La Petite École, a student-led program with the purpose of teaching basic French to children from grades 1-6, began Saturday afternoon at Coleman Hall.

La Petite École, or “The Little School,” is a four-week program where advanced French students instruct registered children from local elementary schools for an hour every Saturday during the four weeks. As of now, La Petite École has about thirty or more elementary students signed up.

Instructor of French Ryan Schroth said enrolled children learn about French culture and the basics of the language through engaging learning activities, courtesy of the student instructors.

“Our main objective is to have fun and introduce these students to a cool language,” he said.

The children are organized into three different classrooms with one advanced French student, one or two assistants and sometimes other student helpers to conduct the lessons, Schroth said.

The children all make crafts, eat French snacks and play interactive games to reinforce the French lessons during each of the one-hour Saturday classes, Schroth said.

Something Schroth said he believes is important is to introduce children to foreign languages earlier rather than later.

“I want to make students excited about French and all the other cultures and countries and groups of people that speak it around the world,” he said. “It’s one of my own personal beliefs that we should be teaching foreign languages in elementary school.”

Schroth said students in the United States are usually only offered foreign language classes in high school, and it can be difficult to completely learn one in just four years.

If students are introduced to foreign languages earlier in life, like in elementary school, it implants an interest to learn more about it much earlier and can make the process of learning much easier, he said.

Maya Hunter, a junior double political science and foreign languages major and instructor for La Petite École, said the program benefits both the children and the French students involved.

For children, she said it gives them the confidence to explore their initial intrigue with French, and it offers an entry-level basic education everyone interested in French should know.

For the French students instructing the children, Le Petite École provides a learning experience they need for their professional futures.

“It’s just a general rule that when you teach, you learn better,” she said. “Anyone will tell you that to become a master, you have to be a teacher first, and a lot of our students are in the teacher certification program, so (La Petite École) is also like a first glimpse into what it might be like actually working with writing lesson plans, designing worksheets, planning classroom activities and stuff like that.”

Hunter said one of her favorite aspects of La Petite École is instilling the first interest of learning French into the elementary students and teaching them the basics.

“I just love, love, love, love working with the kids,” she said. “It’s just so much fun to see them get excited. It makes (the instructors) excited.”

Even though it may sound odd at first, Schroth said his absolute favorite part of La Petite École is seeing the children reunite with their parents and go home for the day.

“The students (leave) and they’ve got their little craft in their hand and they’re wearing their little beret that we’ve given them and they wave and say ‘au revoir’ in front of their parents,” he said. “It makes the parents happy, it makes me happy and I think the kid has genuinely learned.”

Logan Raschke can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].