Unique Teaching Opportunities
I didn’t really think of myself as a competent or even adequate teacher until after I had completed five years in the classroom. Eventually, I felt more qualified as a teacher when I became a parent because only then could I better appreciate and understand the balance between home and school necessary to achieve a productive level of communication. It was then I had a better perspective of just how home and school should and could work together. I think the final step for me in my self-awareness and personal growth as a teacher, other than continually taking courses and doing professional development, was to have a variety of very unique teaching experiences.
Over the course of my career I have worked in Germany, The Bahamas, Kuwait, China and in Northern Alberta. I’d like to highlight a few of my experiences while working for a decade outside of Canada and how these experiences of travel and exposure to different ways of teaching, in variety of cultures, is challenging and invogorating and therefore can forge one into being a more adaptable teacher for the effort.
While in Bad Durkheim, Germany at the age of 19 (1969) I was not actually a teacher, but served as a teacher’s aid in a orphanage for children in elementary grades. This experience extending over a year with the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) was also instrumental in helping me decide to become a certified teacher in the first place. It was there that I worked on improving my German and assisting in the classroom.
The boys and girls in attendance had become orphans for many tragic reasons and often their adjustment and rehabilitation progress was initially slow. The intensity created through being with my students 24 hours a day, as I also lived at the orphanage, sped the process. I spent time eating with my young boys, playing out in the school yard, going on short excursions and time spent in their classes and art room all led to incremental gains in their trust. This in turn facilitated sharing stories and opening up to the world and to learning and eventually healing. This process certainly didn’t work for all but it was a positive experience for many and helped me see early in my career trajectory the raw power of education and the role of the teacher in a positive holistic process.
Of course the opportunity for travel was exciting and I made many train and hitch hiking trips throughout Western Europe. My German improved such that when I took my next MCC job on a farm I was able to understand instructions from my farmer-boss such as, “take the tractor to the north field to complete the harrowing then…” I was becoming both pig farmer and potential teacher rapidly.
After returning home, working, saving money, getting a degree at Laurier I was employed by the York Board of Education that within a year declared me redundant. I frantically found myself looking for another job. Canada had a surplus of teachers at that time; so I looked elsewhere and landed in Nassau, Bahamas. There were worse places. The Anglican Central Education Authority hired me to teach A and O level Geography under the British system of education. I was thrilled.
The old school we were originally housed in, including the staffroom, actually looked like a jungle prison of war camp. As staff we were all so relieved and happy when with Canadian funding and loans we moved into the new school building in a suburban location.
It truly was “Better in the Bahamas” as the tourist brochuresstate. I ate hottie patties, basked in the sun, owned a Doberman for protection (I was robbed three times) learned to scuba dive and could buy rum cheaper than coca-cola. Life was good.
At St John’s College where I taught, there was a formal method by which students began each class. Students entered their classroom before the teachers did and waited quietly and patiently for their arrival. When the teacher entered the classroom all students stood and greeted the teacher, then only sat on the teacher’s direction. As a young teacher, from Canada, such a greeting was overwhelming at first.
Our headmaster had the annoying tendency, as he was also a bishop, to sternly preach during student assemblies about the various misdeeds and sins students had committed since the last assembly. During these long tirades the students stood like little soldiers in long straight rows, wearing their grey and green freshly washed uniforms under the bright Bahamian morning sun. Generally, our headmaster spoke until the first of the form 1 (grade 9) students fainted and only then would he quickly make his concluding statements, bless us, “In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.”
The Btitish curriculum was strict and closely adhered to. There was little flexibility, my department head insisted on very strict adherence to the curriculum. Any flair of creativity from teachers was not generally encouraged. It was the first time I realized that as curriculum is important, its creativeinterpretation by an enthusiastic and passionate teacher is what brings it to life. Unfortunately here as in China and the Middle East rote learning and rigid adherence to a curriculum generally takes much of the joy and spontineity from learning.
Inshallah: Teaching In Kuwait
My introduction to the desert climate of Kuwait occurred when I left the air conditioned airport to an August night time temperature of 44 degrees Celsius. My wife, Cheryl, and I had just gotten off a direct 14 hour flight from Dulles in Washington. Teaching in Kuwait definitely posses a unique set of challenges. Ironically, as a Canadian, I taught American History to Kuwaiti Special Education students as part of an ESL program. Although liberal Kuwaitis wish to westernize as rapidly as possible more conservative elements within society also pull in the opposite direction. For example, the more extreme view, held by Bedouin members of parliament would see music classes removed from the public school curriculum as they consider music and dance an offence to the purity of Islam, while the more liberal parents want to see their children enrolled in European and American universities and colleges.
Another issue on the conservative agenda, enough to make the Western teacher wary is that of government censorship. In my class and situated on the wall under the picture of the Emir and the Crown Prince hang two pages of censorship guidelines that must be followed. The texts, novels and videos that I usedhave all been stamped to indicate that they have been examined, censored and approved by the Ministry of Education.
My texts came from the United States and loosely follow their curriculums. Within the texts and on several pages names and places have been blacked out. The Persian Gulf, for example, is now the Arabian Gulf, much like how the Gulf of Mexico is theoretically the Gulf of America! Any reference to Israel (Occupied Palestine) has been removed, although the holocaust happened I could only reference it if I showedhistorical balance by talking about other genocides such as in Rwanda, Cambodia or the former Yugoslavia. There can be no allegations that Muslims persecuted Christians or Jews, no reference to pork or alcohol products, human intimacy, homosexuality or evolution, besides not making any negative comments about the government or Islam, one is free to speak as his conscience moves him. Teachers are cautioned repeatedly to check the guidelines and not to stray from orthodoxy.
Kuwait Culture is not a reading culture, my students at the university where I taught, at my second job, first year students the intricacies of writing academic papers. Among those I tutored in their homes or taught in high school generally do not read for recreation. I had never seen a public library, although I am told they do exist, and then again I had never seen a post office or a Kuwaiti stamp. I have seen many book stores where numerous Sunna and Shia interpretations of the Quran can be found and in audio format for those who prefer not to read. I am told there are Arabic novels that deal with love themes although human sexuality in any genre is a misunderstood and murky area rife with taboos. Marvel comics does publish a series of super-hero comic books entitled the 99 written by a Kuwaitiauthor. The plot lines follow Islamic themes and those are popular among young people. Reading material is not in abundance nor is the propensity to read what is available.
It is difficult to motivate students to learn or work for specific academic goals because in many ways their incredible wealth has become an impediment to lifelong learning and any semblance of a work ethic. Kuwaitis on average work a 20 hour work week with incomes supplemented from oil revenues from the government. There is a high level of entitlement on the part of students and as a result teachers are often hard pressed to give realistic grades because of repercussions from parents who expect certain grades. The culture here is nocturnal, perhaps a tradition born of a desert climate before air conditioning, and as a result many students are too fatigued to work and generally do not do homework. I have come across rampant plagiarism or papers and assignments written by the more literate Filipino nanny’s hand delivered to the school by a student’s family driver. This all before the advent of AI so I fear to think what is happening presently.
From the deserts of Kuwait to the Canadian Shield of northern Alberta in an isolated community accessible only by ice road in the winter…
Fort Chipewyan is a predominantly native community of Cree, Dene and Metis with a population of about 1000 on two reserves on either side of a municipal town site. My school Athabasca Delta Community School is located in the town site and students bus in from the neighbouring reserves. The school itself was built to have a trading fort frontier feel to it. It works.
Native culture here, and likely in most native communities, values the importance of the family. The role of the elders as a source of knowledge and wisdom is recognized and almost revered in native culture. However, I was told by a social worker that although these values are evident there is a significant disconnect between what is valued and what is practiced. I was soon to learn that many families with links to residential schools are severely dysfunctional and native traditions were rapidly eroding.
I quickly grew to admire the public school teachers here and how they survive the ordeals of the every day classroom, their’s is not an easy job. Sadly, some locals still regard teachers as outsiders and criticize them for coming to the community just for the money. Yet, in some cases they do not want native teachers in their classrooms as they feel they are not as qualified or as well trained. I heard one case of an Inuit teacher teaching in a Cree community causing one mother to complain. After several months, and discovering that the Inuit teacher was quite capable, this mother had the good sense to apologize to the principal.
I served as the Special Education Coordinator at the only school in Fort Chipewyan and I worked with most of the coded students, that is those who have been tested for learning disabilities and behavioural issues. Of the approximately 230 students in the school at the time I worked with about forty on a regular basis. As I began working with my students it became very clear that there was very little literacy in their home life in the sense that they were usually not read to nor did they read for recreation. They were after all ”Special Ed” students. But perhaps more significant is the fact that native culture is based on oral traditions and until Europeans gave the Cree a written language there were no written literacy skills.
Sometimes as teachers we got the feeling that we had been forgotten in our northern isolation. It was difficult and costly to get goods and services from the South as this is a fly in community with a winter road open for three months of the year. As a result of high transportation costs and a lack of care or resources the school and teacherages are very poorly maintained.
I entered and won a writing contest promoting the merits of public education sponsored by the Alberta Teachers Associationwhile in Fort Chip. The contest required contestants to describe what it is that is special or unique about their school. The contest operated under the theme of “My Alberta School.” Naturally, I did not focus on test scores. I entitled my piece “Continuous Small Miracles” and wrote about the small, everyday positive occurrences that happened in my school.
My examples dealt with small actions and kindnesses taking place more on a one to one nature between students and teachers. After the contest I eventually concluded that under present circumstances the climate at our school and in this community will not significantly change, nor will our provincial test results, but there will be a multitude of successes on an individual basis based on those teachers and students who despite the odds rise above. These people are special and they are the true success stories, and on that level my school is a great success and those successes speak to the strength of the individual, not the system.
Residential schools were a systematic and sanctioned way of robbing the natives of their culture and whatever remnant of heritage they might have left after they were cheated of land and other rights. I’m no expert in this, but I know enough that this was a period of shame in our history and when the residential school here closed it wasn’t long before it was also demolished.
I was told one reason for the disconnect with values had to do with residential schools.
Because of the harsh treatment experienced by many at, Holy Angels Indian Residential School (1902-1974), the Chip residential school and others like it, is where many natives lost their connection to families and family values.
The government’s goal was to break down the culture and the family structure, thereby developing a group of people who were institutionalized; then when one throws alcohol into the mix with the dislocation of many communities from their lands that they knew, to poorer lands it eventually creates an entrenched cycle of poverty. Some of the former students of Holy Angels, now adults and parents, attend support groups today in order to deal with their horrible experiences as children while at the residential school.
After all of the social trauma inflicted on native populations “we” blamed natives for being useless. Due to the reserve system and residential schools linked with a combination of government and church policies, it resulted in creating a true sense of learned helplessness with little sense of connection to anything, no sense of family, no sense of trust in others, or in themselves, and no sense of trust in authority. In fact the very concept of family was destroyed, but I guess that was the point of the residential school.
I flew up the Athabasca River somewhere between Fort McMurray and Fort Chipewyan. We made a smooth landing beside a Cree summer fishing camp. I saw the elders fishing and drying their catch on racks in the traditional way. A short distance away a Honda generator hummed and provided the electricity for the children inside the crude log cabin allowing them to play video games at midday. I thought then as I do now, what is their future? What is the best route to help them to survive and what role will education play in their struggle?
China
While in China, my wife and I attended a New Year’s Eve celebration put on by Jinhua high school students and staff in their massive gym. I think the venue is large enough to seat about 3,000 students. It was a cold night and the thing about public buildings south of Shanghai is that they have no central heating — think of a rural hockey arena in Canada.
We took our seats as two third-year students appeared beside us to serve as our translators for the evening and to guide us through the performance. The gym was darkened, except for the neon-like plastic lights that all students were waving and throwing high into the air. We didn’t really need a translator for many of the numbers because they were English songs.
My school, where I served as principal, had a population of about 250, but was really a school within a school. Trillium College was like an English department housed within the Jinhua walled complex. Students were the elite of the province and graduated with both a Chinese diploma and an Ontario Secondary School Diploma. Most of the graduating class members proceed to universities in southern Ontario and register mainly in math, science and business programs — a liberal arts education has not as yet found traction.
This is a wet climate with a monsoon season and everyone owns several umbrellas, so to have the song Singing in the Rain performed in English was no big surprise. There was a song originally done by Britney Spears. Other classes did themes relating to traditional Chinese opera meeting modern dance. There was a range of talent and, although we were sitting in a cold, dark gym, we were enjoying ourselves.
What we enjoyed most was the presentation by the Chinese teachers. Teamed as couples, each formally dressed, they took turns singing romantic songs to each other while — in a scandalous show of affection — they held hands. The students went wild. Our student translators told us this would be great cause for gossip.
What I appreciated about this was the fact that the students’ response was overwhelming and innocent. They were thrilled at the sight of their teachers showing affection. Our translators were quick to add that the Chinese love romance. I thought how this same act in Canada would not resonate with a student population in the same way, as it would likely be seen as corny and outdated and, as a result, would be open to ridicule. I’m thankful that these Chinese students are still socially and culturally back in the ’50s.
One theme that the school likes to drill into the students is patriotism. I can remember a day in my own youth in Canada when I sang, with hand over heart, God Save the Queen, and in later years, O Canada. We did a rendition of the Lord’s Prayer. Political correctness had not yet been coined.
In China, there is no public religious observance, but love of country remains a priority, almost a religion. At my school and others, slogans are written on bright red banners around the school and in all of the classrooms proclaiming themes of love of country. For example: “Love is in the heart and that is where you find country.”
Many of the songs presented that night spoke to patriotism and so I asked our youthful translators how they felt about that. With some thought and hesitation they said that they get too much of it. They hear it every day and, while they believe it to be true, they don’t have to hear it all the time.
“I think you will enjoy Canada after graduation,” I said.
Prior to China I had taught in Alberta for 21 years and am also very familiar with the B.C. and Ontario curricula, as I am also certificated in those provinces. I am very proud to say that I think Canadian provincial curricula more than hold their own when compared to the Chinese. The Chinese depend on rote learning, have large classrooms and are glued to standardized testing and curriculum solidarity. In fact, contrary to stereotypes on the topic, I place Canadian curricula in math and science over the Chinese. I think we may have the edge not only for content but primarily because of our teaching style and methodologies.
Chinese students begin some mathematical and scientific concepts at a much earlier age, and by so doing, may give westerners a sense of precociousness. But, in Canada, we tend to see Chinese students who are their country’s elite, so we lose sight of the fact that academic achievement of the Chinese student population also follows a bell curve. Their numbers are just larger.
I have found that my Chinese students lack the spontaneity and the mental freedom to be curious about the world around them. If it is not in the curriculum, it is of no consequence to them. They are driven and highly motivated in many ways, but there is much pressure on them to succeed. Due to China’s former one-child policy, a single child in the family must carry the academic torch, make parents and grandparents proud and, in some cases, support them financially as well.
On a few occasions I’ve given my students some unscheduled “free time” and, to my initial surprise, they’ve actually become anxious and didn’t know what to do as there was no structure or direction to guide them. They seem to need to be told what to do in every situation. They are accustomed to regimentation and hard work with long hours. Freedom is somewhat of an alien concept.
When it comes to problem solving, Chinese students are fearful of failure and are therefore not risk takers. Their Chinese classes are guided by rote learning and are definitely inside the proverbial box, while classes on the English side encourage individual thought and creativity, concepts with which many students are not yet comfortable, or even familiar, at this point in their academic evolution.
On one occasion I observed one of my teachers deliver a Grade 12, university-level prep course in physics. The topic was acceleration. The students were quite taken with the presentation and were full of questions. But there were other topics, such as quantum mechanics, in which the students had no background from their Chinese curriculum. When this situation arises they get into a swarming panic, hiring tutors and “going to the mattresses” until they have mastered the topic. If nothing else, they take studies seriously, something sometimes lacking in their Canadian counterparts.
Chinese students in the upper-level schools are hard-working, but as I watched them I saw that they are very narrow in their focus. They do not do extracurricular activities. The curriculum is all there is. The curriculum is life.
Now, we may wish for students like that in a “perfect world” and, admittedly, it is wonderful, but outside the curriculum the Chinese students are largely ignorant. Their general knowledge is lacking. They don’t play games. Our school of 2,700 has no teams or clubs. Students are not allowed to date. “Love is not allowed” is actually a school rule, although I suspect something got lost in translation.
While I admire my students’ many accomplishments in the academic arena, I also feel sorry for them. They know little of current events and the larger world. In an issue recently in the news concerning territoriality concerns with Japan, students are literally taught to hate. Anti-Japanese banners were in abundance on campus and around the city.
Our school celebrated its 110th anniversary while I was there. I had the honour of editing the English edition of its anniversary publication. It contained a proud history outlining the genesis of the first anti-Japanese league, which was established at the school following the expulsion of the Japanese imperialists after the Second World War.
This type of content and way of perceiving the world is current, accepted and engrained in our Chinese students, who tend to be xenophobic and lack a sense of tolerance for other ethnic groups and nationalities. Sadly, the Chinese do not always know the facts because that is how their world is orchestrated and filtered.
In a way it’s ironic that my Chinese students hope to come to Canada, specifically southern Ontario and the University of Toronto, as Toronto is likely the most multicultural city in the world. These students are in for a real culture shock because they don’t understand multiculturalism nor the tolerance and understanding of minorities that goes with it.
And don’t be fooled, there is an abundance of special education students in China too. In fact, by numbers, I would wager they have more special needs students than we, in Canada, have students. The thing is, not one of these special needs students is recognized and none of them are assessed, as there is no special education in Jinhua, as it brings shame to the family. China has a long way to go in terms of educational excellence.
I once tried to remove one of my Chinese students from the English program because of her mental health issues. Her parents were furious with me and found a doctor who gave her a clean bill of health. The Chinese ministry forced my hand, and I could not get the girl out of her stressful educational situation. Parents in an elite school have significant influence and high expectations of their children.
My primary job as principal was to direct my staff in creating analytical thinkers and problem solvers who could view the world in terms of solvable issues in both a group and an individual context. At times this got me into trouble with the Chinese side of the school, as some Chinese teachers wanted desperately to learn our ways, discuss “issues” and be introduced to new teaching methods.
I also had to be prudent about what I said or discussed with Chinese staff members, as an official of the communist party also had an office on campus. My contract did not allow me to talk about many topics, such as Tiananmen Square, democracy, Falun Gong, Tibet and the Dalai Lama, to name a few. I had my limits despite my curriculum and inclinations.
Overall, from my experience in Canada and China, I’m proud to say that, in so many ways, Canada has done “it” right. Our curricula and cultural sensitivities are incredibly reasonable. Our system has, for the most part, created a generation of more tolerant and more holistic studentscabale of problem solving, creative writing and analytical thinking.
I have found that in my travels and interactions in the locations I have described I have found that each society and culture expresses their own values and methodologies suitable to their unique societal needs. I think that Canadian teachers going to these and other places I have referenced have much to contribute as our educational approach is an excellent one. Our teachers are well trained and educated and have much to contribute. I have learned so much from nearly a decade overseas, enjoying new cultures, ideas and ways of seeing the world and other people. If I had it to do over again I would definetely seek the adventure of unique teaching situations as a growth experience. These adventures and experiences I recommend to any new teacher.
