School's out - but not forever
Yesterday was the last day of this school year. If all goes well, Christopher and Paddy only have one more year to go together.
If all goes well.
Yesterday, as the city was full of kids everywhere celebrating the start of their freedom for nine weeks, I felt irritated, almost resentful – jealous, maybe? Since Christopher – despite his overwhelming enthusiasm for the Spanish Civil War and the Zapatistas – did not manage to achieve a passing grade in Spanish in the end, he will have to pass another Spanish exam in September to be allowed to continue in the eighth year. He has, in fact, developed a passionate drive to learn Spanish because of his enthusiasm for the Zapatistas in particular and his special interest in the political history of Latin America in general. Learning a language to use it for special purposes like this, however, is not the same as learning in order to pass a specific type of exam. And I am not sure that Christopher has ever actually passed an exam like this in his life.
If he doesn’t pass this exam in September, he will not be permitted to continue in the eighth year with Paddy, but will have to repeat the seventh year. This would mean starting over again with preparing for the International Baccalaureate, possibly even with different subjects, certainly with different topics (Adios Zapatistas). Then, whereas Paddy will presumably graduate next year at the age of 17, Christopher would not be finished with secondary school until he is 20. The other possibility would be to quit school, which is not something any of us even want to contemplate. So not passing this exam is, basically, simply not an option. At the age of 18, he is hardly too old to learn new tricks, so this would be an excellent time to learn the new trick of passing this kind of exam.
Christopher being Christopher, the effort that this will require is something that he will undoubtedly share most generously with all of us. In other words, the next nine weeks we have ahead of us are not likely to be a period of much needed rest and relaxation. The phrase that keeps going through my mind is the old saying, “no rest for the wicked or the weary”. I hope the former doesn’t apply to me, but the latter certainly does. I’m tired. I really, really need a break. I just have to keep reminding myself that at least we don’t all have to get up at six every morning during the summer. Some time ago, Christopher came up with the interesting theory that people with leftist political tendencies are night people and don’t cope well with early mornings. Although I can think of no logical reason why that should be true, somehow I suspect he might be on to something. For this decidedly leftist household, not having to get up at six every morning does offer at least a little respite.
Apart from last week being the last week of school, it was also Christopher’s first week at driving school. At lunch today I was impressed by how openly he admitted that the thought of driving makes him nervous. I certainly prefer that he has a healthy respect for the dangers of driving, rather than imagining a feeling of freedom and power behind the wheel of a car. As several people have pointed out to him, if you look at all the idiots out on the road and realize they must have passed a driving test at some point in their lives, Christopher should easily be able to pass the driving test too, especially after practice-driving the requisite amount of kilometers under the supervision of his father and his grandfather, both of them highly experienced and responsible drivers not given to taking anything lightly.
Throughout all of this, Paddy just keeps playing his guitar, and in between, he managed to more or less quietly pass all of his classes this year. No one knows how he does it, he just does it. And we are all most grateful that he does.
If all goes well.
Yesterday, as the city was full of kids everywhere celebrating the start of their freedom for nine weeks, I felt irritated, almost resentful – jealous, maybe? Since Christopher – despite his overwhelming enthusiasm for the Spanish Civil War and the Zapatistas – did not manage to achieve a passing grade in Spanish in the end, he will have to pass another Spanish exam in September to be allowed to continue in the eighth year. He has, in fact, developed a passionate drive to learn Spanish because of his enthusiasm for the Zapatistas in particular and his special interest in the political history of Latin America in general. Learning a language to use it for special purposes like this, however, is not the same as learning in order to pass a specific type of exam. And I am not sure that Christopher has ever actually passed an exam like this in his life.
If he doesn’t pass this exam in September, he will not be permitted to continue in the eighth year with Paddy, but will have to repeat the seventh year. This would mean starting over again with preparing for the International Baccalaureate, possibly even with different subjects, certainly with different topics (Adios Zapatistas). Then, whereas Paddy will presumably graduate next year at the age of 17, Christopher would not be finished with secondary school until he is 20. The other possibility would be to quit school, which is not something any of us even want to contemplate. So not passing this exam is, basically, simply not an option. At the age of 18, he is hardly too old to learn new tricks, so this would be an excellent time to learn the new trick of passing this kind of exam.
Christopher being Christopher, the effort that this will require is something that he will undoubtedly share most generously with all of us. In other words, the next nine weeks we have ahead of us are not likely to be a period of much needed rest and relaxation. The phrase that keeps going through my mind is the old saying, “no rest for the wicked or the weary”. I hope the former doesn’t apply to me, but the latter certainly does. I’m tired. I really, really need a break. I just have to keep reminding myself that at least we don’t all have to get up at six every morning during the summer. Some time ago, Christopher came up with the interesting theory that people with leftist political tendencies are night people and don’t cope well with early mornings. Although I can think of no logical reason why that should be true, somehow I suspect he might be on to something. For this decidedly leftist household, not having to get up at six every morning does offer at least a little respite.
Apart from last week being the last week of school, it was also Christopher’s first week at driving school. At lunch today I was impressed by how openly he admitted that the thought of driving makes him nervous. I certainly prefer that he has a healthy respect for the dangers of driving, rather than imagining a feeling of freedom and power behind the wheel of a car. As several people have pointed out to him, if you look at all the idiots out on the road and realize they must have passed a driving test at some point in their lives, Christopher should easily be able to pass the driving test too, especially after practice-driving the requisite amount of kilometers under the supervision of his father and his grandfather, both of them highly experienced and responsible drivers not given to taking anything lightly.
Throughout all of this, Paddy just keeps playing his guitar, and in between, he managed to more or less quietly pass all of his classes this year. No one knows how he does it, he just does it. And we are all most grateful that he does.
posted by Aileen at Saturday, July 05, 2008
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