Being French in Maine

The New York Times reported that after a long time of being scored in Maine, the french population is making a come back. Throughout the 1950's and 1960's French immigrants to Maine were supressed. French born Americans were reprimanded for speaking French in schools, and young children were told to translate their French names into english. Four years ago, the State began to recognize the state's french immigrants with an annual French- American Day with a pledge of Allegiance being read in French and the national anthem with French and english verses. In 2002, Main elected its first openly French-American congressman Michale H. Michaud.

"My dad grew up speaking only French and went to school and got teased by other
kids, and he wanted to spare his kids that experience, so both my wife and I are
kind of a generation that got skipped," said Bob Michaud, whose son, Alexandre,
attends second grade at L'École Française, 45 minutes from home. "I'm doing it
because I want Alex to learn more about our heritage and background."

The revival of French culture includes French-American patois, parisian language and cirrulum and L'Ecole Francaise.