It’s back-to-school (la rentrée) this Tuesday where guidelines from the French Ministry of National Education govern what and how students are taught across the country. The goal is to ensure that everyone has the same learning opportunities from 1st grade through high school graduation. While the expected topics—languages, math, science, and art, for example—are all there, one curriculum might surprise you: Moral and Civic Education. Overall, the intention is to explain what it means to be a citizen, keeping in mind “an idea of the public good that transcends individual interests.” And now, that includes animals.

It’s pretty easy to get a consensus from health authorities around the globe on conventional ways to live a long life. The World Health Organization (WHO) reinforces the idea that lifestyle is the most powerful tool citing 4 essentials: regular physical activity, eating well, getting quality sleep of 7 to 9 hours per night, and staying socially connected. To that they would add controlling any conditions such as high blood pressure and cholesterol, stopping smoking, and getting regular screenings for early detection and treatment of issues. While those ideas all concentrate on the body, another avenue of thought revolves around stimulating the mind.

Conventional wisdom says that the more you listen to a language the more you will pick up. After all, from the moment we’re born, we’re immersed in the speech of those around us, and we instinctively begin to copy the sounds to eventually express ourselves verbally. Following that logic, Bill and I get our daily dose of French TV, radio, music, news, weather, and neighborhood conversations. In addition, there are countless online videos, some for grammar, history, or culture but others just for entertainment. It’s especially fun when a French person talks about vacationing in or moving to America since we get to compare their reaction to ours of being the foreigner in a foreign land. Such was the case when I saw a video on the YouTube channel JeanUSA.