pre-school interview

My school is expensive and somewhat elite.  You can't just buy your way into it.  You have to pass admissions interview, exams, and there has to be enough space because they have capped the classrooms at 20 (but apparently that's the highest number ever).  It is a pre-K-12 school, with about 1000 students enrolled.

Even though I am a teacher, and my kids get automatic enrollment, I still must go through the formalities that all applying parents must do - and today was my scheduled small group interview with Tomris.

All the anxious parents waited in a room as the teachers swooped and with a few magic words convinced the kids one by one to join them in another classroom.  There were rumors flying that if your kid cried - the first test - he/she wouldn't be admitted.  Tomris, who had been skipping and giggling all the way to the building, suddenly was back to her usual of not making eye contact, not responding to any question and gripping my fingers tighter while stubbornly hiding behind me.

The teacher was good at distracting her - and I pointed out a new friend she might make ( a boy she told me later was her new friend).  She left with about 10 others while the rest of us sat nervously in the room filling out forms that asked when our child first learned to sit-up (don't remember), crawl (8 1/2 months), walk (11 months), string three words together (no idea - no am I sure what counts as "words"), what make him/her happy, sad, angry.  What can he/she do, what does she do when she doesn't get what she wants (cries), what's her personality strengths (helper, big sister, willing, brave, creative) and weaknesses (usually wants the toy someone else is playing with, cries over big and small - and has a hard time recovering from the small sometimes).    And so on.  I'm not sure how well I answered - and the questions made me more conscious of what Tomris actually is doing in these situations - because I couldn't be so sure whether she had a pattern.  She seems still a bit unpredictable.  Kind of like her car sickness... I probably should have mentioned that.

She came out happy though - she couldn't remember what they did, but I felt proud along with the other grinning and proud parents .... even the ones with the kid that cried.  He probably won't get in.