School meeting

This morning, I took Olivia and Avery to school; Charlotte had a full day of rehearsal for the school play (Shrek) and didn't have to meet her class at the theater until 10:30am (can you imagine a school in the States informing the parent body that school will start an hour and forty-five minutes late for two days in a row, in order for the students to skip all their classes and rehearse a play for five hours a day?!?).

At RIS, I had scheduled a meeting with the assistant head of the middle and high school, who will become the principal of both schools next year (the current head is leaving...). I was encouraged by several faculty and parents to share my feelings about the experience we'd had as Americans, and in fact, she was very eager to meet with me to hear the same. The following were the main points I made:

1. The Italian language teacher is one-of-a-kind; a true treasure. As such they should acknoweldge her efforts and do whatever it takes to keep her happy.

2. There should be more coordination between the upper and lower school as many parents have children in both programs ie. why on earth is the play scheduled for 3pm tomorrow when lower school pick up is at 3:30pm?

3. The fact that we are in Rome and the 8th grade had only two (lame) field trips the entire year: one to see the Edward Hopper exhibit, and the other to visit a public library, is a real shame.

4. The academic program was not nearly challenging enough, and the homework load was extremely light -- two papers written for English class in an entire year is not what I would call honing your writing skills.

5. The methodology of some teachers, reading to the students from a book during class time, is not inspiring and actually a pathetic example of teaching. Efforts should be undertaken to hire teachers who are passionate about teaching and can engage the students.

6. Most disappointing of all, has been the lack of response from the Math teacher. In fact, the lack of professionalism by him has been appalling.

She agreed with each and every one of my points, and was only surprised by #6. This seems so unlike him, she said. She immediately looked at the Math teacher's schedule for tomorrow and offered his time to Charlotte at 9am. I guess meeting with the head of the school is the way to go. Just this morning, Mr. Murray had texted Josh, stating that he had "other commitments" and that meeting with Charlotte would have to wait until Wednesday when the school play had concluded. Truthfully, all this emphasis on drama is a bit sickening. Charlotte will not fail out of drama next year, but she could very well fail out of math. Priorities seem a bit skewed here.

In any event, after my meeting I came home to take take Charlotte and her friend (whose mom had to go to work this morning like many others) to the theater for their 10:30am rehearsal.

Then, I went to work out. No knee pain; that's a positive.

Later in the day, I did the marketing and laundry (Maria was sick today), had a conference call, cooked dinner, and organized for Olivia's birthday party which will be this coming Friday.

Josh picked the kids up from school, and the theater respectively, and then took all of them to Charlotte's orthodontist's office to have their teeth cleaned. That is how today went by in an instant; and we now have less than two weeks left to our life in Rome.