Derek Neary
Northern News Services

FORT SIMPSON (May 14/99) - For many of us, it's one of life's most agonizing moments.

A job interview where a prospective employer wants to know our strengths and weaknesses, our work history and how we would respond in a hypothetical situation.

More than a dozen future kindergarten students were subjected to what was likely their first interview on Friday. The majority of them didn't sweat it out. Of course, the subject matter broached was slightly different from a job interview. The material covered in the 10-minute evaluation included counting blocks, naming colours, copying shapes, matching words with pictures and recounting their birthdays.

It's known as the "Brigance Test," and for the past several years it has been a tool in determining the developmental level of children who are about to enter kindergarten at Bompas School. Principal Terry Jaffray said Bompas staff can thereby prepare programming to accommodate the varying needs of the kindergarten students who will be starting the new school year in September.

Carnie Williams, program support teacher, acknowledged that the process can be quite intimidating for some of the youngsters. For that reason, they have a parent seated next to them to offer reassurance. As well, Williams opens the interview by acting a little silly and telling the children that they cannot laugh. Invariably, they do.

"Most of them are very excited to be there, so they jumped around a lot," she said. "They particularly liked having to walk on a thin line, heel-toe. I told them those who were good at it could become circus performers and they thought that was kind of funny."

Some children enjoy themselves so much that they weren't about to go home any sooner than they had too.

Clutching a new pencil, activity book and toothbrush, Karmina Cordero was studying the posters and awards on the walls of a school hallway.

"She doesn't want to leave now. She wants to stay in school," said Karmina's mother Betty Lee as she led her towards the door.

Brenda Nirlungayuk said she didn't tell her daughter Victoria about the interview until shortly before they departed home for the school. It seems Victoria is quite anxious to start school.

"She would have bugged me, 'Can we go now? Can we go now?'" said a smiling Nirlungayuk.

For the most part, Williams concentrates on the way the children pronounce their words rather than whether they give the correct answer.

"I expect that he or she does better at home than they do here at this strange place with this strange lady," she said.

On occasion, a child will throw a curve that catches Williams off guard. For instance, she asked one young girl sitting across from her to draw a "whole person." Williams wasn't quite sure what to make of the result until the girl explained it.

"She drew her picture upside down so I'd be able to see it, which I thought was interesting," she said. "I went to turn it around and she goes, 'No, no, no, no! Look at it.' And there was this little stick person with a cute little hat on its head, but I didn't realize she was drawing it from my perspective instead of her own."