A letter arrived from the high school today. It was dated August 10, so it should have arrived earlier, but we don’t check the box more than twice a week and they had the wrong number in the address.
Parents don’t like letters from schools. Normally it’s a bill, or there’s a prospect someone may be complaining about something your child has done or not done.
This one was personally addressed, with three hand-written signatures from the deputy principal, a teacher and a faculty co-ordinator.
Oh, oh!
It was actually a good letter, headlined: “Letter of recommendation for Italian from Year 8 to Year 9″.
“Dear Mr & Mrs Gorey, Michael performed very well in Year 8 Italian. He has demonstrated the capability to study a second language. The faculty would like to recommend Michael for Year 9 Italian.”
It’s that time of year, of course, when high school students have to make subject choices.
The choices are fairly limited for Year 9, but they are still significant. Michael asked me to sign off on his subjects earlier this week and I initially refused.
That was because he didn’t include Italian.
I knew it was one of his best subjects. Also, I’ve always appreciated the value of a second language academically and personally, not that I achieved the results I should have myself in that regard.
For Michael it was a direct choice between Italian and music. He has never studied music seriously, but has an ambition to learn the guitar.
I tried persuading him it will help when he’s playing soccer for AC Milan to speak Italian, but he was adamant about music, and I relented.
The letter has given us something to think about.
Today I offered him private guitar lessons if he studies Italian.
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Twitter: delmerw
says:
I only check my box a couple times a week. Mine sits at the end of my front porch and, as we never use the front door, I consider it too much work to walk around the house just to pick up advertisements.
Congratulations to Michael on the letter of recommendation. I think a second language is a good thing to have — even as I acknowledge my attempts at learning a second language produced less-than-spectacular results … which was all my fault. Or, as they say in France “Le fault de moi.”
My eldest is taking guitar lessons and doing a pretty good job. The youngest had guitar lessons for a while too, before deciding he wanted to be a drummer (which he practices, thank God, at my ex’s).