First Day of Kindergarten!

Anna Claire went to her first day of kindergarten today. (They start here at age 4.) It was sort of bittersweet for me. I'm so excited for her to begin this new phase of her life. However, I found myself feeling all the stress I felt everytime I went back to school. I thought that phase of my life was over. Am I going to feel stressed again for the next 18 years?

Anyhow, getting Anna Claire into school this year was a major coup. She missed the kindergarten cutoff in Canton Zurich by 8 days. (It's different in every canton.) However, she fell within the alloted 2 month period where parents are allowed to petition to request early admission. I went through the petition process, which included filling out a questionnaire, passing a doctor's exam and going to a meeting where they asked me why I wanted my daughter to be admitted to kindergarten this year. I was told that all they were interested in was her size and motor skills -- and she passed these exams with flying colors. (If your child is a genius, that doesn't matter.) Anyhow, I received a letter informing me that Anna's petition was denied, but giving me no reasons for her denial. Well, being the feisty American that I am, I was not going to accept no without an explanation.

I returned to the school office, this time with a translator, so that I could make myself very clear. When I asked them why she was denied, despite her good doctor's exam, they hummed and haahed and didn't really respond. Then I asked them if any Swiss children born in May were denied. Well, the answer to this was no -- only foreigners had been denied. They had clearly denied my daughter because she was a foreigner and they assumed she couldn't speak Swiss German. Well, I told them what I thought of that -- "This is dicrimination against foreigners." "You never even evaluated her Swiss German, you just assumed that she understands nothing because she is foreign, and ignored the fact that she has been attending a Swiss German pre-school. Moreover, nothing in your regulations says anything about required language abilities." And finally, "We pay just as much tax as everyone else in this town and we deserve equal treatment." (A little play on the American 'no taxation without representation.')

Well, most likely due to the shock that someone actually dared question their decision (which most Swiss would never do), the school officials finally gave in and agreed to re-examine Anna's case. The compromise is that Anna gets to go to school on a 6-week trial basis. I'm crossing my fingers that everything will work out well.

The moral of the story is that one should never underestimate a feisty American. We don't just sit back and let things happen -- we fight for our rights. That's why people either love us or hate us.

Ciao for now.