Jeanne d’Arc Brings French-Language Books to New York and New Orleans Students.

The French books, including dictionaries and textbooks, but also novels and comic books, were offered to the children participating in New York’s newly launched French-English dual-language programs, as well as to New Orleans schools devastated by hurricane Katrina.

A delegation of students from the Jordan L. Mott Middle School (CIS 22) in the Bronx, one of the three schools that have launched a French-English dual-language program this year (the other two are PS 125 in Harlem and PS 58 in Brooklyn), was welcomed on-board the ship at 2pm on the 28th. Following a performance by their school band and a tour of the two French ships (the Jeanne d’Arc was accompanied by the antisubmarine warfare destroyer Georges Leygues), they took delivery of the books on behalf of all the schools involved. Sixty of the eighty crates remain in New York, while the rest will be shipped overland to New Orleans.

At 3pm, the ship’s commander, Captain Hervé Bléjean, held a press conference in the presence of Catherine Petillon, the French Embassy’s Attaché for Educational Affairs.

This unusual delivery was initiated, coordinated and financed by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, but the books themselves have been donated by two French associations, Adiflor and Biblionef. Both specialize in providing French-language books, which are either new or in excellent condition, to needy children throughout the world. The French Embassy’s contribution comes in addition to the $100,000 the French government has recently earmarked to support dual-language programs in New York City public schools.

Students participating in these dual-language programs are being partially immersed in a French-language environment, with half of their classes taking place in French, and half in English. They are expected to become completely bilingual after five years of such bilingual teaching.

The Jeanne d’Arc will remain moored in New York until January 2 at Pier 92 (West 52th Street). It will be open for visits by New York area children learning French and their parents from December 29-31 (schools with French-language programs will receive the necessary registration information).