An update on the kids and school

Lee and Miles continue to do well in school – or rather, we have no clue about how the kids are doing in school, and we continue to assume everything is fine.

That’s not true, exactly.

Ceil had a terrific visit with some of Miles’ teachers a couple of weeks ago. We learned that the kids in each grade are ranked, top to bottom, at the end of the school year, and this ranking determines which classroom they will attend the following year. A kid in the “A” class is at the bottom of the list; the ambitious over-achievers are rounded up in the “E” class.

Miles is enrolled in the “E” class. (Sorry, I should have warned you before saying that. I too did a spit-take when I heard that – I’ll give you a minute to clean off your computer screen.)

This made sense at the time, as the “E” class spends more time working on foreign languages, world history, etc. The principal rightly assumed that a non-French-speaking kid would have a better chance in this environment. And I think Miles is doing fine, though this casts his stories about the outrageous perfectionism of his classmates and teachers in a different light.

During Ceil’s meetings with the teachers, it was agreed that although he did not score well on the start-of-the-year tests (which, Miles hastens to add, were in French! No excuses, kid) he would stay with his classmates. While the class studies English, he goes to the library to study French with one or two other kids. The school has just hired an intern from Pennsylvania, and she’s going to do some additional work with Miles, and help him keep up academically. But, we all agreed, the main goal of this affair is for Miles to learn French – and if he falls behind in other topics, so be it. We’ll sort that out when we get home.

Ceil had a meeting with Lee’s teachers yesterday afternoon, and made a similar discovery. Because French schools assign kids based on the year (and not the month) of their birth, Lee has been attending the equivalent of fourth grade – not, as we had assumed, third grade. This was a cause for relief on the part of Lee’s teacher, who has been concerned about Lee’s performance in mathematics: “oh, so that’s why she can’t do linear algebra with the rest of the kids.”

Ceil and the teachers agreed that Lee would continue in the current classroom, and begin studying French with a teacher at a different school for one hour each afternoon. This gave be pause, as it threatens to complicate Ceil’s day even further.

Ceil is forever shuttling back and fourth between the two schools to pickup the kids for lunch (some days with her, some days at the canteen), after school (different times each day of the week) or if a teacher at Miles’ school calls in sick (no substitutes). Our house is simply too far away to justify making the trip home after dropping the kids off, so Ceil and the kids are often at loose-ends, needing to kill two or three hours in town before returning to school. Ceil made a break through a couple of weeks ago when she found a gym to join, and a pool with ‘open swim’ each morning – but this new requirement to take Lee across town for an hour each afternoon seems to exacerbate the situation.

So we’ll give it a shot. Despite her nightly hystrionics (“I don’t want to go to school – I can’t understand my teacher and she has bad breath!”), Lee is quite happy at the end of the school day and has made many friends. This weekend, in fact, she’s off to her first birthday party at the local McDonalds… and kudo’s to me for making the RSVP call to the other kid’s parents entirely in French.

Ok; time to run. Miles just handed me a form I need to translate, sign, and return. I think it’s a request for a meeting with the math teacher; or it maybe a permission-slip for a field trip to the gonorrhea clinic. Hmmmm…