gens etaient illetres, mais cela ne veut pas dire qu ' ils n ' etaient pas eduques. Car l ' education ne se limite pas aux murs de la salle de classe ou a la blancheur de la craie ou aux lunettes du professeur. L ' education c ' est la vie; elle concerne I ' homme tout entier:son pouvoir creatif, son imagination, sa curiosite, ses senti- ments et son ame. Plus important encore, je crois que le meilleur type d ' education qu ' un homme puisse s ' offrir est celle qui se trouve dans les rela- tions humaines. car apres tout a quoi sert notre culture si nous ne pouvons la partager avec autrui? Au Lycee Francais j ' ai eu la chance de connaitre en douze ans beaucoup d ' eleves et de professeurs venant des quatre coins du monde. Chaque personne que j ' ai rencontree dans le cadre du Lycee m ' a apporte quelquerchose de different surtout les enfants de race, de nationalite ou de situation sociale differente de la mienne. A travers ces relations je me suis rendue compte d ' une chose c ' est que chacun a son histoire et c ' est en la partageant que des liens se resserrent et que des amities naissent. Je parle surtout ici des eleves de TERMINALE. Certains d ' entre eux je connais de- puis dix ans deja, et ici s ' acheve pour nous une ere de travail en commun qui nous a prepare pour la poursuite de nos etudes. Nous devons pour cela sans doute nous separer car nous n ' avons pas tous des ambitions communes, Les universites vers lesquelles nous nous dirigeons nous les avons choisis en fonction du type d ' education qu ' elles dispensent et du serieux de leur nom. Ces etabalissements vont nous separer momentanement, mais je suis convaincue que que quelque soit la distance qui nous eloigne nous ne pourron s oublier les moments de joie lors des retrouvailles a la fin des va- canes, de crainle devant les examens, ces moments de rires, d ' an- goisse, de foile, depression, d ' amour, d ' amitie mais surtout de soli- darite que nous avons parlages Aux eleves de TERMINALE Je sou- haite que tus vos voeux et vos ambitions se realisent, mais surtout que vous soyez toujours aussi heureux que nou I ' avons ete au Lycee. Mme Kabbaz a dit une fois en s ' addressant a ses eleves: POUR BIEN DIRIGER UNE ECOLE, TROIS QUALITES SONT INDISPENSA- BLES. IL EST ESSENTIEL D ' ABORD D ' AVOIR UNE BONNE SANTE. LA DEUXIFMF QUALITE INDISPENSABLE FST LE SENS DE L ' HU- MOUR, ET TROISIEMENT IL FAUT AVOIR DU CARACTERE ET PAREOIS MEME MAUVAIS CARACTERE. Eh bien! Mme. Kabbaz je remerc ie le Bon dieu aujourd ' hui de vous avoir dote de ces trois qualities, car c ' est grace a cela que j ' ai pu, comme Voltaire cultiver mon jardin. . . 13

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M. Maurice Bernard et Mme Esther Kabbaz