1.
Internship
Tuesday, February 21st
3.
Wednesday the 22nd
4.
Thursday the 23rd
5.
Friday the 24th
6.
fashion show
7.
Saturday the 25th
8.
Chronicles
9.
day off
10.
start over
11.
strike
12.
Assistant hairdresser
13.
trial
14.
The right way
15.
promise
16.
Beauty practice
17.
Explanation
18.
Life without Louis
19.
arson
20.
reality
21.
Conclusion

Translator's Note

Internship: A new way to learn and experience the world

The free semester system was fully implemented in middle schools in 2016.
Our children open their eyes and go to school, meet friends, attend classes, and spend half the day there.
What changes will the implementation of the flexible semester system bring to children who will spend a semester free of exams, taking special classes and engaging in hands-on experiences? Special classes and experiential activities outside of regular, exam-based classes are already a familiar and natural part of many European countries, known as "internships."
Although there may be some differences, whether it is an 'internship' or a 'free semester', it seems to be an essential process for children to grow into happy adults, as it allows them to explore their own potential and career paths through various experiences that they would not have been able to have during regular class hours.
And above all, it seems clear that the efforts of passionate teachers and the interest of students will play an important role.


"The Internship at Fourteen" is the story of 14-year-old Louis, who experiences the "internship" program, a French version of the free semester system.
The protagonist Louis begins his internship at the Maitre Hair Salon as a part of his career exploration experience, a reaction to his father, who is successful due to his exceptional intelligence, his model student friend who is different from him, and his own disorganized school life where he has not found any dreams or passions, and also out of simple curiosity.
But as with all important encounters in life, Louis's encounter with the Maitre salon was a stroke of luck.
Louis, who struggled to keep up with schoolwork and was somehow managed by his overbearing father, becomes a completely different person.
Without being told to do so, she learns to braid hair over her shoulders, practices cutting with scissors, and longs for a pair of silver scissors from a hairdresser.
You could say that I discovered my hidden talent and passion, my so-called 'natural talent as a hairdresser'.


So, even after the week-long internship is over, it's not easy for Louis to return to his daily life.
In the end, Louis goes to work at the beauty salon, even making up a lie that the school teachers are on strike.
From this point on, the Maite Beauty Salon becomes a small, simple paradise for Louis.
The people at the beauty salon, including Director Maite, offer to supplement Louis' school lessons (although, of course, their skills are lacking, so they are not of much help), and the customers at the beauty salon express their concern for Louis by discussing the reality of the school's education.
Meanwhile, Louis is rapidly building up his skills.


However, Louis' father, an ambitious self-made man, would never readily allow his son to become a hairdresser.
Even when Director Maite, his grandmother, his mother, and even the principal later found out about Louis's lies and came forward to help him, he just kept quiet in front of his father.
So, it was only natural that Dad would explode in anger when he accidentally met Louis at the hair salon.


How much parental involvement is appropriate for a child's life? Is there even a fine line? But if your son is fourteen, and you're trying to deviate from the path most people take, it's understandable why you'd want to block his path and yell at him to go back.
But Louis's father resorts to violence, and Louis is immediately brought to his knees.
Finally, Louis receives proper beauty lessons, his father's way of thinking becomes more flexible, and the Maité beauty salon, which was shaken by an unexpected accident, is put back on track.


Louis tells me about the potential within me.

"The Fourteen-Year-Old Internship" tells the story of a fourteen-year-old boy who, through an internship, discovers talents and passions he never knew he had, and runs with all his might to become a hairdresser.
As you might expect, the story has a happy ending and Louis becomes a huge success.
But if you want to know the life story of a successful person, you can read biographies.
The beauty of this work is that it shows how much energy one person's passion can have, and how many lives are connected in a tight web.
Louis gives hope to Director Maite, who lost his family and was living a meaningless life; he allows Fifi, who stopped growing mentally during her unhappy adolescence, to look at her own wounds; and he gives warm comfort and love to Clara and Garance, who are suffering from difficult lives.
Even his mother, who was an ordinary housewife, is going back to school and preparing for a new life, which shows that it wasn't just her life that Louis changed.


If you can find something you love and are good at early on, make it your lifelong career, and achieve success along the way, there is nothing more to wish for.
But what really matters is not what job you have, but realizing what kind of person you are and how much energy you have in your heart.
It seems like I don't have even the slightest spark, let alone energy, inside me? Absolutely not! No one has zero potential.
That's the story Louis tells.
I highly recommend this to teachers who dream of diverse experiments in the free semester curriculum and to our children who are filled with countless possibilities.