School or Scuola?
What to Do When Relocating to Rome with
Kids
As an American mother of two and Rome resident since
2010, new and imminent arrivals often solicit my advice about local schools as
they anxiously research educational options. While I don’t claim to be an
authority on the subject, I can lay claim to a modicum of expertise based on my
childrens’ age (7 and 6), our neighborhood (Gianicolo/Trastevere/Monteverde
Vecchio), direct and indirect experience, anecdotal evidence and a
statistically relevant amount of hearsay. So in the interests of helping
bewildered, overwrought newcomers make the best decision for their family (and
saving myself the trouble of copying/pasting/personalizing the same email over
and over) I herewith offer my admittedly limited insights.
Among your considerations should be the age of your
children and the length of your proposed stay as well as cost and convenience.
Our kids were just starting primary school when we
arrived and instilling an appreciation of Italian was paramount to our 12-24
month relocation plan, so my husband and I were set on a scuola Italiana. Our quandary was whether to go public or private.
Soon after initiating research, a general consensus emerged among both
Italian and non-Italian parents we spoke with that, unfortunately, the public
schools here no longer enjoy the stellar reputation they once enjoyed -- many
in fact are so drained of funds that they can't even provide toilet paper in
the restrooms. We ultimately chose the private route once learning that long
wait lists were the rule at Rome’s best-regarded public schools and that a private
Waldorf-inspired option was within walking distance that cost half as much as
my son’s daycare in California. We also thought it would help ease their
transition abroad since our daughter had attended a Waldorf kindergarten (and
honestly, leaving their beloved tabby cat to start at a new school in a new
language is one thing, but making them pack their own toilet paper each day is
quite another).
Happily, Arcobaleno was the right choice: the
teachers were super, our kids made friends quickly and they began speaking Italian
confidently and embellishing their frequent outbursts with expressive hand
gestures after only six months. Unfortunately, our Waldorfian paradise was
forced to move across town over the summer so we were faced with a difficult decision:
run the gauntlet of Roman traffic by driving to the school’s new far-flung,
sidewalk-lacking location to double park twice daily or transfer to the local
Catholic school 12 minutes away by foot and near my favorite no-name forno, a sprawling outdoor mercato and my go-to cheese guy. As Americans
who relish our new pedestrian lifestyle and recoil at the thought of willingly
raising our blood pressure four times daily by getting behind the wheel at rush
hour, and as non-religious former Catholics forswearing religious education for
our offspring early on, this wasn't an easy choice for us. Ultimately we opted
for proximity over ideology and signed up at Istituto Sant’Ivo. It's more traditional than what our kids are used to in that they’re
expected to sit longer and do more homework, but an acceptable tradeoff for the
sake of our entire family’s well being and my sanity as their daily chaperone.
We’re satisfied with our decision, but I’m less
thrilled that Italian teachers and parents across the board invariably pretend
they didn’t hear you or look at you with a shocked, uncomfortable expression
and their mouth hanging open like a cat assessing if something’s rancid when
you suggest the possibility of volunteering in the classroom. On the plus side,
our kids have the option to stay until 5 pm and are becoming acquainted with
the theological underpinnings of the Western canon -- to the point that they now
authoritatively fill in the more vivid/bloody details for us when we encounter cautionary
frescoes on cultural forays. My chef
husband most appreciates the fact that they get a three-course hot meal every
day. For me, the icing is they’re actually learning the libretto from Mozart's Don Giovanni in preparation for a
performance this spring. It’s been truly amazing to hear them singing my
favorite opera in Italian at the dinner table and not something I could ever
imagine them doing back in the U.S. (its theme about the exploits and ultimate
fate of an unrepentant sex-addict aside). So amazing in fact that I’m almost considering
softening my stance against the Church for its long rap-sheet of transgressions
– almost. In somma, the school
is well organized, the teachers are firm but loving, there’s only an occasional
bloody crucifix in evidence, I have only seen lay-people on campus and music
and athletics are available on site after school at a discount. A fine solution
for those planning to stay a year or two.
Some other families here at the American Academy in Rome that were stranded by the Waldorf-inflected school with us last year
decided to transfer to Ambrit, a highly regarded private international school where
instruction is in English and more academically rigorous, there’s a
door-to-door school bus, and annual tuition is on par with that of a private
university back home. Kids love it and the field trips sound enviable (i.e.
outings to Pompeii in 5th grade; to Venice in 8th), but parents
consistently remark that the rubric of “the more you pay, the fewer number of
days” applies when it comes to total class time. If you go this route and work
outside the home, be sure to develop a deep roster of on-call babysitters.
We're moving back to California in August, but if we
were staying any longer we'd most likely consider making the commute to Scuola Janua, one of
Rome’s more traditional Waldorf-method schools slated to move out somewhere
near E.U.R. Even though it's future location remains uncertain, the overall emphasis
on art and music is right up our alley and a great way to learn/reinforce a
language. Plus, the quality of baked goods at all those inevitable classmate
parties promises to be above average given the pervasive philosophical preference
for handmade over commercial. We also have Canadian friends who send their son there
and really like it.
The decision is of course a very personal one, but I
would be confident that the younger the child the easier it will be for her/him
to adjust to Italian school and pick up the language quickly. If anything, I
think we parents often prove to be the less flexible ones. The memory of our summer
vacation stands out as a case in point. We spent a week on an Austrian farm
with some French- and German-speaking families, and thanks to the onsite
trampoline and my son's Lego® collection, the kids soon found a way to
communicate and became fast friends; we parents followed their lead and were
thereafter sharing sausages, beer and hiking recommendations. By week’s end the
kids were sad to leave, but we had standing invitations to Belgium and southern
France and my son was actually speaking some German.
Reasons to Consider an Italian-language School:
- Your kids are 8
years of age or younger;
- You value
multilingualism (your kids will pick up Italian rapidly and begin speaking and
helping you argue with bureaucrats after only 6 months);
- You will get to
meet real Romans and have plenty of opportunities to improve your Italian;
- You prefer that
your bambini hum/sing opera arias before bed instead of “Little Rabbit Foo Foo” or
anything by Hannah Montana;
- More
soccer/football than rugby;
- If it doesn’t
prove the right fit, you can always transfer.
Reasons to Consider an English-language School:
- Your kids are 9
years of age or older;
- Your kids will
prepare for British system exams which commence in grade 5;
- You will get to
meet other English-speaking ex-pats who work at FAO, IFAD and the World Food Program;
- If you’re
American, you’d like to increase your child’s chances of picking up a plummy British
accent;
-
More rugby than
soccer/football;
- You value
computer literacy at a young age (and could really use help creating decent
PowerPoint slides for your next presentation at work);
-
You're in Rome for less than a year, don’t speak
Italian and aren’t planning to learn it beyond differentiating basic pasta
shapes when eating out.
Reasons to Consider Public v. Private School:
- Your kids are used to supplying their own toilet paper;
- Organic lunches
are mandated by the state;
- You will
inevitably improve your Italian and encounter fewer English-speaking expats;
- You want to experience
Rome beyond the postcards and Woody Allen’s new movie;
- You already
think your kids are too coddled and desire to “toughen them up” by experiencing
an overcrowded/underfunded urban school;
- You need first-hand
anecdotes for the book you are currently researching on how state educational
systems everywhere are in decline.
Bottom line: If you like the idea of your child
becoming bilingual and increasing your own opportunities for meeting locals and
speaking/learning Italian, choose an Italian school. You could always transfer to
an English language institution if it doesn't work out. (In fact, many parents
who send their kids to an English school from the start
with the aim of facilitating adjustment to life abroad, find themselves regretting not having opted for Italian immersion.) Alternatively, if
your children are older and/or well on their way to preparing for British/American
system exams, an English-language international school might be the better course.
