So I guess fighting is acceptable in Portuguese public schools. Pippa, my precocious first grader, comes home daily with tales of intense beat downs. I am not talking about small cat fights in the playground. No…what she describes and what I have witnessed when picking her up… have been full out nasty brawls. Punching so much that the teacher ends up putting one of the kids in a headlock. Pippa is unfazed by the fights. How is this possible? She, thankfully, lives in her own world. She sees them, but keeps her distance and just thinks they are cray-cray. Let’s hope it stays that way!