School Woes
August 23, 2006
My town
Now that summer school has ended, I am getting an idea of what will be in store for the year to come. It has not been promising. I have two dreadful schools where the children are quite ill behaved and many appear to have some sort of attention deficit and/or behavioural issues. I have seen kids walk in, angry and resentful, no doubt, forced to attend the English school. Some talk through my lessons, or go off and do their own thing. Some fight and intimidate other students. Others will start playing ball and I have to try and get them to stop. It is not pleasant. Because it is a private school for profit, we cannot really discipline the students. It is a difficult task to teach under this situation. Then there is the stress of being responsible for a group of kids. I have heard horror stories from other teachers, about kids that escape from the classroom and the teachers that have to get them back without neglecting care for the other students. I shudder to even think of this scenario happening to me.
Classroom
The worse incident, which nearly made me walk out the job, was when I discovered feces; yes shit, all over the bathroom floor. Some kid, I know who it is – a designated problem child – took a dump and then dipped his toilet slipper into the shit to make a statement of some sort. Scat artist. I was horrified. When I opened the door, the smell nearly made me gag. All I could think was, 10 years of post secondary education for this. I got on the phone to the company, hoping someone would relieve me of this nightmare scene by calling some cleaning service. But no, I was asked to clean the bathroom to the best of my ability. I had complained that there were not any cleaning implements and I was at a loss of how exactly, one was to clean such a mess. This is the point when I decided I needed to find another job. The job was a nightmare. My schools were filled with inbred hillbillies – the devil’s spawn. I had huge hairy spiders inhabiting the worst of schools. And the home Japanese teachers of two of my schools, I am sure, resented the fact that I was not Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp. I would find a way out of this B grade nightmare. Like Scarlet O’Hara, I screamed to the wind that I would crawl my way out of this, behind the backdrop of a blood red sunset. Remember that scene.
Scat School
Another blooper day with the company. Nothing to compare to scraping shit off the toilet floor. Thank goodness. No, the company sent me to the wrong school. I arrived just as another teacher arrived. Turns out that I was supposed in Hamamatsu city. I had enough time to make it back to the train station and get to the right school. I was substituting for the lost class from the typhoon day. Well one good thing after all that running around, was the opportunity to speak to another teacher, from Vancouver Island, and garner more company scoop. This teacher, unlike the majority, is of South Asian descendent, and complained about the racism he experienced within the company. Sucks. He totally me that he sometimes plays volleyball with the kids. I suppose if I ever feel pissed off with the company, I too can flake off and just horse around..
Racism. Yeah, I have often been mistaken for Brazilian, from the Brazilians themselves too, especially since I’ve gotten browner during the summer. I think the Brazilians get racist shit here. Not the same experience as the gaijin gods. I feel that some people treat me less than well. Today, some guy tried to run me over. If I were back home, I would have slammed his hood for that act. I am still on my best behaviour.
A cop pulled me over on his bicycle when I rode through a red light. I tried to play the ignorant foreigner, but he saw through me. He knew I understood. Thank goodness I didn’t get a ticket. I will be better. No breaking the rules in Japan. Well, not in broad daylight anyways. Joke. On the train, I came across the same ranting old fascist I heard harassing these Philipino women on the bus way back home. He’s a nutter and I’ve labeled him the Kikugawa ranter. Today he harassed Japanese students waiting for the train. I avoid his glance and ignore him.
Rural Living
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