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Recently, we have had the opportunity to use the French Cultural Detective in school settings. The results have been very satisfying—and quite surprising!
  
Association of French Schools in North  America
 
When the Association of French Schools in North America held its annual conference in San Diego, Ruth was invited to do a one-day workshop with French instructors and administrators from French and international schools. The title was Comprendre l'Autre: Anatomie des différences culturelles ("Understanding the Other: the Anatomy of Cultural Differences").  
  
Ruth decided to use the Cultural Detective Method, but rather than use the incidents in the French CD, she put together a special set of case studies concerning schooling and relationships among students, teachers, parents and administrators.
  
After a general discussion of differences in child-rearing philosophies and methods, and educational systems in France and North America, we learned and practiced the Cultural Detective Method. In small groups, participants analyzed the school-related case studies. The cases resonated very well with participants and sparked lively discussions that went on long after the end of the session.
  
This was a wonderful example of how flexible the Cultural Detective can be, and how it can be customized for various audiences.
  
High School
 
One of Ruth's friends is a French instructor at a local high school, who has very kindly invited her to make several presentations about French culture for her students. Last year, Ruth asked if she would be interested in trying the French Cultural Detective with her students, and they consented to be guinea pigs.
  
This time we used the Cultural Detective France critical incidents. The workshop went very well, although the "oldsters" got rather more of a kick out of hearing "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" in French than the kids! The small groups worked hard on their case studies, and as we moved around the room, we were impressed by the activity level of discussion.
  
A spokesperson from each group presented the group's results to the entire class. Each spokesperson scribed their group's worksheet on the board and walked all of us through their analysis and conclusions. The kids were doing some very high-level thinking, and Ruth and their teacher were both impressed.
  
Then the young girl from Group 5 stood up. She reviewed their case, which involves a dispute between a French company who has contracted with the Forest Ministry in Cameroon to harvest timber. Without going into the details of the incident, the situation reaches crisis point when the French begin to build a road through a village to reach the timber area. They are confronted by a mass sit-in by the entire village to prevent the destruction of their dwellings, gardens and ancestral shrines.
  
The girl summarized the group's discussion. When she got to the Cultural Bridges section, she looked at us with the kind of disbelief in the folly of adults that only a 16-year-old can muster and asked, "OK, why can't the French just, like, build the roads AROUND the villages instead of, like, THROUGH them?  Hel-LO!"
  
We had to confess that none of the distinguished interculturalists, high-level business people or consultants who reviewed the Cultural Detective had ever come up with this concept! And what a brilliant concept it is. The moral of the story is:  don't underestimate the power of the simple, (non)obvious solution. Like, hel-LO!