Today was a pretty miserable day. We had a meeting at 4:00, but good, I thought, Sophia will be in dance. I even reminded her before I went to the meeting. At the meeting, both the principal and vice principal were there. Usually it's just the v.p. It's an English-language-teachers meeting; the Kazakh teachers have their own meetings, which make sense since those are conducted in Russian (or perhaps Kazakh).
So: Christie asked about duty. She has duty on the first floor. Just one person to monitor the entire first floor during every break. The first floor consists of two hallways and the large front lobby. It is also where the first and second grade classrooms are. It is where the children run wild, screaming at the tops of their lungs, wrestling, during every break. And one teacher to watch them.
So Christie requested that there be two people on duty on the first floor! But we don't want to add to teachers' workload. I suggested that since the break is like their recess, then the assistants should be in charge of the class. But they are, I was told. But they can't watch every child, since some children are running down the hall, some are in the classroom, etc. I said that when I was a classroom teacher, and I took my kids to recess, I had rules and one was that they had to stay where I could see them! It was a big deal, being able to see all of my children at all times. Very stressful, but very important!
Well, then we got onto rules. I said I didn't know the rules; when I was on duty, if the children are running around and chasing each other, should I say something? The principal said that the kids knew the rules, and yes I should enforce them! I basically looked like an idiot for asking. Then, the v.p. said that the kids are not supposed to run in the hallway. He was sitting right next to the principal who said NOTHING! After I had (earlier) complained to him about the kids running in the hallway during break and his response to me was that this was their break and they don't get to go outside because it's too cold and kids will be kids. Now I looked like an idiot for not knowing that the kids weren't supposed to run in the halls. I was mad, but held my tongue.
Then I said how in the US, before going in the hall, to recess, etc, I would always give the rules--every day, and repeat them. Children need to know what the rules are, they need to be repeated. Children forget, repetition is important.
So Christie said that she gave the kids rules and her students knew them, and the principal said of course I could make my own rules, why hadn't I done that? Again, I looked like an idiot who didn't think to create my own rules. Well, when I arrived, the kids were running wild, and I am rarely in my classroom. I can create rules for the short time that I am with them--and I do--but if I am not in the hall to enforce my rules, and no one else does, well, then the kids will learn pretty quickly to ignore me (which they would anyways, not understanding me).
On to another topic, they said that a Kazakh national holiday is coming up, and we would have Wednesday and Thursday, 16 and 17 December, off. But the government had yet to decide if we would get Friday off. If we did, then the government would declare that that coming Sunday would be "switched" if you will, with Friday and be a regular work day. We would have school on a Sunday!
Oh! But let's make this worse. Earlier I had gone into the principal and asked for Christmas Day off, and said that the other teachers, being Catholic, wanted it off too. A week later he had called me into his office and told me that he had given it some thought, and, yes, we could have Christmas off. Overjoyed, I went and told the other teachers, who were extremely grateful.
Well, apparently he had given it some more thought, and the v.p. said that they had learned that the English language Mass is in the afternoon and so we would be allowed to leave after 6th period, around 2:30 pm.
This was too much. "I'm not working on Christmas and I'm not working on a Sunday either," I said. I sounded pretty stubborn, but goodness, I had never thought I'd have to make this point! You might as well ask me to come in to work at midnight, this is so unheard of!
The other teachers just bowed their heads in obedience while I repeated my statement. Valerie came to my defense and attempted to explain to our principal just how important Christmas is to a child (Sophia) and you can't ask a child to go to school on Christmas Day!!! Gotta love Valerie, she'll be out of the country by then, and here she was taking a stand for me, someone she'd only met about 2 months ago.
The principal finally said that I could have Christmas Day off, the others had to work. Some Christmas this will be. I had already invited them over to my house, to celebrate Christmas, exchange presents, eat food, sing songs, whatnot. By the time they get off work, they'll be exhausted and it will be almost time for church.
Then, after all this, I managed to bring up the RSOL issue--how learners of the Russian language are really just left out and miserable. Got the standard, "We understand this is an issue, yes this is something we need to work on" that we get for a lot of complaints and then nothing happens. Once again, Valerie spoke up and talked about what she'd seen and how she agreed with me. Letting them know it's not just me being a complainer, that this is a serious issue.
After the meeting, I talked to the principal about getting tickets to visit my brother in Germany. I had already asked the dates we'd have off for winter break so that I could get tickets. My bank card here does not work for Internet purchases, and the principal said he would come with me to a travel agency to buy tickets and pay in cash (rather than help me get a card that I can use on the Internet).
Well, after two days of going to pay for Internet in cash, I wasn't in the mood to go out and pay for something in person again. I talked about how in America we can do everything on-line! Well, he said, isn't there an expression in America like "no pain, no gain"? (He didn't use that expression, just one similar to it.) Basically, he was nice about it, but implying that Americans in general and me in particular are lazy. Later I thought of a proper retort: So do you take your kids with you every time you go to pay for something? Who does the cooking and cleaning? It's a whole lot easier doing stuff the long way when you don't have a child in tow, when you have two people sharing duties.
He also talked about the virtue of dependence--interaction with other human beings, realizing that you're not alone in the universe, you can't do everything yourself, you can rely on others. This is all great, and maybe Americans are too independent, but when you have to rely on your super-busy boss with whom you are pissed off in order to buy tickets to Germany, well, it's not so great.
In the end, I think the day was about cultural differences, miscommunication, and mismatched expectations and assumptions. The principal was clueless about Christmas; I hadn't previously stressed the importance of Christmas because I hadn't expected such difficulty in getting it off. The principal was used to a two-parent household and not using the Internet and credit cards so much; I was used to a culture in which single-parent households are able to survive, where you can get by if you have no one to depend on. Etc. Etc. I hope I can take away some lessons from this, and I hope he can too!
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