ze french, zey like to, how do you say, strike, n'est-ce pas?

After a general strike a week or so ago, the most recent strike in France was restricted to teachers. About a quarter France's teachers walked out from work, with some forming a human chain around the ministry of education in Paris (a tactic apparently borrowed from the Italian Girotondi movement).

Their grievances are fairly standard fair; the government plans to alter the pension system to prolong teachers' careers, decrease funding, and give greater power to local educational authorities. What's interesting is that, American teachers are more likely to be in favor of decentalization instead of, say, a national curriculum. But, in France as well as in the U.S., without adequate funding for schools, just who's setting the curriculum and standards isn't terribly relevant.