Un Jeune Homme Brave

I’ve always liked my son, I think he’s got a hilarious personality and an inquisitive mind, but I’ve gained a new respect for him the past few months, with him bravely facing, and succeeding in, his complete immersion into a French public school.  Now he did have a really rough time getting back into the routine after the two week fall vacation, but when I dropped him off this morning, he walked right into the classroom, with a small protestation, but not bad for a Monday.

I respect him not only for bravely facing 7 1/2 hours, 5 days a week, of not understanding much of what is said, but for finding non-verbal ways to make friends, trying new foods, reading English books to his classmates and doing so well with his French vocabulary work that his teacher has good reports for us when we pick him up at the end of the day.  It’s not easy, what he’s been forced to do, but he’s succeeding.  I knew he could succeed, but I still fight some occasional feelings of guilt for putting him in this situation.  I just keep thinking of the long-term benefits, not only the mental benefits of learning a new language but also the life skill of being able to adapt to a foreign environment.

Another thing helping him is that now, three days a week, Erin spends some time in the classroom teaching the class some English through songs, games and books.  The teacher told the class, “Since He has such a hard time learning French, we are going to learn some English words.”  The Boy thinks it’s pretty cool to have mom in his class and I think Erin doing this adds to the novelty factor that The Boy seems to have among his classmates.