French elementary school teachers as well as the parents of their pupils remember being quiet students in teacher-dominated classrooms. Yet today both teachers and parents idealize lively classroom participation by their pupils or children. In this study, teachers and parents in an urban school district in Villefleurie, France, watched videotaped incidents from French and American classrooms, and their reactions to the tapes were compared. Data were gathered by having viewers respond privately to an open-ended questionnaire before joining in group discussion of the event. Similarities and differences between the teachers' reactions and those of the parents demonstrate the ways in which the French teachers claim to discount traditions from their childhood memories while balancing their modern ideals with a realism gained from on-the-job experience. Three tables provide descriptions of the videotaped event and of children's and teacher's behavior. A sample page from questionnaires in French and in English and transcripts of videotaped episodes from the French classroom are appended. (LL)