Thoughts on French Students and Stationery

French students sure do like their stationery; even the adults that take a couple of hours off work for my classes, many of whom have pitifully low prospects of moving their English along, turn up with foolscap jotters free of any dog ears, a selection of pens and pencils, pencil sharpeners and something I haven't seen since I was about fourteen: pencil cases. And their hand-writing is nearly always very good too.