Kid's corner

Elias has moved to a new class since February 12th, 2008. Apart from the fact that the experience of being separated from his friends -- in contrast to what was promised -- was quite annoying for Elias, it has not been the best experience for us either. Elias has been having three teachers since the change: Jane, Veerle and now Ellen, who replaces Jane as she's pregnant. And none of them is coming close to hist first teacher: Els.

The opening page of his booklet said that each week updates will be given as to what has been done in class and what songs and verses they learned and such. Faithfully, each week, Els wrote and copied a little text, so we could keep track of Elias' efforts. It was really cool, and we could cite the verses with him. Right now, however, when we asked about information on what Elias was learning, we were told, in no uncertain terms that from the first real school year, no such information would be forthcoming.

Last week, Elias spare clothes went missing. On Friday, we received his bag, with his booklet. The latter was full, the former was empty. Normally, in basic school, the school carries the cost for booklets and such, so, we kind of expected to receive a new empty one. Nope. They used the plastic bag his clothes were in for transporting a cool piece of work he made, which is nice, but they forgot the previous contents of said bag. A note we put in Elias' schoolbag today, asking where the missing clothes were, returned unread. So, how they knew who was coming to pick him up from school, or where he should eat -- something we always write in his booklet on Monday -- remains a mystery.

Sigh. It seems like the expectations I had of this school -- which were fulfilled during the first months -- are now remaining just that: expectations.