SCHOOL VISITS I

I’ve spent this past week visiting schools in the Farwaineya district. I’ve had a chance to observe English classes at the primary, intermediate and secondary level in both the certificate and credit systems. (The credit system developed as an experiment some years ago. It is similar to the U.S. college credit system.) While none of the teaching I observed knocked me off my feet, most of the teachers are caring and dedicated and they are doing the best they can under difficult circumstances. There is plenty of training work to do here, and the teachers are for the most part, receptive to training. The most receptive are the primary teachers, then the secondary. The most hardened are the intermediate level teachers. At a meeting with the teachers at one intermediate one school, when I asked what the teachers would like in terms of professional development the head teacher said, “There is nothing wrong with us.” I assured her that she was right but I wanted to work with them what did they need? She said, “There is nothing wrong with us, it’s the system.” Most of the teachers spent the meeting complaining (as teachers have been known to do). At the same school I met one of the teachers, Mona, in the principal’s office. She was vying for the Principals attention as we were and we got to talking. She’d repaired and cleaned a television to use in the classroom and she needed help to lift it onto the platform and she needed the principal’s permission to get some men to do it. Mona went on t tell me that she had put her lessons on powerpoint and that she used clips from (American) movies and television in her lessons and she needed this TV!

At the end of the meeting Mona asked if she could talk to me privately. When that didn’t seem possible, she asked for my phone number. She called that evening and asked if I’d like to join Toastmasters (I said yes). Mona said that she had two daughters. One of them is enamored of African American culture. Would I come to dinner and meet her daughters? I said I would be delighted to. Then Mona asked, “Do you fast or don’t you?” I told her I didn’t and she said, “Good! We don’t too. That means that I can invite you at any time.” So that was a nice end to a difficult day.

Last night I met Rob and Flor, An American/Mexican couple working at one of the International Schools in Kuwait City. We were introduced, via e-mail, by a Fellow I‘d met in D.C. who’d worked in the region. We met a Paul, which I know to be the best bolougerie in Paris. In Kuwait Paul is a restaurant and bakery. It was nothing to write home about, so I won’t. After dinner we walked around the mall. Kuwait was out in full force: mothers with small children, families, groups of teen boys with hair gelled into incredible styles, girls in their finery (accompanied of course), and even some elderly men. The boys and girls get a chance to look at each other but that’s about all. There is no socializing between the sexes.

Most of the merchandise in the stores is beyond my modest means, but there was one store Zara, where I could afford to buy a couple of T-shirts. There is a large Virgin book/video/music store. The books are marked up about 100% and the music CDs are the same price as in the U.S., about $15.

I had a nice evening with Rob and Flor. I got some answers to questions I would not ask my Kuwaiti colleague, and since they are not part of the diplomatic community, I could be myself and it was nice to be a bit wicked.