Infant Care: Infant care is done primarily by the mother, although fathers and female relatives participate. In the past, upper class women sent their children to wet nurses until they were weaned. Children were swaddled with various methods, depending on the region. Baptism is an important familial celebration of the birth of an infant.
Child Rearing and Education: State sponsored schools for early childhood education begin to take children at the age of three. There are also state subsidized child care centers for younger children. Although the influence of the family in childhood socialization is very important, there are regional and class based variations in the methods used. In general, children have been seen as naturally wild and in need of learning how to behave in the proper way through guidance from adults. Peer socialization is as important as adult socialization and children generally develop a strong peer culture. There are both public, state run schools and private schools, which receive some state aid if they follow the state curriculum. Public education was established as mandatory, free, and secular by the Ferry laws of the late nineteenth century. Education is controlled by the Ministry of Education and Research, which is under the Ministry of Agriculture. There are three levels of public schooling: the primary school, the college, and the lycee. Schooling is mandatory until age sixteen.
Higher Education: Students receive a higher education after they have completed secondary schooling and successfully taken one of several examinations to earn a baccalaureat. Historically, higher education was divided between universities and grandes écoles. Decentralization efforts have been under way to counter the domination of Paris over academic research and teaching. Provincial centers of learning have grown and received increased funding. About 10 percent of all students are foreign. With the growth of the European Union, education initiatives have fostered partnerships between French universities and universities in other European nations.
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