Tips on Children & Italian School System

Many parents have asked me to discuss raising children in Italy and especially the school system. I am by no means an expert on the subject but can just write about what I personally have learned. I have to admit that the thought of placing my childen in school in Italy terrifies me largely because I am not familiar with it. I was born and raised in California and have no idea (aside from what my husband tells me) what schools are like here in Italy.

The system is quite different and is changing as I write this post. With new decrees becoming laws, the Italian school system will be facing new challenges. Right now for instance, elementary school children have multiple teachers for multiple courses. They learn English at 6 years old and many students attend school also on Saturday. It just all seems so different than when I was a student in Los Angeles.

What mostly concerns me is the quality. I have heard good and bad about this so cannot give a judgement. It depends of course on many factors: the school, the child, parents' involvement, the teachers, the materials, the environment, the school system etc. etc.

The single most important piece of advice I can give parents is to get informed and get involved. I found that once I got to know the teachers, the environment, many of my fears vanished. Now I make a point to try to be as involved as possible. When I can, I join parents' committees, take part in meetings or even donate my time in teaching English when I can to both teachers and students. Any involvement is highly appreciated by the school and teachers and I can become acquainted myself with them.

I see many parents who will be making the move to Italy on forums asking for advice, suggestions, feedback. This is great and an invaluable tool. Get to know what it is all about. Information is power. The more information you have, the more you will feel comfortable with your childen attending school in Italy.

Once your children are in school in Italy, do not stop speaking with them in their native language. This is important as you, the parent, in many cases will be the only person giving the child that second language.

I will keep blogging on this subject and pass on to you what I am learning here in Italy.

Schools and Raising Children in Italy

My post on raising children in Italy is really a request for information and experience from those who have raised or are raising children in Italy. I have to say that I am concerned as any parent would be about the education system in Italy. I have heard both good and bad about the public school program and really would love to hear from people on this.

I finally found a site that is devoted to children in Italy...www.italiakids.com and I understand that soon there will be also a forum whereby you can actually meet people in your area of Italy that have children to plan play dates,etc. One thing that I have always been looking for since I have had children is to meet other native English expats with children in my area of Tuscany.

There are so many changes going on right now in public Italian schools. The private sector is very small in Italy and non existent in my area. I have heard that the elementary schools are good while the middle school and high schools do not properly prepare the students for university. I have heard that it is very subjective according to who your teachers are and if you are "simpatico" to the teacher or if the teacher likes you. Yeah but is this so different in the USA??

Changes that are going on right now include introducing the "grembiule" or apron in elementary schools. This is worn in preschool to keep the clothes underneath from getting dirty but also to dissuade against wearing name brands,etc. Most parents are for this change!
The other change for the entire school system is introducing the "maestra unica" or single teacher instead of having many teachers. This would mean laying off thousands and thousands of teachers. There is much controvery over this measure as you can imagine and the first "sciopero" or strike is scheduled for October 30th. Parents and students are both pro and against this. Right now children even at the elementary school level have several teachers for multiple areas of study (math,language,history,etc).

I want to hear from expats regarding the Italian school system, these changes and their experiences!!

Day care and Preschool while Living in Italy

The first day of day care is scary I think for any mom and that is even more the case while living in a foreign country. My oldest son never went to day care and I was happy with that decision looking back. Now I have two children and things get more hectic and for many reasons we decided to try out day care for our youngest child.

So the first day of day care was yesterday when I actually waved goodbye, got into my car and left. He was fine with it and as he saw me grab my purse, he happily waved goodbye, said bye and blew me a kiss. His complete sense of being ok with it gave me a sense of “ok I can handle this.”

What did I do? I went straight to the gym which I had not done in a long long time. I felt good really about doing something for ME! Moms and dads, you can totally relate to this I am sure. After four years of doing everything for everyone, days and nights….I feel the need to do now for me! So that means going back to the gym, finding work I can do from home, and devoting some time to me!

After running a whole bunch of errands, I quickly went back to get my little angel. The teacher happily told me all went well and that tomorrow (today) we will try having him have lunch at school and see how it goes. He is a pretty independent guy who loves to eat so I am sure all will go fine. In the back of my head though I know and told my husband that if I am not totally content with this arrangement I will put off putting him in day care.

My oldest son went back to preschool for his second year and really enjoys it. He has made a lot of friends that he talks about and he is fitting in nicely. He is bilingual and knows now that his Italian friends and teachers do not speak Italian. He proudly says though that he speaks English too! If there are any parents out there that can tell me how the bilingual thing is going for their children, I would love to hear from you. I will devote a future post to it too.

I have to admit that the whole school system out here frightens me mainly because I am not familiar with it. I have heard so many negative things about it that I am seriously considering to home school them. Any thoughts and comments from you guys out there I would appreciate too. Education is so important and like any parent, I just want the best for them.

With that said, I have to go pick up the youngest and see how his second day of school went!Ciao.