Scuola: Registering

The boys' school.

Our main goal for our boys while in Italy is for them to learn Italian. As such, Italian public school was our first choice (also, international/English schools are pricy). We did some research on the Italian public schools, and found that public schools in Italy are 'school of choice'. That means that it is not mandatory for you to attend your neighborhood school, but if you don't, you need to find a school that has space and will enroll you. So we had some work to do.

In the fall, Dave wrote to the director of the schools in Padova to ask about the enrollment process. They seemed very confused as to why he would be asking months before we arrived, but said that yes, it would be no problem for them to attend school here. We just had to make sure that the school we wanted to enroll in had room for them. Dave emailed a few different schools, and San Camillo replied that yes, they would love to have the boys attend. They were definitely the most communicative about what documents we would need and what the school hours would be.



We arrived in Padova over the weekend, and took a few days to get settled into the apartment. On Monday after the holiday break, we ventured out to find San Camillo. When we arrived around 10:00 a.m. (finding our way on the bus), the office staff let us know that we could return at 11:15, when the secretary and principal would be available to meet with us. So we went grocery shopping and took a walk around the neighborhood.

We met with a woman who I assumed was the principal when we got back to the school. (Now I am pretty sure that she isn't.) All four of us joined her in her office to explain that we were looking for a school for the boys and that we had been in contact with San Camillo. At first, she told us that Ethan's class had room for him, but Ben would need to find another school. My Italian was so poor that I thought she was saying that he needed to go to the middle school, so I gave her a very, very confused look. After seeing my face, she took another look at the class list, which had 24 students on it already. She then looked at the boys' report cards, and after remarking that they are good students, came to the conclusion that she could, in fact, let Ben enroll. The boys were seated on either side of Dave and I. Hopefully that helped- I can only imagine that her response would have been different if they had been next to each other and messing around.

Both schools we have been inside of
have the teacher's work area in
the front hallway.

With permission for them to start school on Wednesday, all that was left was to fill out the enrollment paperwork. The secretary was very helpful, explaining a few parts of the paperwork before leaving us to it.

Leaving us to it.

It was more than a bit of a struggle, compounded by the fact that our children, while angelic during the meeting with the maybe-principal, were pretty tired of waiting around. I had to stop every 15 seconds to separate them or point out that they would have to go to the full-time school if they kept hitting each other, because this school would revoke their acceptance. Did I mention that we had a lot of trouble with internet reception during our first days in Padova as well? Google Translate was not available to help me figure out what to put in each blank. Even things as simple as writing our address were tough for us.

The secretary returned and offered help a few more times, but we were too proud to admit we needed it. He also spoke really fast, and didn't slow down for us at all, so we thought we were better off on our own. We were relieved to find that Catholic education is something that students opt into. While we would not have had a problem with the boys taking part in their religious education classes, it seemed like a recipe for disaster to have them learning something without any background knowledge.

After at least half an hour, the paperwork was finished and we brought it to the window, where we were promptly informed that Dave had filled in the boxes completely instead of just marking an 'x', so we would have to recopy all of his pages. I only started following his lead on the last page, so I only had to recopy the last one.

Part of the reason I am so grateful for this time in Italy is because of experiences just like this. In my real-life job as an EL (English Learner) teacher, a big part of my role is to help families navigate these sorts of processes in a new country. Firsthand knowledge of exactly what types of tasks are obstacles will be invaluable to me upon my return to work next year. Also, man... while I am generally a very empathetic person, I would not have guessed that two hours could be so emotionally exhausting.