May
My mother used to say in Polish that God wore out his shoes looking for how to fit that couple together. Well I wore out my shoes today looking for an appropriate kindergarten for my granddaughter.
This is not my first foray into the wonderful world of toddler-education: I’ve been doing this for months. Yesterday, for example, I knocked at the gate of a pre-school just down the street, and had a little conversation with the sweet teacher, which I tried to keep short because in the background were so many screams and roars that I could barely hear her. That was actually the only school where the children didn’t seem to be altogether happy. The others were only – well – strange. Take the religious school I went back to see today. In one room a hatted woman in a long dress was diapering one of four babies in line while a chorus of prayers was loudly playing on the stereo. They turned off the music after I came through for the first time, but the shock of it stayed with me until I visited the next nursery. It wasn’t religious but the children learn bible stories and they discuss the holidays and have lots of enrichment games and extra music and dance lessons. It would have been perfect except for the narrow stairs down to the windowless one-room basement where the classroom, dining room and bedroom are based. This can’t be, i thought, remembering that these schools cost three times as much as the university tuition. I’m going to quit the university and open up a nursery in my living room. Oh wait, I forgot, my aching feet wouldn’t be able to take an eight-hour standing position. I’ll have to stay where I am.
