Anyone who’s taken French throughout their time at Victor knows and loves Mr. Buttram. If you have ever had him as a teacher, you have probably heard one or two of his stories. Being a young teacher, he has an impressive amount of tales about travel and culture, something that is essential to teaching a foreign language.

The language was something he had always known, having been born in a French-speaking area, and his mother spoke it to him as he grew up. However, his plan when he entered college was not to study French; it wasn’t even to become a teacher. He initially studied science, with basically no classes on the language.

When discussing finding his career path, Buttram shares, “Whenever you have the opportunity to make familiar connections, that’s when you will find success.” Throughout his time in college, he underwent numerous changes, eventually deciding to incorporate French more into his major, ultimately settling on a more holistic approach in Linguistics.

Buttram originally started as a speech pathologist working with kids as a substitute. Although he had enjoyed working with the kids, this was not a career he was passionate about. A close professor had noticed this and presented him with the opportunity to teach English in Lyons, France.

This was where he really began to connect with teaching and French culture. Now that he has taught in both America and France, he can point out the significant cultural disparity between these two places.

He shares a light-hearted story of a teacher strike at his school. After hearing about the strike from students, Buttram still showed up to work, new to the school and unsure about the situation. He arrived to see what he described as a scene from Les Misérables. Students had barricaded the school doors with trash bins that they sat on top of, as pictured below.

It was incredible for him to see students participating in such a way, and it was not the last of strikes and protests he would see. But more importantly, Buttram can speak to the specific difference between American and French students.

In America, students expect a relationship with their teachers to be “mutually curious”. Where French students are incredibly formal and respectful with their teachers, our students expect the same respect that they give to their teachers to be reciprocated.

This was strange at first, but it became one of the things he loved most about Victor. Forming these relationships with the students became essential to his way of teaching. It may be something we take for granted, but it is something special for Buttram.

Although he believes that working in Lyons was an amazing opportunity, he was obligated to move back to America due to health issues. He still loves Victor. He shares that he would never want to leave our tight-knit community and the connections that he has built with so many of you.