So, we started school again last week. This was a ‘good’ thing, ‘good’ as in the way that going to the Dentist is good for you. It begs to a higher purpose, the supposed “greater” good, things which are ‘good’ for you. It’s generally better, in my estimation, to be busy and purposeful than to be allowed to stew in your own existential juices. It just happens to bring with several aneurysms worth of struggle, conflict and Kafka-esque, eyebrow-pitched stresses. Allow me to cite a few:
They got rid of my 5th grade “co-teacher” who barely ever bothered to show up and mostly slept when she did. But they replaced her with a woman who speaks not a word of English and looks to be about 8 months pregnant. This puts me right about back where we started from, which is fine.
The 3rd Grade got a new curriculum. Good! But we didn’t have any books. Bad! They actually asked me, with a straight face, to teach the new curriculum without ever having seen the book. Wrap your head around that. This is what they said to me. They wanted me to tap into the great, shared celestial consciousness of man and somehow divine the contents of the text. My co-teacher eventually just went out and bought a copy of the book from some unnamed text book depot, which gave rise to a new quandary: The teacher’s edition of the English textbook is, front to back, in Korean.
When the kids arrived for the first day of 3rd grade instruction they all had books. I asked about this after class and no one knew where they’d gotten them from. I pushed a bit and they made some phone calls and found out that the books had been delivered 2 days prior, but no one had bothered to tell anyone. There’s a very common complaint among English teachers here that no one ever tells them anything. I’m starting to realize that the problem is not exclusive to us. It’s like an episode of LOST- No one tells anyone else anything ever, no matter how important it may be.
It’s largely your ability to just sort of. Take it in stride and say, “Okay! I’m going to teach without a book!” or “You canceled all my classes and didn’t tell me? Okay!” that will 98% determine your happiness in being here.
I’m still working on photos. It’s on my to-do list right after “Lesson plans for 5th and 6th grade, Grade 3 sessions 1 & 2 and all 5 afterschool classes this week”. Busybusy! They also gave me an afterschool class for kids who don’t know the alphabet yet. It will be, charitably, amusing.
