On Tommy Vaughan's first day at a Prague public primary school, most of the other young students brought the teacher a flower, in keeping with an old Czech tradition. Vaughan, whose British father and German mother weren't aware of the custom, didn't bring anything.

"We didn't have it ingrained in us that that was what were supposed to do," says David Vaughan, his father and a journalist based here in Prague. "Things like: You're meant to have a certain kind of slipper for wearing in the classroom. Of course, we had no idea about that sort of thing. ... As parents, we felt we were on almost as quick a learning curve as Tommy was."

Such are the cultural adventures expatriate parents are in for when they decide to place their children in the Czech public school system. But they're learning fast, it would seem: The trend is gaining momentum with children of elementary school age, with a substantial number of foreign nationals choosing the local state system over the more elite — and far more expensive — international private schools.

More than 41,000 children of non-Czech nationals attended elementary schools, known as basic schools or základní škola, in this country last year, according to the Education Ministry. Officials anticipate a similar number this year.

For many expat parents who reside here long-term, the public schools in fact represent the only option, since international schools may well be out of reach for those without international-level salaries.

"I did look into the international schools but can't afford it," says American Jenn Vala, whose daughter has just entered the fifth grade of a Czech public school. "I decided, with my Czech husband, to send our daughter to Czech school because we were planning on staying here permanently."

The elder Vaughan says economics were also a factor when he and his wife Katrin decided to send their son Tommy to a local Czech-German school in Prague. Technically the school is a private institution, but it remains affordable because it receives a large subsidy from the state.

"I'm on a Czech salary, so we couldn't have dreamed of sending him to an international private school, because it would have been out of the question

financially," he says. "I don't think we would have wanted to anyway. We are settled here and the children were born here. They feel at home here. I wouldn't have seen any reason for wanting to separate the children from the environment they are growing up in."

That view is echoed by Tess Slavíčková, a British communications and media studies lecturer at the University of New York in Prague. "Apart from financial reasons, my Czech husband and I are here long-term so our kids are effectively Czech kids," she says. "There was no question really of sending them to an international school, even if we could afford it. If kids are here long-term, it can be distressing for them to be in a school where their friends leave every couple of years because their parents are only here on short-term placements. Sending them to Czech schools offers them a more stable environment."

Prague-based American consultant Bill Cohn says that he and his Czech wife also sent their two children to a Czech public school, primarily for social reasons. "We wanted to send them to a neighborhood school so that they could make friends in the neighborhood," he says. "So far it's been great in this respect and we've encountered no problems."

One factor that does concern some expat parents is the style of learning their children are exposed to in public schools.

"Generally speaking, the curriculum is quite old-fashioned," says David Vaughan. "They have a fairly traditional idea about teaching the three R's — reading, writing and arithmetic. There's also the traditional way the children learn a very precise sort of handwriting and they are taught a lot of facts and information."

Jenn Vala's also been struck by the somewhat literal style of Czech primary education. "My daughter has had about half a dozen writing assignments in all her four years of school," she says. "There is no creative writing time. It's basically all Czech grammar."

Some parents also find themselves fazed by the way in which the school day is structured. "The kids are out of school at 11:30 and some days at 12:30," says Vala. "Most of the kids in my daughter's class attend the after-school program called družina. It is basically a place for the kids to stay and be supervised until parents can pick them up. There is no tutoring done here or organized sports, just a place for the kids to hang out."

Slavíčková points out, however, that it all depends on the after-school supervisor. Last year, her son had an enthusiastic družinářka, which ensured that he got "to do all kinds of stuff," including theater visits, and didn't just sit around watching television, as did the children of some parents she knows.

Cohn points out that elementary schools are also set up in a way that's quite accommodating for working parents. "You can send them to school as early as 7 in the morning," he says. "After they've done their academic classes in the morning, you know they'll be supervised until you pick them up around 5:30 p.m. And they love being there."

Interaction between parents and teachers is also something that has come as a shock for some parents. "I was surprised by how much parents are supposed to be involved," says Slavíčková. "Things were expected of me that I wasn't aware of. Once, I forgot to sign my son's notebook with his grades one week, and I got a stern note from the school in red pen ticking me off!"

David Vaughan recalls being struck by how his son's teacher reacted when he engaged her in a discussion on what he perceived to be too much focus on the children's grades (they were only 6 years old at the time).

"She was extremely defensive of the system of marking," he says. "I think the idea that the 'teacher knows best' is perhaps something that is deeply ingrained in the Czech education system. Critical feedback is quite often seen as a threat."

Cohn describes parent-teacher consultations as perfunctory. "Happily for us, though, we've had no problem with their schooling, so there's no need for us to go beyond that," he says.

As for academic standards, an issue many of the private schools emphasize strongly, most parents interviewed seem relatively satisfied with Czech elementary schools. But that may be as far as they're prepared to go in the system; many are less convinced of the merits of sending their children to Czech high schools.

"I'm a bit worried about my daughter's chances of getting into a gymnázium," says Jenn Vala. "This is the kind of school that prepares students who will compete to get into very limited spaces at university. I imagine the slots for gymnázia are also limited, which is why they only accept the best test scores."

Cohn thinks that his children's later schooling might be in a different setting. "I believe that universities in the United States offer a greater diversity of choice," he says. "I'd like to give them the opportunity to avail themselves of that type of education at some point."