"Just threaten to take her chocolate. That usually gets her."

DATELINE: 01.04.09 PARIS, FRANCE

Seriously?? Seriously.

Today I had my first session of teaching English, and generally tutoring, a 4 yr old.  Yes, that's right.  A 4 yr old.  Does anybody else find it a little disconcerting that someone might see reason to hire a *tutor* for someone who has yet to reach school age? 

The complaint is apparently partially on the part of the school.  Yes, school.  At age 4.  I have no objections to young children in school-like early education programs, but that is not the case here.  This wee little gal is in actual school - equivalent to what we in the states would consider kindergarten.  And what is expected of her is about kindergarten/first grade level.  The school has complained that her English isn't very good, clearly French was her first language, and that she "has trouble with her letters" - i.e. she can't write them and can't quite keep them straight.  Ok. Um, she's *4*. 

Honestly, how many 4yr olds do you know who can write there own names and say the whole alphabet?  At 4 yrs old, I still expect to see names or words where half the letters are squiggles that only vaguely resemble letters and the other half are backwards.  At 4 I would expect that a precocious child can sing the whole alphabet song and recognize all the letters.  But I would not find it concerning if they couldn't.  I'm not a teacher, nor am I a parent so I don't really know, but to me that just seems a bit unreasonable.  

So I've been hired to help this young gal, we'll call her Princess, learn to recognize her written name, learn her alphabet, and learn her English.  Well, over the course of the slightly more than 1 hr that I worked with her I concluded that her issues were not so much in the knowledge department.  She recognized her written name, she was just bent on that it's not spelled that way.  At the end of the hour she was willing to concede that maybe all of those letters did belong in her name, but not in that order.  

I also concluded that her issues were more in the behavior department then in the intelligence department.  At one point as she was testing my limits and refusing to sit in her chair, her sister came in and told her "If you don't go with Rachel, I am going to give her all of your chocolate."  At which point Princess promptly (but not without a screech -NO!  Not my crack!! -and some pouting) returned to her chair.  It was all I could do to not let my eyes pop out of my head.  At 4 yrs old the major tool used to garner this child's cooperation is candy.  

I'm sorry.. are you _sure_ you're not American?  

I'm just going to venture a guess here, but I suspect this child's behavioral issues may be due at least in part to the level of sugar in her bloodstream.