Did I write last night that we didn't end up going to the house? That I staid here until after 8pm and they decided the father had to work late so I have to go today. I really don't want to go now. The whole thing is making me angrier and angrier. If the parents saw what our jobs actually involved they would shit themselves and run the other direction. How many fights did I break up yesterday? How many of those kids started yelling, "It hurts! It hurts!" When I put my hand on their shoulder to lead them away. The answer to the last question is '2' by the way. The first question? I forget. So the parents would like me to do my job, without being able to do my job. It is the old Japanese teacher's refrain, and now I am starting to believe it. It is like asking me to make an omelet and telling me that they are allergic to eggs and afraid of heat.
=I was interrupted in this train of thought by a student saying that any teacher needed to come to 1-3. I went. Kids were running in and out and no one would participate in class. I grabbed Nishiguchi by the arm and took him outside and said to make a choice about whether he would do class or not. If not he should get out. He listened for about 5 seconds, then ran back in the class saying that I was "The violent teacher." Thanks Yoshida family, for making our job that much tougher. Makino, the little asshole kept yelling at me that it had nothing to do with me. As usual. He then started yelling that I couldn't understand what he was saying anyway. Nice little racism in the middle of my day. =
I am thrown off now. Will come back to it later. Yoshida's family is now saying that his leg is broken. Broken from an earlier injury. I am sure they will yell at me some more. Great. You have to wipe their kids asses and then be yelled at by the parents.
Update: I will just add to this instead of starting a new thread. It is 10 til 7 and I am still here. The only good part about this is that every other teacher says, "You are right." The 2nd year classes were terrible today. Ozaki Sensei, their usual teacher, isn't here so they think it is a liscense to do anything. Despite the recent troubles I drug one kid down the hall and pressed him against the wall and told him to not come to class if he couldn't act like a human being. The inability of kids here to have an actual talk. To be able to speak honestly and listen with out laughing or squirming or yelling back should be the subject of a study. It is really odd. I still don't know what is expected of me tonight. I won't apologize to Daichi and the farthest I will go with his parents is to say that it is unfortunate that he is injured. But if he was injured, why was he kicking someone? Does it makes sense. I expect to be yelled at, but I have a certain point were I extract myself from conversations like that. How do you do that at a stranger's house? I am hoping the principal will bail me out. Everyone's advice seems to be "Say you can't speak Japanese!" I might take them up on it this time. Inoue said I should just keep bowing my head saying, "You are horrible parents. I want to kick your son." And then leave.
How do you explain to people who aren't teachers what this job invovles? I guess the majority of people I know are or have been teachers so I forget that there are people who have no concept of what our job is. Do they know that my day involved wrapping up a 1st years injured hand and doing it up like a boxer's so I could get him to laugh and cheer up a little and that 2 hours later I was having to drag him out of class and tell him to behave while his friend is yelling, "I'm going to kill you." How do you make them understand that you watch kids behave like animals, literally rolling around in their own garbage while other kids are trying to have class. That you try to explain that some people want to try to learn so they should try and be quiet. That you have to do this while a giant, fat, nasty girl runs screaming up and down the hall. That you have to do this in your loudest voice while trying to impart some bit of knowledge. That you have to do this while they are insisting that they can't understand what you are saying and you are so stupid and should speak in Japanese even though you are speaking Japanese anyway. That you have to do this knowing that at the end of the day you will have $300 in the bank, no one to say thank you and parents who want to berate you because their kid has a mysterious leg injury that causes him to kick weak people. How do you do this?
I guess I asked for it.
3 comments:
Somewhere, at sometime along the way superintendents were overwhelmed with a bureaucracy created by the government to deal with the increased school population without increasing the schools. With all the paper work and hoops to jump through the superintendents forgot what their job was about, to help the principals. The principals left to their own devices, left to run schools whose only goal that anyone cared to balance the budget and meet arbitrary standards forgot what their job was to help kids and teachers. So the teachers are left to help the kids learn and to enforce discipline and to be a third, fourth, or fifth parent to the kids because the real parents often fall into two categories, abusive mind#$%ers or they prevent their children from ever touching the ground. So what can the teacher do? Give up, play the game, and cash in the paycheck, and die a little. They can quit or fight on, getting exponentially older and more used up everyday by a thankless system. The system is broken everywhere and all over. I was stuck in a school like this where I was threatened by students and the principal said “we can’t do anything unless they physically hurt you and even then…” I “fought” those kids everyday and did my damnedest to help and I felt I was. But when a slacker teacher who was a total push over had to be removed from the regular classroom because the kids were way out of control under him. What happened? He was moved to a classroom where he taught 3 special needs students all day. I was asked to give my math class and not only teach social studies but to get the class caught up they were only about 4 months behind, we had been in school 5 months. When I asked how long I had to decide, I was told the decision has been made. So I sucked it up and dove in. The math teacher they brought in told the kids the reason for the change was the math I had been teaching them was wrong and they needed to start over, so what few kids I had on my side I lost and after a few weeks of the mess, I left. It was a painful decision, but I saw I was making no progress. So keep asking yourself if the trouble is worth it and when it is not you develop an exit strategy. And that’s the rest of the story.
I can't even begin to talk about my teaching position lest i sound like I'm gloating. So here goes:
My bad day today was a kid who leaned against the wall when he was supposed to be feigning conversation in the party scene of Romeo and Juliet and kids who were acting too excited about us just having two more days of classes.
I told the younger science class this was likely the last class I'd have with them due to rehearsals and the pain in the butt kid from that group stood up and said "Is it okay if we all hug you." without irony. I told him it would be like a crab being devoured by ants (which we had just seen in a nature film.) They hugged me anyway.
I am trying to figure out how to blow off all the parents who want me to go out with them for end-of-the-year celebrations so i can fit in extra D&D with the kids who are leaving town and want to play a couple more times before sunday. yes, Dungeons and Dragons. No, I'm not embarrassed.
We have some issues, but overall, I'm glad to be back in mexico. I have to be band-aid man and cook for the whole school every day and the other teachers dump their discipline problems on me and theres some stress, but overall, reading your posts makes me feel great for me, best i can say for you is that you can write a good book about it, maybe not in the frank conroy "the river is wide" vein, but hopefully something sedaris-like.
Get out while you still can.
I appreciate you guys' experience and support. I was really lucky last year to work at Mikuni. This is just another facet of the whole package. I think that it is making me a much better teacher and stronger in some respects. At Mikuni I really never had to deal with the bad sides of people. I am also lucky in that there are some very good teachers here and they are on my side and have taken the time over the last few days to tell me that there is no question that I am right and everybody knows it. I am also fortunate to work with Inoue sensei as we ar eboth dedicated to making the school better and enjoy seeing the small improvements.
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