Teaching - secondhand

Charles has some great teaching stories.  It is hard to sum up all that the English teachers go through here.  I am not sure I can do it.  But it seems that the New South Wales curriculum that the Emiratis bought is not appropriate for the students - it assumes a really high standard of English.  So that is a problem.   The administration expects it all to look good, but the principal is not even around and has never taught himself, and does not support the teachers in the curriculum. After a month of school, Charles still does not have an accurate class list, students just don't turn up, they wander, there are fights sometimes.  It sounds difficult. 

So, because this culture apparently is about appearances and influence, Charles and his colleagues are doing their best to teach in this contradictory situation.  Tonight, Charles is going again to a camel farm with some of his students, who invited him, hoping to make some better relationships with the students. So I think he will hang around, ride camels and eat.  Charles and his colleagues are also holding a "majlis" or meeting with coffee at a local coffee shop (which happens to be owned by the Minister of Education) for the fathers of the students.  They can talk about the curriculum, but it is really about hospitality and knowing the fathers, and looking like you are reaching out to the community.  In the West, we'd have a curriculum night and share knowledge.  Here it sounds like it is about relationships.  Hopefully it goes well. 

Another time, Charles had a student whose grandfather knew Wilfred Thesiger, Mubarak bin London, who crossed the desert with the bedouin and who is famous.  The grandfather apparently refused to meet Charles because he is English and who left the mess in Israel.  Another student told Charles, "Americans, big white heart.  British, heart of a fox."  So being American is a bit of step up here, for a change. 

This is the majlis cafe where the fathers are to meet:


UPDATE:  The majlis got cancelled by the school administration.  No one is sure why - trying to get too close to the fathers, trying to improve one's job was not approved of, considered interfering.  No explanation.  Disappointing.

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