We went and registered our scraggly looking bunch of boys for school today. Calvin got a major haircut, but his hair is still in his eyes, Carter wants long hair so he came home from his haircut with an almost invisible trim to his mop, and Caleb? No complaints about him.
I’ve been a little worried lately because Carter keeps saying that he’s not going to school. And not in the joking way either. I asked him if he wanted to take the bus or have me drive him on the first day and he replied, “I’ll be sleeping in cause I’m not going.” He said he would go to registration, but then not show up for the entire year. As we know from the time he attacked the elevator, when Carter gets nervous he expresses his fear via anger or defiance. I’ve been having visions of having to carry him into school with him resisting by grabbing and clinging to the doorway with all his might.
Meanwhile, this guy is so over the moon exited about going to school that he wore his uniform this morning even though he didn’t have to. He also dug out “real” shoes that he hasn’t worn since March when we left Monterey. This is out in front of the school.
Waiting to find out class assignments. This pretty much sums up their personalities/feelings about the day. Calvin is interested, but acting like he’s too cool for school, Caleb eagerly anticipating the news, and Carter, the unwilling participant.
Registration was easy since the boys had already been admitted and the US Government had already paid the ridiculously expensive tuition bill (I wish they were that timely on the piddly amount of money they owe us, but I’m glad they at least got the school paid on time). For the three of them to attend for the year it costs eighty-six thousand dollars. I know, I choked on my coffee when I heard that number too. For one year. Talk about extravagance.
And what do we get for that price? Amazing service and attention. Many of the staff members and teachers remembered us from when we met them on our school tour at the end of last year, the elementary school principal was helping to staff the table where they were handing out classroom assignments, making sure he met all the students personally, the middle school principal was handing out class schedules and teaching the kids how to use the daily planner and explaining the block schedule rotation. Calvin didn’t have a foreign language selected yet and the principal asked, “do you want to take Spanish, French, or Arabic?” When Calvin replied, “Spanish” the principal said off the top of his head, “OK. You’ll be with Mr ___ in room 207” and just penciled it in, he didn’t have to check a schedule, a roster, or a computer.
Then we went to meet the teachers. They had several returning students acting as guides so we told them which classrooms the boys were in and they showed us the way. When Caleb walked in the door of his class, his teacher said, “I remember when you visited my class last year. When you said you were going to be in second grade I was hoping you’d be in my class this year. I’m so happy that I get to be your teacher.” Caleb was beaming. We’ve heard great things about his teacher from many of the other parents and combined with Caleb’s excitement and enthusiasm, I think it will be a winning combination.
Next for the wild card: Carter and his teacher. We were hoping for a particular teacher, but Carter was assigned to a new teacher. She’s from Scotland, early thirties (or maybe younger — the older I get, the worse I get at this age guessing thing) and a blend of warm, gentle, enthusiastic, and flexible. She looks to be a perfect match for my reluctant student. After we left her class Carter visibly perked up and started leading the way around the halls instead of dragging along behind. In the car on the way home he said, “I feel . . . I don’t know how I feel. Just better.” So it looks like I won’t have to drag him to school in his pjs after all.
Then Calvin took his schedule and found his locker (the middle school and high school are upstairs) and wandered around and found each of his classes. He saw some girls he was friends with from Kid Games (church camp) and he took off with them for a while. They took ID card pictures and we bought PE uniforms for everyone. Altogether it was a very successful day. Can’t wait for Saturday!
