Tag Archives: Teaching

On My Mind

Travels with Kids

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The dedicated Harry Potter fans out there might remember the bemusing Gilderoy Lockart, author of a series of books about the exploits unsuspecting adventurers that he attributed to his own prowess. One of these books was titled Travels with Trolls and that’s the inspiration for the title of today’s post.

No, I am not traveling with trolls. No, I have not had children since my last post. No, I am not offering advice on how to travel with children because I have no experience in such things.

I am, however, getting ready for a week-long trip to Cambodia with the grade ten class at my school. There are about 90 of us on this trip, and 12 of them are exclusively my responsibility. I have to admit, that’s rather terrifying.

In addition to regular teaching, the grade 10 advisory team has spent the last three weeks collecting medical forms, health insurance forms, trip waiver forms, passport copies, and passport photos. We’ve spent hours sorting out who will be in which room at the hotels and on which flights. Just when we thought we had it all figured out, about 15 new kids joined the school and about half of those want to go on the trip. And the process repeats.

The past two days after school I have gone to the money changer to change literally more money than I have ever held into small US bills so we can pay the $35 per person visa fees at the airport in Cambodia. Note to people who are unfamiliar with visas-on-arrival: Airports require USD in exact change or in very close to exact change. They will happily take your $50 and send you on your way if that’s all you’ve brought with you (and if the airport isn’t busy enough for you to hope for change).

All that aside, I’m really looking forward to the trip. Once we land in Cambodia, a very cool educational tour group is partnering with us and they are responsible for everything related to the itinerary, programming, and experience that the kids will have. Awesome job, right? We’ll be working with social enterprises and NGOs, participating in circus school, taking a cooking class, biking through town to visit local businesses, hiking to a temple, and learning what social activism means. Had I known one could have a job facilitating such experiences, I might have rethought my career!

Dealing with discipline and disruption in the middle of the night, on the other hand? Less fun. Equally necessary. Unsurprisingly, that’s on us teachers. As I’ve told my advisory kids, who have never seen me angry, I am neither happy nor patient in the middle of the night and they’re better off not testing me on that.

Fortunately, after being with kids and on call 24 hours a day for a week, we have two days off for Chinese New Year. I’m spending two nights at home to recuperate and then flying to Bali for two more nights to relax in some peace and quiet. I am also looking forward to that! There are going to be some changes to my career and living situation in 2016 and I’m trying to do as much as I can before that happens.

If you happen to be at the airport here in Singapore on Saturday and you see 90 people in red shirts . . . congratulations, you’ve found us.

Look out for travel photos coming mid-February!

Education, On My Mind

Forward

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On the phone this morning, my mum pointed out that I haven’t blogged in a while. I haven’t written in my journal as often as usual, either. I started thinking about why that might be, and I feel that nothing I have to say is important compared to all of the hate the world is experiencing. My grade 10 students write up current events reports every two weeks, and some of them have already come in.

As the world is aware, it has not been a good two weeks.

My students are genuinely concerned, not just about Paris but also about Nigeria, Lebanon, ISIS, and the debate over refugees in the US. They’re concerned about potential evacuation drills, and they’re concerned about why there’s been so much violence in the world lately. One of them told me, “I wanted to find a current event that’s not about war. But I can’t.”

As I listen to student concerns, look over news articles in class, validate fears, and explain what/who/why ISIS is, I have also come to terms with my own unease. I realized this while journaling just a few minutes ago, and I thought it would be a good time for a post.

What frustrates me, and always has, is hate. Hate is not something I understand, not when it’s directed at a specific group of people (and I mean people, not monsters like ISIS, Boko Haram, or the Nazis). I understand fear, though I don’t always agree with it. However, I don’t understand the underlying racism, the hate, that accompanies fear. How is it that we don’t know better? Where did we, as educators, go wrong? Where did we, as people, as humans, go wrong? I’d expect that if asked, everyone in the people category (again, excluding monsters and their affiliates) would claim to want peace.

But we know that wanting peace isn’t enough. Peace doesn’t happen overnight. Peace needs time. It needs to be built. It needs to be strong so that it lasts.

As a student and a teacher of history, I know that peace is fragile. Peacebuilding itself is fragile. Peace is scary for some, I think, because it means letting go. It means admitting fallacy. It means apologizing when you’re in the wrong, when you’ve hurt others. It means compromise.

The way I see it, peace is the only way forward. And if we can’t build peace as a world right now for whatever reason (and I do understand the obstacles) maybe we can start by building peace within and among ourselves. We do that with children. We say things like, “Two wrongs don’t make a right!” (And we smile indulgently when cheeky kids respond with, “But two negatives make a positive!”) We tell children that “hands are not for hitting” and that it’s important to be nice to our friends. Sharing is caring, right? We teach children that everyone is unique and we teach the acceptance of difference. We teach about different cultures, different customs, and the importance of the Golden Rule. We teach friendship and respect and fairness and trustworthiness. We teach about taking risks and about trying again. We teach about perspectives and beliefs and opinions. We teach about hope for the future.

We teach children how to stop, listen, reflect, apologize, shake hands, and move forward. We teach children how to live.

As an educator, I am not in a position to negotiate world peace, and I do not envy those who are. But I do believe that it the responsibility of every person to create a better world. I became a teacher because I firmly believe that every person can play a role in doing so. In my classroom, we build peace. We communicate. We debate. We reflect. We listen and respond to one another as people, regardless of our differences. We highlight those differences to understand them, and we ask questions when we are uncertain. In my classroom, my students are safe. They are learning how to create a peaceful environment, and what it means to be a member of a community.

It is those lessons that I believe the world needs. Bombs aren’t going to stop us from hurting.

Peace, even in the smallest of ways, is our way forward.

On My Mind, Singapore

Liars, Thieves, and the Future

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My landlord is stealing from me.

I won’t bore you with the details, but there’s a repair to my air-conditioning that my landlord wants me to do. She also wants me to pay for it. This repair has been recommended by the air-conditioning company since 2013; I don’t know why no one has taken care of it before now. After first telling me she would pay for the repair in full, my landlord has now threatened to evict me if I don’t pay.

As there is no rental board in Singapore, which is actually quite surprising, my hands are tied.

We’re not talking about a lot of money, but we’re talking about enough money that I had to cancel travel plans for this weekend because I simply can’t do both.

What bothers me the most is that this landlord’s word is clearly worth nothing. It is worth nothing to her, and therefore is worth nothing to anyone else. I have it in writing that she promised to pay for this repair in full; in the US, that would be the end of the dispute. Apparently, that is not the case here. I’m irritated because I have done nothing wrong. I’m disgusted because she lied to me. I’m angry because part of the lease agreement stipulates that maintenance will be done before a tenant moves in.

This clearly did not happen.

But I’m also frustrated, because I know she’s stealing from me, she knows she’s stealing from me, and now we have to have a business relationship for the duration of my lease. Where does that leave me?

Ultimately, I’m sad because I believe in the goodness of people. I believe in doing the right thing. When I told my landlord that the air-conditioning company recommended this repair after they came for a routine check (weird law in Singapore), I was doing the right thing.

In books and movies, the good guy wins. We teach children that good triumphs over evil. However, the more time I spend in this world as an adult, the more I read the news, the more I try to help my students understand all the wrong in the world, the more I am afraid that good will not triumph over evil in the end.

And then where will we be?