WNBC News – French Warship Sails To NYC; Delivers Books To Schoolchildren
NEW YORK -- The French warship Jeanne D'Arc was sailing toward New York on Thursday with a special mission: to deliver 10,000 books to American schoolchildren.
Most of the texts will go to New York City public school students immersed in French classes, and the rest will go to children in New Orleans.
"This gives a new meaning to the expression turning swords into plowshares," said Fabrice Jaumont, the education attache at the French Embassy in Manhattan, the cultural branch of the main embassy in Washington.
The 10-ton helicopter carrier, which serves as a training vessel for French navy midshipmen, was to dock at Pier 92 in Manhattan at 6 a.m. Friday, Jaumont said.
About 7,000 books -- dictionaries, textbooks, novels, even comic books -- are going to 180 children participating in the French-English dual-language program launched at some New York City public schools this year. Aimed at making students bilingual, classes in subjects like social science and literature are taught half in French, half in English.
The rest of the books will be sent to New Orleans schools devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
A group of students from the Jordan L. Mott Middle School in the Bronx -- which offers one of three French dual-language programs in the city -- are to perform on the ship Friday with their school band.
The French government has earmarked $100,000 to support New York's dual-language programs.
The book delivery was organized and financed by the embassy, and the texts were donated by two French book banks, Adiflor and Biblionef.
The Jeanne d'Arc leaves New York on Jan. 2 for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, delivering thousands of other books to impoverished children there.
The warship, named for the French heroine burned at the stake in 1431, is open for visits from Dec. 29 to 31 by special request.