Was he technically a "teacher"? It seemed like he just kept detention or study hall, but then started to teach them to sing. He lived in the dorm with the kids too. Was he like a "house father"? Not that it matters because I loved the movie so much anyway. But, something I just thought of....
When he arrives at the school, doesn't he say that he taught at some other school before?
"The real crime, I think, was the beard."
Out of curiousity, what exactly was Clement Mathieu hired to do?
"On 15 January 1949, the former music teacher Clément Mathieu (Gérard Jugnot) arrives in "Fond de l' Etang" ("Bottom of the Well"), a boarding school for orphans and problematic boys, to work as an inspector."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372824/plotsummary
...inspector? No, not really.
It's kind of hard to explain, it's a thing in the French school system...
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Veronica Mars died for the CW's sins.
Deputy-Head might be best English translation, Assistant Principal...
http://www.ultimatedisney.com/images/a-c/chorus1.jpg
"Clément Mathieu (Gérard Jugnot) is the new prefect (a supervisor of sorts who ranks just below the headmaster) at a boarding school for troubled children in need of discipline. On his first day on the job, Clément realizes he faces a formidable task."
http://www.ultimatedisney.com/thechorus.html
Clément Mathieu, professeur de musique sans emploi est engagé comme surveillant dans un pensionnat pour enfants en difficulté.
I think he's meant to be a bit like a house master (although obviously with less power).
shareHmmm. The previous poster was more precise. A surveillant is indeed more like a vice-principal in the US. More specifically in the context of the film, a surveillant is responsible for maintaining discipline and order in a school. Additional tasks may include reinforcement of the lessons through repetition or more generally making sure that the students do their work.
From a French language source (http://atilf.atilf.fr)
"Personne chargée de la discipline dans un établissement scolaire en dehors des heures de cours. Synon. fam. pion2, répétiteur"
But didn't one of the other teachers say something like: "A prefect? Aren't you a little old for that job?"
It made me think that, rather than a supervisory or promotion position it was a more junior role, possibly like a trainee or probationary teacher, who one day, if deemed good enough, may rise to the ranks of fully-qualified teacher. The others would be surprised to see a probationer who was in his 50s...which is why he explained he had done a little teaching previously and wasn't someone who had taken up this career on a whim because he was not up to standard in his previous role.
Remember Jaime Escalante, the teacher in Stand and Deliver, who had turned his back on his former profession, taking a pay cut to begin a career as a mathematics teacher? He was older than the normal first-year-out-of-college teacher too.
Still I have no experience of the French education system and so I am really guessing.
Just happened to bump on this message board (just watched the movie again after a long time).
So, in france, a "surveillant" is just as rice-cruft has described. He watches the students during the everyday life at school between classes, during times of study and sometimes can help a teacher with the discipline during class. His main job is maintaining order and discipline, and as a surveillant, he has the right to punish students if deemed necessary.
In the movie, because the school doesn't have a lot of staff, he took more responsabilities that was required for his job and openend his choir, as a kind of school club I guess.
Aaanyway. That's what a surveillant is. They cannot become teacher by "rising to the ranks of fully-qualified teacher". To teach, you've got to get the matching diploma. In Clement Mathieu's case, it seems that he's got one. But because he applied for a surveillant's job, he would have to do a whole new and different application for a teacher's job.
To give an idea you can be a surveillant at 18 with a high-school diploma and paid minimum wage, and sometimes future professors take that job as students, both to earn some money and to familiarize themselves with discipline etc. until they get their higher education diploma and/or the specific diploma needed to hold a teacher/professor position in the French public system.
Today it's really thought out as a crappy job, but at the time, people working in education were better regarded.
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