Differing Philosophies

For the most part, there is a great deal of unity and collaboration within the French department here at ISD. The teachers have established a set of rules and guidelines posted on the walls and followed in every classroom, and have adopted a common system of classroom management and discipline. For example, in every French class in the school, all students are essentially forbidden to speak English and eat or drink during class time, are allowed three bathroom passes per trimester, and receive “batons”, or strikes, for violations of classroom rules. The strikes are separated into categories and three strikes in any one category - coming to class unprepared, for example - results in a detention. The teachers also work together to create curriculum for occasions like book month, Francophone week, and Senegal month, and coolaborate to design units to input into Atlas Rubicon to be followed in the years to come.
While overall, I think the French department here is stellar, there are still some policies with which I am not quite sure that I agree. For instance, the High School students follow block schedules, so they are in French class for one hour and a half. An hour and a half is a long time to sit in a classroom, and in my opinion, if they do not get a five minute break in the middle of class, they should at least be allowed to drink water. The other thing that I have trouble with is just how adamant the teachers are about only speaking French. Most pretend not to speak English in order to prevent the students from being tempted to ask questions in English. This “French only” policy has been a source of some friction between the department and me because I allow students to approach me at the end of class and ask me things in English. I have no objection to encouraging students to speak French in class, but if I see a student struggle to understand something that I think he or she might be able to grasp if it was explained in English, I see no reason to continue to stubbornly explaining it in French.
Evidentally, I take issue with some of the rules that exist within the French department here at the school. Yet out of respect for the department, I make every effort to follow the guidelines to the letter. The students are held to the same standards with me as they are with their regualr clasroom teachers and they cannot eat, drink, or speak English during class time. However, I refuse to pretend that I do not speak English outside of class. After all, as foreign language teachers we are trying to promote the idea that speaking other languages is a positive thing. What type of message does is conveyed when someone who works at an American school refuses to speak English?