The teachers were in the teachers lounge when the clergyman showed up. He was there to “educate” students on religious stuff. In his previous class I could hear student’s Salavat (literally it means peace be upon Muhammad and His followers, said loudly in public) The only thought that popped into my mind was how the students were taking advantage of the clergyman through saying Salavat louder than usual to disrupt the class atmosphere. Anyway, this man of God was sitting there quietly listening to other teacher’s chit chat. One of my colleagues happened to sit next to him unknowingly .All of a sudden, as a sign of hatred stood up and changed his seat.” The man of God was eavesdropping:
“Hey, Hamid! Is that YOUR class notebook?”
“Yup, how come?” “It sure is big. How can it be put it in the bookcase?”[Referring to his dick as a standing joke]
The clergyman turned to other teachers and started telling a joke to our surprise:
“Once a guy asked another guy if it was possible to get married with one’s mother in law and the other guy answers back that I DID it (her) and you can do it too.”
When my students realized that their physical education class was replaced with MY class due to chaotic schedule of our school, the students started bitching about this; murmuring names and things. In order to soothe the pain I devoted the class time to them and asked them to write a complaint letter to the principal. One of them started writing the letter and brought the letter to me to proofread it. After proofreading the letter I asked my students to put their signatures on the letter to make it as a “public” complaint; some of them were hesitant to do so as the shit might hit the fan and it may lead to their dismissal from school. After my encouragement they signed the letter and now it was time for someone brave to submit the letter to the principal .A couple of hands were raised and the students approved Muhammad to go talk to the principal and give the letter.
Class time was over and I went to the teachers lounge to rest. After the break on my way to the class I saw Muhammad and asked him what he went through and he went like this:
“When the letter was given to the principal with respect, he just looked at the letter without reading it thoroughly and told me that it was THEIR business to solve these problems.”
School Orientation is the “motto” of ministry of education these days but like many other things you only see the “rules” on the paper and no practical version is shown! Alas!
Oh, Ramadan! There is one thing I hate about Ramadan, Try to imagine what I am telling you now:You get up at 5 in the morning (You went to sleep at about 12 last night) and get ready to have Sahari (call it a meal of a day), rice, chicken, yogurt, vegetables,... After Sahari you start praying and go to sleep before you get ready to go to work. Of course you could stay awake until you are ready to go to work but that lack of sleep is a bit of pressure on you. In my case (the worst part), I have this upchuck feeling in my stomach during the day with a feeling of hungriness. In case I miss to have one Ranitidine tablet to reduce gastric acid, I would go under a lot of jitters during the day. Look! I teach and have to stand still from morning until evening and I feel some sort of dizziness in the evening before Iftar.I am sure if our prophet Muhammad were alive, He sure would give a different kind of Fatwa on fasting. I have to teach so I need to have my voice, you get thirsty and can't drink any water. When you back home from work you are a dead body to the T.In my case, I SHOULD go like this for 30 days! SHOULD because I don't follow the rules of Islam the way it is. I simply CAN'T! Last Ramadan I went Fasting for as about as 5 days.Period!Islam has this as well:” It isn't necessary to Fast for those elderly, sick, pregnant, too.”
What I loved about Ramadan and am trying to regain it once more is, Not having anything for about 12 hours you get a kind of spiritual feeling before Azan which is unique in its own kind. I really don't know whether this is caused because of being hungriness or it's because of Faith!
Here I would like to say "More power to your elbow and mouth" to every hard working teacher throughout the world. Us teachers have one of the most noble professions in the world though our job is getting devalued by our governments policies. Quality teachers are critical for providing quality education. We make a tremendous contribution to sustainable development by building human foundation - developing a child’s capacity and desire to learn. UNESCO has provided financially the "Developing Countries" in providing the means so that all Iranian teachers know how to work with a computer. So far so good right? No siree! I am absolutely sure that UNESCO doesn’t have the slightest direct involvement and supervision in quality of teacher training in Iran. I don’t know about other countries but here the Computer Schools that accept this difficult task for the sake of God (Pun intended) do everything but quality teaching. What UNESCO is looking for is more and more statistics. Go to UNESCO and see it for yourself. Who is running this good for nothing so called organization? More Statistics, more budget? Ha? Smart alecks!
One of my colleagues who has passed Word,Excel,Power Point,Access has difficulty turning on the PC let alone knowing how to work with the above mentioned programs. The REAL story goes like this:
Because these so called Computer Schools have received loads of money to "educate" teachers their class time is in the worst times of the day 3-5 PM in the summer. They gave us a book and that book was taught without going deep. When I was taking my final test one of them helped us all answering the questions so that School face is saved and they receive more and more students. World Teachers’ Day isn’t recorded in our national calendar, why? Because our voices might be heard as a result, out of sight, out of mind!
Are today's schools in Iran a welcoming inclusive place in which all are treated with dignity and every child has the opportunity to reach his or her full potential? I doubt it! Today is an opportunity to celebrate teachers. The best celebration is the practical one where we show, 365 days a year, our appreciation and understanding of the noble and complex work teachers do by working for the best possible teaching and learning conditions. We can also decide to make today the day that each one of us says “Thank you” to at least one teacher.
