A Growing Twig, Snapped in Half
I found out today that my students here at Loudi #5 Middle School will not have a foreign teacher next year. The reason? My liaison didn’t turn in the paperwork or return the Hunan Department of Education’s phone calls.
My school’s irresponsibility and terrible communication has persisted all year … they refused to tell me about breaks, cancelled classes without notice, wouldn’t respond to my requests for weeks on end, and sometimes didn’t even seem to notice that I was there. Most of the blame will probably be placed on one person … my liaison, whose job it was to facilitate communication between my school, WorldTeach, and me. But, in all fairness, she’s a nice girl who was thrust into this position against her will this year and given little incentive to follow through on a day-to-day basis.
For the most part, I figured out how to deal with it (patience and persistence) and even started to use it to my advantage. For example, because they weren’t telling me when the last date of school was this year, I made up a deadline then told all of my students their tentative answer (and, as a result, I was done last Friday). So once I figured out how to work the system, it really wasn’t so bad.
But this reaches an all-time low. Without a foreign teacher, more than a thousand students’ momentum, confidence, and comfortability will be drastically severed … and it’s essentially because someone refused to return a phone call. I’m not angry, but I am definitely sad for my students and insulted that my school doesn’t value what I’ve done more than that.
What a shameful thing for them to do.
The good news, if there is any, is that another school in Loudi has applied to have a foreign teacher through WorldTeach … so even though my students will be left empty-handed, at least this city will be represented. I’ve already modified my handover letter (13mb PDF) to send to this new Loudi volunteer, and I’m hopeful that she will have as awesome of an experience as I did this year!
June 19th, 2007 at 1:22 am EST
THIS MAKES ME SAD TOO! MOM
June 19th, 2007 at 2:21 pm EST
Having seen your words , I thought a lot …sometimes I have to say that people may not value what they have until they lost it…… Since I have come to Loudi for two years, I came to have a feeling that people here may pay much attention to their own interests. Uness you make a big contribution to them ,or they will forget you soon…
But, in a word;”YOU ARE A VERY GOOD TEACHER “in our students heart!
I don’t know much about the idea of the adult’s world,but I just speak out my own feelings about here to you(maybe my words are direct .)…:wink:
We’ll missing you if you aren’t here…
By the way , my E-mail cann’t communicate with a foreign one ,could you tell me how to deal with it ?
May you everything well!!:razz:
June 19th, 2007 at 6:00 pm EST
Brooke, you are one special girl. You are so insightful … and from the few times I have talked to you, it’s easy to see that you are kind and generous too. Your parents did a good job raising you … I can tell that they used a special kind of love that many Chinese parents don’t know anything about!
About your email, I don’t know why it wouldn’t work … I’ve never heard of that. Try sending an email to
and let me know what happens.
June 21st, 2007 at 12:38 am EST
LANCE, JUST ONE COMMENT LIKE BROOKE’S MAKES IT ALL WORTH IT. YOUR LABOR IS NOT IN VAIN…… (for the children……) MOM
July 29th, 2007 at 3:14 am EST
I am the one taking your place in Loudi next year
July 29th, 2007 at 10:35 am EST
Wow, Jonathan … I just got your email and I am thrilled! You’re gonna like it … Loudi is a pretty awesome place, once you get to know it.