Tag Archives: enrollment in 1st grade

As I’m sure is true of all teachers, I get frustrated sometimes.  I simplify the lessons to the point where I think I’m being condescending, and some students still stare at me blankly.  I scream at them to be quiet and the second my back is turned, they are chattering away.  I tell my funniest

It was a beautiful thing to see

jokes and they do not laugh.  I try to ignore their requests when they speak to me in Czech, and they ask me again in Czech, more urgently.  I dread the day one of them pisses in their pants because they couldn’t ask to go to the toilet in English.

There are times I think they are the most thick-skulled, dim witted, uncomprehending lumps of barely sentient clay on the planet.

Then, there was today.  It was enrollment day for next year’s 1st graders, and my daughter was among the newbies.  The school makes an interesting event out of it.  There are many different exercises in many different classrooms, it’s sort of like going through a funhouse.  They test them on counting, recognition of shapes, singing, physical co-ordination, even a little bit of English.

There are teachers in charge of course, but they get a lot of help from the older students.  5th graders through 9th graders were acting as guides,  coat check people, waiters and waitresses (there was coffee and cookies for the waiting parents) and even test administrators.  Many were dressed as clowns, princesses and various animals.

They were great with the kids, very sweet and patient.  They were also extremely professional.

Of course I was proud of Isabel, I think she conducted herself very well.  But I was also really proud of my students.  They may grow up to be functioning human units after all.