High noon at Pessac

I met with the headmistress today to talk about Catrin. While waiting I read my psalm for today. It was 121.

A song of ascents.
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD watches over you
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will keep you from all harm
he will watch over your life;
8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

I read it in French (though not aloud, I confess) and I was intrigued by verse 3:

Il te gardera des faux pas, ton gardien ne dormira pas. (Semeur)

Nid yw'n gadael i'th droed lithro, ac nid yw dy geidwad yn cysgu. (BCN)

It's very easy to make a faux-pas! So although it's probably not the best translation ever, I was encouraged to hope that God would keep me from faux-pas.

Anyway, the head feels that Catrin is sad (true) and that she needs some extra help in settling into French (true). We talked about it a bit, and the plan is that she will spend some time each morning with the head, with very discrete achievable goals to reach each day (a vocabulary list) and that we will also work on the list with her at home.

We didn't discuss the negative reinforcement thing much (though I mentioned how shaken I had been when her teachers had told her she would never speak French).

I'm happy with the outcome. After all, which is more important? Reforming the French school or helping Catrin to master the language?

Yes - absolutely. Catrin comes first.

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