Problems as UNRWA schools

Marhaba,
There have been a number of interesting developments at the UNRWA schools recently. Tensions have been rising between the staff at the UN schools and the parents of the students. As far as I know, there is nothing like an american school board, so direct interaction between parents and teachers is limited. Conflict between the teachers and parents builds up over simple issues because of an official forum for both parties to express grievances and propsose solutions is non-existent. Recently a row has developed between the UNRWA staff and the parents over "grade inflation," and by this I mean students recieving grades that don't necessarily reflect their preformance in school. This is a rather common phenomenon in the US, although it occurs for different reasons. There is also a problem here, and around the world for that matter, of parents and students focusing so much attention on grades that the whole notion of education is obscured by this superficial and often meaningless competition. Perhaps "grade inflation" doesn't fully capture the the problem, but in short, teachers are either too fed up to fail students and face the consequences, and/or they face pressure from bureaucratic administrators to pass a certain number of students so the UN can claim they aren't running schools where more students are failing than passing. I am frankly becoming more disgusted with the UN administrators here by the day. Yesterday they docked the teachers pay by $50 because of they took took a two day weekend. The teachers rightly argue, the PA (Palestinian Authority) has two days off, the country the UN administrators are from have 2 days off, virtually every country in the world has a two day weekend, why must these teachers work six days a week (especially when everything is closed on the one day they have off). The teachers even added extra hours to the five day week to compensate for the two day weekend. The UN's attitude is basically, look, you work for UNRWA, why don't you ungrateful natives just shut up and appreciate the fact that you have jobs here.

Many of the teachers I know refuse to give students grades that they didn't earn, a philosophy that is much different then some of their predecessors. A number of the parents came in complaining that their kids used to get high marks in previous years, and it must be this teachers fault that their kids weren't doing as well. The issue got so bad that the teachers were receiving threats from some of the parents that if their kids grades weren't higher, something may happen to them. I found this quite insane. If you wonder why the marks are bad, look at your child's book and help him/her with the homework that seldom gets done, and correct what's wrong. There is of course the problem that many of the parents don't know english, so how can they help their children with it, but grades are bad in every class, even religion, so frankly it's hard to excuse the parents from all responsibility. Anyways, I could not believe how they dealt with the situation. One day a guy whom I'd never seen before came into the school to meet with the teachers. He talked with them at great length, and eventually left. I thought it seemed odd at the time because he definitely didn't look like the administrators that typically come through. Apparently this man is a famous Palestinian resistance fighter. He is wanted by the Israeli authorities and still plays an active role in the militant Palestinian resistance. He came in because of his "street credibility" within the refugee camps, this one in particular. The respect he gained within the community for fighting Israelis apparently made him a sort of ambassador. The teachers presented their case to him, and he in turn explained their position to the parents. This meeting seemed to accomplish what weeks of negotiation could not, the grade problem in this instance was largely resolved. He made it clear that the teachers were simply doing their jobs, and they were not to be harmed or harassed. I doubt the UN has any idea that this goes on, nor should they, as they are famous for inundating problems with worthless bureaucratic solutions. Will more paperwork will solve this social, cultural, economic war stricken mess? Apparently bringing in someone who's on Israels most wanted list solved the problem, who knows, maybe that's what it takes.

In my last e-mail I made a reference to my disgust with corporal punishment at the school. I've recently gone from being an adamant opponent, to standing on the fence, ready to jump onto the side of its advocates. This is an extremely difficult issue, one which I'm in no place to make a decision, but I certainly have a little better perspective. Perhaps an explanation is in order. This week I started giving classes after school at the UNRWA schools to kids who wanted to participate. There are a number of inherent difficulties with after school classes, the first being that both the kids and teachers are slightly fed up with school, and would frankly rather be other places. The second is that the UNRWA administration and teachers all leave the school, so there is no authority to turn to if things go awry. Although I asked that only 15 kids be allowed in these after-school classes at first, they signed up 30. OK, no problem, I can deal with that. At the beginning of the lesson everything was going well, the kids were behaving, raising their hands, conversing in english, grasping concepts, all the things that make a teacher enthusiastic. Thirty minutes into the lesson all the kids left my colleagues class and started to come into my room. Part of this was the teachers fault, as this guy tends to think he can wing it, and seldom prepares lesson plans that are well organized and engaging enough to keep the kids attention. Anyways, after kicking a number of these kids out of my class more than once, I resorted to using my foot as a doorstop to prevent them from coming into my classroom (there are huge steel doors, but no locks). As you can imagine, it's difficult to conduct a class with 30 kids while standing at the door trying to keep it shut. Eventually the kids outside organized a mob large enough to overpower me and push the door open. Once the door was open they started to flood into the classroom. I began yelling at them in arabic to leave and eventually got them outside, but not before they started to get my class stirred up. After calming my class down, we continued with our lesson. A few minutes later I went to the back of the class to help one of my students and an older kid came in through the door. The intruder was probably 16 or 17 years old. He pushed the kid holding the door shut aside and started talking to a student in the front row. Before I could walk to the front of the classroom, the intruder picked the student up by his shirt and decked him in the face, knocking him back into a desk. The student he hit was half his size and probably 6 years his junior. You would think this guy would then run out of the classroom, sensing he'd done something wrong. Nope. He stood there as I ran to the front of the class. After making sure the student was alright, I turned to the guy who hit him, got nose to nose with him and made it very clear that he needed to leave the class. He moved back a few steps, and motioned like he was going to hit me as well. I was at my wits end. I picked him up by the arms, took him outside, set him down against the wall, and let him know what I was thinking. When the headmaster and teachers found out how some of the kids had acted, the older kid in particular, they were furious. They demanded to know who punched the kid and threatened to hit me. I pointed the kid out and asked that he please not be punished in the traditional way, with a long plastic pipe. The disciplinarian reluctantly agreed, made him apologize, and dragged him out of the faculty room by his ear. Apparently the disciplinarian knew the students family very well, and began to tell me about him (I don't want to use his real name, but I'll call him Waleed). When Waleed was was 6 years old his father died of natural causes. Three years ago, the Israeli army broke down the door of Waleed's home, and came in looking for his brother, who was a year older than him. They found Waleed and his brother sitting at the living room table. A soldier shot his brother in the chest and then again in the neck. The soldiers then searched the house while Waleed watched his brother bleed to death on the living room floor. When Waleed is finished with school at 2:00, he goes to work until 10 pm, and then returns to his home in the refugee camp. The truncated version of Waleed's life brought tears to my eyes. The emotional pain he goes through on a daily basis is beyond imagination.
It is hard articulate how difficult it is here sometimes. On a conceptual level, I came here to help these kids that have suffered relentless injustice. Known as "the intifada generation," they have lived lives that I cannot begin to understand. On a realistic level, here I am dealing with kids whose lives can't be changed as easily as I once thought. Things have happened to them that can never be rectified. Teachers use violence to discourage it. Fighters serve as liasons between parents and teachers. Posters of martyers are emblazoned on every street. Every night after curfew the Palestinian police disappear. The Israeli military wind down the switchbacks in their armoured cars and roam the city, treating the place and its residents like they're in a war zone. Maybe they are. Perhaps my students are unwittingly growing up to be the next generation of soldiers in a war that seems to have no end.

Sincerely,
Mike