Life without limits. Жизнь без границ.: Schools. Once again.

Every time I'll hang out with friends here, we'll talk about schools.

Sure there are some explanations. We all have kids at school age. Parents are intensely involved into the school life, doing projects together, bringing items to school events, volunteering for lunch, library etc. Therefore 2/3 of all real estate operations here are carried because of our good schools. Home owners pay giant property taxes here and a lion's share from this goes for schools. So we stay and die with them.

Let's talk about elementary school.
Three moments that annoy me mostly.

1. Each class and each school have different programs. (When they have them! Sometimes it seems, they don't. Because each year they start from the very beginning, doesn't matter, what grade the student is. During the school year they can jump from one topic to another, force and back.) So it makes difficult, almost impossible, to compare. At the beginning of the second grade I was wondering that J. is doing very easy tasks like 5+8. After that they were doing some multiplication and now fractions. But be sure, they don't really know the addition of two-digit numbers or times table.

2. Learning languages is a real massive disaster. I can only confirm this widespread cliché. That's true. Learning Spanish for several months, J. can count and say "Me elamo ...". That's it. My friends say to me, that's already a lot.

3. Parents are involved too much. They carry a lot of events where parents are assumed to participate. How it can go alone with working parents, is a question. One example. Back in December in F. class they had two days of decorating gingerbreads. Class parties. Parent-teacher conferences. Class meetings. Annual play. Concerts. Library. School lunch. School trips. Different shows and fairs. It's a lot. When on some reason you can't be there, then ... Your kid is sad.

Three moments I appreciate.

1. Relatively small classes. All the schools are very good equipped: smart boards, numerous learn supplies, computers, a big outside area with a sport field and play ground. In music lessons they provide each student with a musical instrument (in our case - violin). Every week the kids attend a school library and borrow books.

2. Interesting projects and a big number of school events. In the 1st grade they had a big project about Italy. It was fun, beginning with taking a plane with pass control and driving a gondola like in Venice. In the second grade they learn about worms. The kids become real worms in a class and each child gets his own worm and gives him a name. In a later grade they have a project with an incubator and eggs and chicken. That's fun! I also love annual plays where the whole grade is participating.

3. Parent volunteering. It might seen as an opposite to the point above. But volunteering is an important part of american culture. As well as donations. I think it's a really good thing that is virtually impossible on this level in Europe.

Last Thursday and Friday we had a short day at the school because of parent-teacher conferences. J. and F. both are doing great at school. They take care and are very diligent. J. is doing his homework absolutely independently and scrupulously (actually from the beginning). F. made a huge progress and is academically on the 1st grade level already. While I do not overvalue it, it makes me happy and proud.