Saturday, February 7, 2009

School daze

After a month of not spending all my non-work hours (and many of my work hours) visiting potential kindergartens for Benny, I returned to action today, starting with feeding and bathing the boy. Christine got him dressed, and he brushed his teeth. Then Benny and I headed toward a sort of kindergarten interview at a Catholic school:

9:30am
Wait for 6-bus ... wait ... check cell phone for next bus. One minute? It said 'one minute' five minutes ago! Argh!
9:40am
Board 6-bus.
9:45am
Reach the N-train line.
9:52am
N-train arrives.
9:56am
Arrive at church ... school ... Where do I go? Head around corner toward the school.
Benny: 'Can we go home?'
9:58am
Get to school, wonder if this is the place. Spot sign: 'Kindergarten Testing: Please be seated until your child's name is called.' Walk in the door and immediately get intimidated by a statue of the Virgin Mary (?) looking over the shoulder of a little girl, pointing out something on a roll of paper. I wonder what the role says -- VM doesn't necessarily look into it.
Benny wants to keep his coat on as well as the water bottle on a strap that he got for Christmas from Yoko.
10am
Benny spots kids going downstairs to playground; he wants to go.
10:01am
Daddy relents, though worried about missing the all-important 'be seated until your child's name is called' moment. Wonders if all the women hanging out in the hallway are nuns, ready to slap my hand with a ruler for not obeying a Commandment or the commandment to sit and wait.
10:03am
I call Benny back to the top of the stairs. He seems nonplussed by the playground. (Actually it's an asphalt parking lot with a few basketball hoops.)
10:04am
We look at all the trophies and ribbons in a case in the hallway. Hmmmm, no Piston Cup.
10:05am
Benny takes off the coat; maintains possession of the water bottle. We sit on two of the chairs lining the hallway. Benny wants to see momre of the school.
10:06am
A woman comes over to a family down the hall, takes a little girl by the hand and leads her through glass doors into the library. Ah-ha, I think -- The Interview. The Test. ... The Future!
I point out this scene to Benny, and just as he starts to ask something ...
10:07am
An older woman calls from down the hall, "Benjamin?" I jump up, Benny in tow. The woman tells Benny that I'll be right here, presumably to put him at ease. Whatever!
The woman leads him down the hall, and I return to my seat. I look back to see a silhouetted Benny hand-in-hand with the woman, walking into the library.
I feel like crying.
10:20am
The first little girl comes out. Benny can't be far behind.
'Give me back my son!' I start to yell inside my head.
10:22am
Benny emerges, and the woman tells me how wonderful he is. She says he needs to work on gripping a pen for writing and on his finger skills. Otherwise, she says he's wonderful. (I said that already, didn't I?)
10:24am
We walk out on the playground. We hopscotch and run up and down the asphalt. We walk down the street and find a store with an ice cream.
He eats 85.7 percent of it. I get the rest.
10:55am
We see one of Benny's friends from last year in the post office. I ask her what kindergarten she attends this year. She says it's the school we just visited. I ask how she likes it. She says the playground is 'ugly. There's bird poop all over the benches.'

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