Transitions
When we decided to move back to California for a year, my first and main concern was how the boys would adapt. New country, new language, new school, new friends... new life. Uprooting family is never an easy decision, and I worried that Jacques especially would have a hard time leaving his best friends, handball (virtually non-existent in the U.S.) and the comfort of familiarity.
Would the boys have trouble understanding teachers' instructions? Would they make friends or be teased for having accents? Fret, fret, fret! I needn't have worried, of course. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that both Léon and Jacques adore their school, their teachers, and their budding friendships. Jacques said to me last week, "It's like Paradise. The teachers are so nice, they don't yell or punish you, and Mrs. Ogata said that if we work quietly, she'll put on Pandora during class!"
It's a testament to how long I've been away and how entrenched in the French educational system we were that I didn't naturally expect the boys to relish the positive learning environment that schools in this district espouse. Years of Jacques being harshly criticized in front of his peers by teachers for his cursive or daydreaming had me forgetting that not all teachers or cultures promote perfectionism or use public humiliation as a teaching method.
If the boys learn anything from our time here, I hope it will be how relative standards are, and that learning can be a joyful adventure. Perfect penmanship was a goal in Toulouse, but at Tularcitos, handwriting is a means to an end. Kindergarteners here are expected to learn to read and have homework, but reading starts in 1st grade and homework in 5th grade in Toulouse. Tularcitos Bobcats have school spirit! and are encouraged to develop and express their personal strengths - pottery? band? gardening? scientific experimentation? - through daily enrichment programs; in Toulouse all students are expected to master academic subjects equally in the same room, with the same teacher.
Time will tell which values they choose to take on or shake off.
Would the boys have trouble understanding teachers' instructions? Would they make friends or be teased for having accents? Fret, fret, fret! I needn't have worried, of course. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that both Léon and Jacques adore their school, their teachers, and their budding friendships. Jacques said to me last week, "It's like Paradise. The teachers are so nice, they don't yell or punish you, and Mrs. Ogata said that if we work quietly, she'll put on Pandora during class!"
It's a testament to how long I've been away and how entrenched in the French educational system we were that I didn't naturally expect the boys to relish the positive learning environment that schools in this district espouse. Years of Jacques being harshly criticized in front of his peers by teachers for his cursive or daydreaming had me forgetting that not all teachers or cultures promote perfectionism or use public humiliation as a teaching method.
If the boys learn anything from our time here, I hope it will be how relative standards are, and that learning can be a joyful adventure. Perfect penmanship was a goal in Toulouse, but at Tularcitos, handwriting is a means to an end. Kindergarteners here are expected to learn to read and have homework, but reading starts in 1st grade and homework in 5th grade in Toulouse. Tularcitos Bobcats have school spirit! and are encouraged to develop and express their personal strengths - pottery? band? gardening? scientific experimentation? - through daily enrichment programs; in Toulouse all students are expected to master academic subjects equally in the same room, with the same teacher.
Time will tell which values they choose to take on or shake off.
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