It’s been another marathon week of meetings and appointments as well as a few emotional upsets. If you think your life will become less busy by sending your children off to school think again. There are so many things happening I am forced to step back to prioritize. The one thing I wasn’t prepared for though was the ESL test Pascale was given. She came home crying so obviously I was obliged to march up to the school the next day. I met with the counsellor and the test administrator and for the first ten minutes had to put up with the latter explaining to me about the law and her qualifications.

Apparently every child that speaks a language other than English is required by law to be tested. I had no knowledge that such a test existed let alone know there was a law. While it’s only an ESL test somehow I feel bothered that my child was taken out of class to be tested without our prior knowledge. But what bothered me more was how the administrator spoke to our child. During the meeting I wanted to like her but I came away with opposite feelings. To talk to me about qualifications if you are unable to make a child feel comfortable in your presence leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Not only did the administrator tell our daughter that she could had done better, she also told our daughter that she will soon learn to speak like an American. Hello? Um, we speak English just fine! Is this the American experience I was told that our children should experience?

So Olivier and I have a round of meetings next week with the school counsellors. They want our permission to have Pascale taken out of the school (that she just got comfortable with) to go to another in order to attend a special ESL class. If you’re thinking, Whaaat??, then you’re not alone. I knew my slogan for this year was better than Olivier’s.