In Poil de Carotte, Jules Renard wrote: "Not everybody is lucky enough to be an orphan." I have had many opportunities to notice that young people might have some reason to think the sentence to be true.

Once, a knock at the door. Whatever their age, pupils like this noise. It is the signal for a minute break or, at least, for the hope of it. It is amazing how the lightest knock at the door is bound to be heard, even while the whole class is "singing" a Latin declination. "Come in!" I say.

A woman rushes in the classroom, dances on points for better seeing, and swoops down on her prey, shouting: "Your tablets!" to a fifteen year old boy.

His complexion becomes deep red. His eyes are ready for murder. At

All his classmates are looking at him while he swallows the tablets. Any immediate danger has passed: the mother apologizes for her intrusion and the pupils begin to tease the boy.

You can hear parents telling their kid: "You make us feel so ashamed!" I have seen many pupils felt ashamed because of their parents, seldom for any sensible reason. Teenagers want to be pampered, but secretly.

Gabrielle Guichard is a French teacher who helps you to learn French online.

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