Teaches, Shouts and Leaves

In the world of TEFL, it's not unusual to see vacancies advertised for schools which urgently need 12 teachers...in the middle of a term.

It's obvious what's happened. The entire teaching staff have walked out, and management suddenly need replacements. As for why they've walked out, the usual reason is just not being paid. Though bullying management, complete absence of resources, and insane school owners are common too.

Today at my school, we had a meeting. Higher management had sent a directive to lower management to berate teachers for not using the school's own (utterly unusable) textbook, and to say they'd be randomly dropping in on us to 'assess our adherence to guidelines'.

This bullying management, combined with the complete absence of resources, plus unpaid breaks and preparation time, low pay, bonkers timetabling and bonkerser travel arrangements...led to the meeting starting with five teachers...and finishing with two.

A lot of shouting, a lot of failed misdirection from the manager, and a walk-out.

I was one of those who stayed, barely - and for the sake of the students. That might not make much sense if you're not the kind of person attracted to teaching. But I'll put up with a fair bit of shit for the sake of my class of 16 german teenagers. Plus five redirected from the class of one who did walk out.

A fair bit, but no more that we've had for the last five weeks. I'll stay - for another week but no more, just until the end of the course of my current students.

Or...anyone drops into my class unannounced to 'assess my adherence to guidelines'. Any more shit from management, and my self-respect outweighs my professionalism.