Czech Schools

Yesterday Henk took Alex to pre-enroll in a bilingual Czech preschool. It's known to be one of the best in Prague, and really really hard to get into. Ivana's good friend (who also lives just a few houses away), Zoe, is British and teaches there, so they're hoping that a whole lot of name dropping will help Alex get in. Apparently getting into schools around here is a big deal. Every school is very competitive and it's not uncommon at all to file huge lawsuits if you're kid is denied entry. Henk and Ivana have been stressing about yesterday since I got here! Alex had to meet with a few of the school's administrators yesterday while Henk was interviewed and Alex will have to go take a qualification exam next week. Oh yes, all of this for PRESCHOOL. They'll test Alex on his language abilities as well as his patience and how well he can pay attention and retain information. Henk said he was asked all kinds of things about the family, but thinks both him working will help give them priority because the school will have more sympathy for them being busy and know that they have the funds for the tuition. I guess the school was upset that they live here in Klanovice though, because it's about 35 minutes away and they don't like when kids travel far to get to the school for fear that they may drop out and then then school will lose money. I guess we'll see how Alex does on the exam next week!

Another interesting thing about Czech schools. Well, preschools at least. During communist times, all kids at school were required to have special "school shoes" (they're called slippers, but they have a rubber sole like a shoe, they're just slip on, so I call them shoes) that they're required to have every day at school. The tradition has carried on still for preschools even past the communist rule, so Alex wears his normal shoes to school, but then has to change into his slippers once he gets there. When we pick him up we help him find his shoes and then put his slippers in his locker for the next day. They have to be a specific style and brand, though the kids can choose the color. When I went into the city with Ivana and the boys last week we had to buy a new pair for Alex so Ivana was telling me all about them. If parents don't provide the shoes, then the kids can't go to school! They were about $20USD. I would take a picture and post it, but Alex already took the new ones to school. Ivana also said they're purposely made to only last about a semester so the company always makes money selling new ones.