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Will Loudner |
Cowboy Will Loudner is a horse rancher from Oklahoma and author of the book "It Couldn't Have Happened to a Nicer Guy". Aside from horses and writing, he's also pretty keen on Russia... |
| Will Loudner takes a novel stance on the question of relations between teacher and school. Who's screwing who these days? | ||
Biting the hand that feeds you
Over the last year I have read several articles and forums about what to watch out for from the schools and how not to let them take advantage of you as a teacher. Not to let them work you more hours than you originally agreed, not to let them bully you about visas and several other issues. All of which is good food for thought and good advice, but where do you draw the line? Can these articles give you too much advice? Is there a point where you should stop worrying about getting the short end of the stick and just see what happens? Too paranoid too fast may hurt you as much as help you.
While on my first trip to Oktyabrsky I hadn't really read all the stories about what to watch out for, but I had seen a few. Though once I found that I had nothing to worry about with the school and the people around me I became very relaxed and had a wonderful experience. On my last trip I got to see a side of things that I had not expected or even considered; Teachers taking advantage of the school and the director. In seeing this I wondered how much of this actually takes place in the teaching industry. I am sure that in the bigger cities there is more of a problem of schools taking advantage than the teachers, but I thought it worth a mention.
When I got there I was amazed to see the boldness of the foreign teachers and their disregard of anyone but themselves. The cases ranged from over drinking and flagrant sexual harassment of female students to simple pushiness and being demanding about personal issues that had nothing to do with the school.
In one case the teacher would show up drunk to classes, single out female students and pursue inappropriate relationships on the premise that he could do anything he wanted as long as it was not on school time. At one point the director even had to bail him out of jail after being arrested. In the other cases I saw a teacher that was so over bearing and demanding that she had the Director of the school doing her laundry for her, inviting herself to use personal items and equipment, as well as requesting that changes be made to her apartment to suit her. When asked to help with a couple of extra classes because of the absence of another teacher she simply said "No, that is not what I agreed to". Due to the kind nature of the Director these things were overlooked so long that they became annoying to everyone including the other teachers.
There are other cases where the teachers never even showed up after receiving their invitation. Though the expense the school has to pay may seem minimal to the people asking for the invitations, they have no idea what is involved for the Director of the school in getting it. Oktyabrsky doesn't have a government office that issues invitations so they must travel to Ufa to get them, one trip to drop off the request and one trip to pick up the invitation. Each is a round trip of 400 km on very bad roads.
Once an invitation is processed for the school they become personally responsible for that individual while they are in the country. Once at the school they become even more responsible for the individuals actions. Though in the big city things may fall through the cracks, any wrongdoings or indiscretions that would involve the local police in a small city or town will make it harder for the school to get more teachers. The local city government is already looking sideways at the school for bringing in foreign teachers and paying them more than local teachers. As a result all invitations to teachers that don't show up are now being cancelled. It may come as a shock when these people are not let into the country or are ask to leave shortly after getting there because they are not where they are supposed to be.
In order to be fair about what is right and wrong we should not only look at what the school is expected to do, but what the teacher is expected to do. While I was not there as a teacher this time I did get a chance to observe the other teachers and their teaching tactics. I found it very enlightening and useful. I also saw what the school has to deal with from a different perspective. Since I consider the Director to be a close personal friend I had to bite my tongue a few times to keep from saying anything when I saw the teachers' behaviors. I was not there to take care of things for them, though I tried to advise her in what to do on a couple of occasions.
If you stop and think about the differences between the larger cities and the smaller towns you might notice that the people in the small towns haven't really figured out what rights they have. Remember we are dealing with a country that until recently didn't have any rights to begin with. The larger cities are always the first to find their way and get what they want. Things seem to trickle down to the small cities at a slower pace.
The small town experience is what we are all looking for because of the fact that country people treat you differently. Even in the United States the small town atmosphere is much different than the big city. People in the country are nicer, they are more open and they have a completely different outlook on things. They don't look for ways to screw you over the way the big city folks do. So why should we expect anything different from a small town school? And why should the school expect to get screwed? If teachers keep up this type of behavior the schools will follow suit.
So what is expected of the teachers? Should they take the advice of the articles to the point that the school suffers? Should it only be about what they want? Where do the rights of the school come into play? And more importantly, do you ever want to return to that school again? After such behavior they may not want you!
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