Gettin' Learned Up

8 January, 14

My youngest daughter, Katherine, slammed her bedroom door, stomped into the living room and shouted out, “I want to go HOME! I hate this place! I hate school! Why are you making me do this?!”

Back in August 2013, my wife and I moved to a very small community close to Murcia, Spain, with our two daughters, aged 12 and 14. With two school-aged kids, education is obviously a big deal for my family. We agonized over what and how to do that. We still worry about it, frankly. Neither of my girls knew any Spanish, which made us lean toward homeschooling as a way to reduce the stress of moving. When we got closer to making our decision to move, we learned from our Spanish friend, who is an administrator in the local school here, that homeschooling is not a viable option. That left us with entering the girls into the local school, which has a very good curriculum and a partially bilingual program. We were understandably apprehensive, but after careful consultation with our friend and several of the teachers, we came to believe that this really was a good route.

My girls are 12 and 14, and in the American equivalent of 7th and 9th grades, respectively. Those are not easy years to start a new school, if you live in America. Try it in a whole new culture and language. Fortunately, our daughters have made several good friends. The locals here have treated us all so kindly. We are minor celebrities in town, because we live in a very small community. It's not the typical expat destination, by any means. The teachers, for the most part, have embraced the concept as well. They readily agreed to provide tests in English, and the school is providing Spanish lessons, in lieu of some classes. The only area that is a little lacking is in translating the math word problems. Sometimes, they come out a little wacky. We are working with the math department to straighten that out, however.

The material they are covering is at least comparable, if not better than, what we have back in the States. Seventh grader is a tablet-only class. All their books, homework and study materials are virtual. Last night I helped Katherine complete a PowerPoint presentation about a field trip to a nature preserve. This morning I received an email from Elizabeth's Physics and Chemistry teacher. He searched for and found the same book he is using in class, but in an English version, so we now have an English e-book.

The first semester's grades came back much better than expected. Our oldest passed all her classes in the "B" to "C" range. Our youngest did the same, except for French class, where she is struggling. Yep, French class. We didn't have a choice on that, but learning yet another language is not a bad thing. On a recent vacation to Paris, she was so excited to order four croissants for the family. I really believe that she is going to master French over this next semester.

After returning from Christmas break, we are now entering the second semester of school. They just started back last week. We moved from North Carolina. As a backup plan, we established ourselves as an NC homeschool. That gives us the ability to administer end-of-grade tests, which can be used for USA grading purposes, relieving the pressure from our girls. They can focus on learning here in Spain, and not so much on performance. At the same time, we will have objective measurements for the college boards, which are just around the corner.

Last Friday and Monday, I held some teacher conferences, with mixed results. The first teacher, Santiago, gave me great hope. He was very sympathetic to my kids' situation and even took it upon himself to seek out another teacher to help explain. Katherine's science curriculum is in French, which definitely adds a layer of complexity to the subject. Santiago approached the Science teacher with some possible classroom modifications, such as allowing Katherine to use earbuds and listen to English science videos. The teacher readily agreed and then told us that she had an English language textbook to use as well. While I was very happy to know that, I was also a little dismayed that the teacher did not conceive of these two solutions on her own, four months ago. Oh well. Some people just cannot operate outside of the tight parameters we call normal, without a little assistance.

My last conference was with Katherine's French teacher, who has not exactly been her favorite person this year. Katherine is very sensitive to body language. She picks up on things that nobody else does. At times she over-amplifies what she sees, turning a mild correction into a harsh rebuke. Having said that, I am siding with her on this one. I don't like this teacher either! She carries herself with a withering, holier-than-thou demeanor, which really frosts my butt. NOBODY can be holier than me. We did have a good meeting, however, after I assured her about how hard Katherine is working every night. Even she agreed to help, so there is hope for humanity after all.

After she heard about my teacher meetings and how I agreed that the French teacher needed to take a long walk off a short pier, Katherine’s postured changed, as if a millstone had fallen off her shoulder. We understood. Since then, her attitude about school, and life as an expat teenager, has changed. My girls still miss home, but maybe, just maybe, they are starting to see this more as adventure than torture.