Scandalous Preschool

I'm not sure how to approach this topic, because I'm probably breaking confidentiality rules. If I don't name names, it will probably be a lot easier. And, frankly, names don't need to be named, because it would just make the situation that much more ridiculous.

I have been working at a preschool/quasi-primary school for about six weeks now. During this period, there has been a sex scandal. About a dozen children (more or less 15% of the school) have been withdrawn by their parents. The reasons for this vary depending on who you ask. If you ask the school administration, it's because another parent wanted to open up her own school. If you ask the parents, it's because they don't trust the school's administration. And they don't trust the school's administration because of a) the aforementioned sex scandal and b) the fact that an assistant gave a sleeping kid to the wrong adults at pickup time.

Now, you may ask, how the hell could an assistant give a kid to the wrong parents? In the six weeks I have been working, there has been a 100% turnover of assistants. They are stuck dealing with, and trying to discipline, a bunch of spoiled brats who don't care about much except Spiderman. Not all the kids are like that, of course. There are a lot of really good, cute, smart,
well-behaved students.

But the ones the assistants get stuck with are the ones who, frankly, suck. Who will grow up to
be the smartasses who frustrate everyone who has to work with them, who may or may not straighten themselves out (despite or because of Daddy's money.) And, here at least, these kids hit their teachers and their assistants. I've been hit by 3 or 4 kids, and the assistants have it much, much worse. I don't know what their pay is like, but I imagine it's a lot worse than mine. And I am getting four thousand pesos per month to put up with this crap. So, say the aides make three thousand, which is reasonable enough as a wage for fairly uneducated labor, but absolutely not reasonable considering their actual job.

I would agree with the parents that the administration is incompetent. I get no help, and they hired me knowing that I had no teaching experience. The on-staff psychiatrist and academic coordinator have offered to help, but they are never around. There are staff meetings once a month. Last month's included an hour-long presentation from a bank. The agenda is not determined by what we need to talk about, because, frankly, the administration does not ask us what we need to talk about.

So, what should I do? I should probably also mention that my immediate supervisor quit regarding the aforementioned sex scandal (which deserves a whole entry of its own, and will have one soon) and they now need a primary school English teacher. So, I'm the only full-time Englishy teacher on staff for a school that offers “bilingual” education.

...In happier news, I slept a combined total of 23 hours this weekend.

A Pretty Walk

Went for a walk over one of the hills a few weeks ago, to a little town close by, with the boy and some of his friends. As frustrating as it can be to be here sometimes, it's still pretty awesome, and pretty pretty.

Mexico City Police

Words do not begin to describe. Normal cops, cops on ponies, cops on Segways, and lady cops in tight pants. I heart the Republic of Mexico.

Minesweeper

I can't say that I'm proud to be a minesweeper addict. When I think about it, I get depressed. There are literally countless hours I have wasted on a game that isn't even a good party trick. The only thing minesweeper actually does is let me procrastinate. Which I do a hell of a lot more than I would like to admit.

Oh, I'm good at looking busy, and can show on paper just how productive I have been so far with my life. Yet, when I think about how often I have played minesweeper at the slightest provocation, I am rather ashamed. Uh oh, here I go again.

...Back. In that game, I had tagged fifty-seven of the ninety-nine mines in a minute and twenty-three seconds, before I inadvertently activated a spot that I knew was a mine the moment after I pressed the mouse key. Those kinds of deaths are annoying, but ultimately my own fault so I don't mind all that much. No, what is really frustrating is when I have taged ninety-six of the ninety-nine mines, am about to break one of my records (or at least get on the top ten list again...on the computer I currently type from, every single one of the high scores is marked 'Niña Anita.' If I were a dog I would have run out of pee long ago.) and...voilá, it's down to a scenario where there is no logic involved, just luck. That's the horrible thing about minesweeper. More often than not, after a breathless two-and-a-half minutes, you come to a point where logic no longer holds. It is a matter of sheer luck. And it is rather insulting, after having spent so much time where the game was all about logic. Boo. Hiss.

But that does not stop me.

...Back again. This time, I tagged twenty-one mines in thirty-nine seconds before I mis-tagged one mine and therefore exploded on my next move.

I write much faster on a computer than I do longhand. A few months ago, I had extra time and not all that much to do. I would spend six or seven hours sitting in front of the computer, ostensibly writing. I churned about 25,000 words and an uncompleted (but clear in my mind where it was going) story in four weeks, more or less. Not so bad. But, when I think about that, it is my time spent playing minesweeper and trying to make myself write that rises to the crest of my brain, ready to be plucked as a memory. I probably spent more manpower hours exploding, and if minesweeper were real, I would have, long ago, been blown to my next life as a bloody pulp.

I have played three games since I finished the previous paragraph. The first one ended after I had tagged forty mines in one minute and thirteen seconds. The second ended after I had taged fifty-five mines in two minutes and eight seconds. The third (and fourth; I lied, I played four games. True confession of an addict.) I didn't even bother to look at the score. I was too ashamed that I compusively pressed the little smiley face on top of the screen.

Jesus Christ I need to un-install this game. This is ridiculous and pathetic. I am an adult. I have important things to be doing. Thinking. Or something. I need more discipline. I will never get anything done if I can look at the clock and an hour has unknowingly gone by, in two or three minute increments, punctuated by explosions. Winning is a sense of relief, feeling that the past x (where x = large) number of minutes have not been entirely in vain. No, I have won one! I have triumphed over logic and irrationality! I have survived all potential explosions.!

Unfortunately, this is the execption rather than the rule.

Thirty-nine mines tagged in fifty-two seconds. I think I need to bury my head in the sand, like an ostrich. It's dark down there, right? There's no way I'll be able to see the iridescent monitor?

Kindergarteners

My first full week of being a kindergarten teacher is over. I remember why I stopped babysitting. Although, honestly, teaching kindergarten is less boring than babysitting because you are not at the beck and call of one of two children who know that you have to entertain them in order to make mommy and daddy happy. No, instead, you have more than a handful of kids who get into fights as soon as your back is turned, or run over to play with toys, leaving their work behind, or poke their heads outside the door to helpfully yell to the administration that so-and-so poked them in the nose.

I have three groups of kids, and each group for a little less than two hours, consecutively. I was thinking about it, and when I was that age I was in school for about 3 hours per day. I don't know how these kids did it - 6 hours of class time, plus some of them hang out until 5pm because the parents are working and the school also has day care. It seems like an awful lot.

Also, I need to come up with ways to keep the kids busy because we're not allowed to use the books for the first couple of weeks which is seriously too long for "re-adjustment." They have a pretty good idea of what school entails at this point.

Back in Gto after an interlude back in the US to see my family and go to my cousin's wedding...and this time, I brought my laptop with me. I didn't bring it down in the first place because it's ridiculously and obscenely heavy, and I didn't realize that all the cafes in town have free wifi access. So, most likely blog posts will become more frequent as I will actually have an outlet if I want to say something.

Globalization at its Finest

I had a phone interview today with a nonprofit outsource of the US Department of State, focus on international education, Latin America HQ in Mexico City. The web site is very comprehensive - nice and shiny, with success stories and lots of smiling faces.

Over the course of the interview, it was revealed that what they will be focusing on this fall is information and resources regarding scholarships not for American universities, but rather for this university that is being built in Saudi Arabia, in the name of the king, that will have the 6th largest endowment in the world and therefore lots of money for international scholarships for people who really can't afford to study abroad. So basically the US state department will be pushing well qualified Mexicans to study in Saudi Arabia.

OK, it makes sense, but I'm really taken aback. I guess the Saudi government must be calling in favors. It could be really interesting, but I'm not sure I want to get personally involved. This could all be a bit premature, since they haven't offered me anything yet, but the interview went really well and I'd be surprised if they didn't want me to come.