Are there skills you spent years learning to acquire that you have now forgotten or hardly use?

[BonsoirAnna]

I'm thinking about my children's education at the moment (DSS1 is getting to a critical point where we/he needs to take major decisions) and trying to think back to what has been useful, and what has not been useful, among the many things my parents paid for me and/or supported me in acquiring.

I have sadly almost forgotten German, Italian and Spanish. I have completely forgotten shorthand (typing still good). I hardly ever drive, but it is useful to be able to do so when I need to. Guitar? Tennis? Long gone...

Anyone else?

Many years acheiving a Jilly Goolden style palate and ridiculously detailed knowledge of th world of wine.....mostly forgotten . At least you are in the right part of the world to start on that

He'd probably need the science to get to a medical school & certainly for a science career, so from a keeping options open perspective that would be good. But I can see that being fluent in English would be a huge advantage too... Is there any way way to achieve both? Can you do that at the bilingual lycee - or do they focus on languages more there? Or would it be possible to get the English skills outside school?

He can still do a Bac S (Sciences) in a bilingual school but there is one really excellent lycée in Paris that offers a special "extra" science Bac S which is very prestigious and would get you into the very best prépa. That would mean forfeiting the bilingual school and doing something called "mention européenne" in English (still better than standard Bac English). There wouldn't be any extra time outside school really apart from holidays - a good lycée is pretty full-on.

Ho hum. We have plenty of time to mull it over (decision time isn't for over a year) as he/we do the applications. Perversely, while I have been pushing the DSSs English like crazy for the past three years, I am now a little panicked at the idea of pushing them too far in that direction to the detriment of what is classically regarded as the most prestigious option in France. I don't want to be responsible for pushing them in the wrong direction IYSWIM.

I do see what you mean Anna, and best of luck - from what you've said I'm sure he'll do well whatever, but you still need to choose the best option for him. With his abilities he could probably learn English later, whereas the science is I imagine harder to pick up later.

I was thinking that the English system of not having to make such weighty decisions until age 16 was quite good - until I remembered that actually we don't really have any options over here to become really fluent in another language.

Thanks snorkle . I know that it is a very minor problem in the grand scale of human dilemmas but it is still good to be able to mull it over with people with a different perspective.

Yes, I think I'd agree with the sciences, in that case. You could give him the English outside of school.

Playing the violin

Speaking German - it's all gone. Only did GCSE but even so.
I can remember Wie gehen Sie am besten zum Banhof bitte? but that's about it.

I loved French though and took it to A level, and strangely can still remember a good deal. Rusty, but comes back when in France.

how to do complicated gymnastics comprising back walkovers, mounting the beam via a somersault and being able to do those somersaulty things by running and pushing off against a wall.

am still fairly flexible though which dh seems to think is a very valuable skill

tying all the knots i learnt in the brownies

Integral calculus.

Wouldn't know where to start.

Almost all the Russian I did (to degree level).

Piano and viola - can't play either now. But I don't regret having done them.

The only subject/skill I regret having stopped studying at 16 is Biology - in general I would very much encourage any child with any vestige of ability in science to continue with it. I had to do this later, while working and later having children, and it was incredibly painful, although still worth it in the end. But thankfully, in France you are less likely to be facing the early specialisation that happens so much in the UK.

From what you describe, I think the specialist science route sounds great, if your dss would like to take this route, provided you can think of another way to continue developing his English as well.

If it were my son I agree I'd go specialist science route.

German is the only skill I have lost. I used to quite enjoy it but have never needed it and now am very rusty.

Everything else (French, cross country running, guitar) I have kept up with because I enjoy it and it's not an effort.

Is it necessary to always have skills that you need to carry with you through life or "get you somewhere"? I know I did things just for the fun of doing them because they interested me at the time. I don't sing anymore, and my parents spent vast sums of money on lessons and exams, it would take a lot of work for me to get "good" again and there's no need but the enjoymeny I got from singing and being part of a choir was well worth all the time and effort that went into it, even if I now sound like a strangled cat.

Obviously this POV doesn't really hold true for academic options but if your DSS1 wants to explore origami for 6 months and enjoys it before promptly forgetting how to even make a paper aeroplane is it really that bad? I think we've forgotten that sometimes things are just for fun.

Another vote for the sciences, though. You can pick up a language but a fully equipped lab with specialist teachers is pretty hard to come by.

Stuff like quadratic equations. Totally forgotten all that.