Play with fire...

and you're gonna get burnt!

So here I am on my laptop on blogspot typing in a new entry into this here blog, plate of geemats beside me, whilst the rest of the good muslims are off praying to their Lord in Taraweeh. I really had all intentions of going but by the time I came back from dropping my sis at American University for the basketball match she had, it was too late to shower and everything before they'd start prayer. I'll just have to go to qiyaam later on inshalla. At least I don't have to worry about getting up for school tomorrow.

The principal called a staff meeting for the teachers in the grades on Wednesday. Oh my God..

Oh My GOD, oH mY gOd! I was kicking myself for not bringing my mp3 player that day. The amount of sheemot tumbling out of her mouth in the space of the 30 extra minutes she held us captive in that ratty library, was enough to make anyone say the original OMGWTFBBQSAUCE!

Principal walks in with a stack of about 15 -20 homework diaries that some one forgot to hand out at the end the 8th period (8th period is the last period before the kids go home), whips up her niqaab and looks over the teaching staff with that look that people in power get when they look over their underlings. At that point I folded my arms over my chest and noticed a few others do the same. Principal is known for giving some pretty outrageous meetings and I was preparing for it. I had all intentions of marching right down to LG and handing him the folder I had just collected all the homework sheets from both grade 3 classes I teach, before telling him I was out of there - pissed off and out of there.

I don't really remember the order in which these subjects came spewing out of her mouth, it's amazing I remember any of it since throughout the meeting I was contemplating whether to just get up mid meeting and dump the contents of the folder on to the middle of the library floor before storming out and banging the door behind me, or to go for the more civilized silent chalba smack to the face and hand her the folder with all it's contents and announce I was quitting before calmly strolling out the door and politely leaving it open.

One of the points of the meeting was that some of the teachers in the last periods before the kids go home would see the homework diaries on the teacher's desk and not hand them out to the kids and thus the kids were going home without them. Principal got really uppity and nasty about it sarcastically asking what did the teachers think they were supposed to do if it was last period and they see a stack of homework books on the desk. Thankfully I can say that aside from owning some degree of common sense, I knew what a problem those homework books and the teachers not handing them out at the end of the day, was last year. So I automatically handed them out.

Long pause between points while she looked around the room as if she were trying to pick out anyone disloyal to the Al Mawahib Private School emblem and authority. On to next point. Discipline in the classrooms... MPS is a non-hitting school. Out right hitting of the kids isn't allowed but other forms of discipline on the sly is fully encouraged by the corrupt administration of that decaying cavity in the heart of Sharjah. So far in the week I've spent in the grades I've witnessed at least 4 - i think it was more but 4 is what I clearly remember- incidents of discipline by pulling the offending kid's hair. (super ouch, right?) I have it from reliable sources that the respectable godfather - the irani that owns that shameless place- has a huge stick he keeps in his office and has on more than one occasion used it on kids. There were also several witnesses to the time when he twisted one kid's ear nearly off during class as discipline for misbehaving. Ok I'm getting off the main subject here. So principal was going off at the teachers for the classrooms looking like unkept animal shelters by the end of the day. She demanded to know why were some teachers allowing the kids to make and fly paper airplanes during class time. Why were kids allowed to turn their desks to face the wall (clearly not paying any attention to the lesson) during classes? Why were kids allowed to enter the class with unbutton shirts or shirtless period (just wearing an undershirt after having discarded the sacred MPS uniform shirt) She said she shouldn't have to tell us that none of that was acceptable and that as teachers we should discipline them and have complete order in our classrooms. Let's see, if I recall correctly MPS is strictly a non hitting supposedly british school. Discipline books were placed in every classroom on each teacher's desk. Any kid who misbehaves during class is to have his name written down in that book. From time to time that same principal is to take the books and see how many times a kid's name appears in there. If his name appears in there x amount of times - I can't remember how many- then his parents are called and they discuss the issue with the principal. So now why the hell is she using that filthy tone of voice near screaming at all present questioning the lack of discipline in the classrooms. Some how I got the impression she was trying to blame the teachers for the reason those kids are just pure animals. That's usually what she does try to do, blame any problem on the teachers - and when that fails she turns to the assistants, wahlaylhum!

Imagine, the prestigious MPS has a standing rule that if the walls in the classrooms are filthy the teachers are to blame and they have the repainting of the walls to pay for. Yes people, this is a prime example of were you insert the phrase : OMGWTFBBQSAUCE! The walls in the two classrooms I teach are already 90% black and were like that when I was abruptly switched to the grades. Classes had already been in session for a month so if anyone even trys to tell me I have that to pay for I'll unfortunately have to tell them to "shrivel up and die". Anywayz I can't imagine what more the principal expects from us in the line of discipline in a "non-hitting" school other than to write the kids names in that discipline book- that she never bothers to check. She said that if anyone thinks that they are just in that school to teach there subject and that was all then they have the wrong school. A-W-I-N-A!

During the meeting, one of the teachers started to laugh at a point when the principal was really fired up. If I wasn't so pissed off I doubt I would have been able to control laughter any better myself. That principal really is a sad joke. Of course though to have some one out right laughing at her to her face made her go balistic. "Amusing," I thought, "guess it will be worth my while to wait till she finally shuts up then hand my papers to LG downstairs and tell him I quit." I never knew a person could get so red in the face in just under a minute!

She then went on about how when the teachers arent doing what they are supposed to be doing, and I seriously failed to see how that could be possible when she takes people from KG and drops them in grade 3 without even bothering to brief that poor unfortunate on what their new responsibilties entail - heck, she didn't even bother doing that when she hired above mentioned unfortunate as KG teacher, then she has to hear it from the parents , or so she claims. She claimed that she is in that school every night at 10 pm, and if we didn't believe her we could just ask the secruity guard (yeah the same pervert secruity guard that was sucking on that kid's lips) rearranging the desks into that 4-group seating arrangement they practice in Britain. In a way I am inclined to believe that, cuz she's just the sad type of person that wouldn't consider having a life outside of that damn school but at the same time I wonder if she really goes out of her house at 10 pm to push around desks in the dark (owner boy would have a farm of animals not just a cow if he had to pay a few fils extra electricity to run the lights for her while she goes about her silly fetish). At any rate she got back onto the tidiness of those filthy classrooms and how parents drag her from the reception area to the classrooms to point out the filthy environment their kid is expected to learn in. She admits that she is speechless when the parents do that cuz what can she say? (she repeats the what can she say part a couple of times while she looks around- guess she was waiting for some sort of sympathy!) She said another point that the parents are always complaining about are those homework diaries being left in school and that parents are always calling her and asking her to go to the school all hours of the night to hand them their kid's diaries. (I so don't believe that!) She claimed one day that 45 homework diaries were left in 3 classrooms cuz 3 teachers didn't have the sense enough (and she said they didnt have the sense enough.) to see that they had last period and hand them out. She had to point out that that meant 45 parents were going to call her this weekend about those books.

Oh, I forgot about the most amusing part about all of this. She had the nerve to threaten that who ever violates any of those points she mentioned would get an official warning! El Hazard was exercising EXTREME control over those eyebrow muscles of hers - they were fighting something fierce to shoot right up into the ceiling (forget raising!)

I had to pause contemplating how I was going to pull my 'Eman' to wonder how she fixed her mouth to even form such words that were being projectiled out. At times during the meeting she got really uppity and nasty, but the majority of the time she kept to this super chalba whispery tone.

After a good ten minutes of talking about how the parents complain to her and how she is tired of hearing them complain cuz the teachers can't do their jobs, she moved onto teachers allowing the kids to use the bathroom. She claims she left a receptionist/teacher/canteen girl/messenger girl (cuz the school is so cheap they can't even afford a public address system), dang, right? about that poor girl but she's the owner's niece which I guess translates to slave so she can be put to utmost use. Anywayz, principal claims she left that girl by the bathroom door with clock, pen and paper. She took down the names of all the boys who used the bathroom in the space of I think one or two hours. Principal claimed 120 names were taken down. She then said that was going to end from that day forth. The bathroom was now BANNED. The kids would now only be allowed to the bathroom during the 15 min break time. One teacher asked if it couldn't be left up to the teacher's discretion whether a kid should be allowed to the bathroom or not. Principal was adamant, no bathroom. Another shocked teacher raised her hand and asked what about when the parents start to complain. The principal's reply: Let them complain.

*blink blink* I know I have memory problems but I had no idea I have hearing problems as well. After the majority of her bumming about the parents complaining she now turns around and issues a ban that will be sure to have the parents breathing fire not just complaining. Snap man, snap just wait till one of those kids has an accident in the class. The sad part is that I'm 100% positive when that happens and some livid parent comes in to burn the school down Her Highness El Principal is going to coolly side step the blame and place it on the teacher's head saying she had no idea what possesed the teacher not to allow the kid to the bathroom. And that is exactly why the very next day I still continued to let kids that really looked like they had to use the bathroom go..

I was near exploding by the time that meeting was over. Her tone alone was enough to make me see red. I think she reached the height of all outrageousness - even for her! I marched downstairs and was all set to hand that folder to LG and get the heck on out of there, but he started talking to me before I could say anything to him. He told me I was to be paid for last month but they made a mistake on the spelling of my name on the check they wrote for me and had to fix it so the next day I would get it. Alright I thought, I could handle this place another day. I decided that day that I'd write a letter of resignation to El Principal and happily go about my business.

Guess it was fate, check wasn't done Thursday so that means I'll have to continue to go till Sunday.

Early this morning I was laying in bed thinking things over, I think best when in bed! If I quit I'd be 100% loser. Firstly, I applied for a job over there knowing that the administration was a mini-mafia itself. It would pay higher than if I worked as an assistant teacher else where and it's not like I'd work there forever. My main and only reason for actually getting an official job was to finance my project. Unfortunately I'm very hot blooded, and even though there are only certain things that set my temper off, that school and its administration some how manage to be amongst those things. That administration being composed of the most dishonest creatures one would ever stumble across on the street, is something I was well aware of when I applied. I shrugged, decided to roll my sleeves and deal. This was the extent to what I'd do for my project. It's like playing with fire, one knows if they do so they're going to get burnt. They choose to ignore that when they have a really cool firework that they want to set off and thus they willingly play with fire to set the firework off. They justify that a small burn is worth having the pleasure of lighting those fireworks and seeing the amazing colors. Likewise, MPS is the fire that I need to light my project which is the firework. The end result of my project will be the pretty colors the fireworks let off once they are lit.

Realizing that, all that remains is for me to stop being a spoilt brat buck up and get my job done properly, I want to be able to see the colors of my fireworks in the end!