United Nations Day
The school attempted, in a haphazzard and ad hoc fashion, to put together a UN Day celebration. As per usual this was done with little communication and organization and at a time when there was little time to deal with it appropriately. Nevertheless, the power that be were apparently pleased with the results. J. is usually called upon to host such event, meaning to be the master of ceremonies. She did not want to do this this time and prevailed upon me, at the last minute, to be emcee--not at all my forte. So, I did my best, which I guess was servicable--not sure.
After the event, J. and I went for ice cream, ordered the "thick shakes" which were, well how do I put it, not thick. I guess the thin milkshakes were packets of powder. We then went for pizza at Papa Ron's which was alright. Here's the point though, we took a becak for what we thought would be a short run home. The driver was either dyslexic, insane, or unscrupulous--or all three. He took us all over creation with J. scolding him all the while, and then turning to me saying, "he can go whereever he wants, I am not paying him more that 15,000 rupiah." When we finally did get home, the right half of my body was numb. It had been a long, hot day and a shower was in order, but we've run out of gas in our water heater and so only a cold bath beckoned. Within minutes of completing (rapidly) the cold shower, the power went out, again.
During Ramadhan and Idul Fitri, power outages were rare, but this past week they have been frequent and lengthy. The worst part is the loss of airconditioning and so sleep is a difficult undertaking. The power came on at some point late last night and today we have school, on Saturday, because the parents don't think we work hard enough.
Back to UN Day. As a result of falling on a day in between numerous other celebrations, there was not a great deal of time to plan this out. In addition, the instructions kept changing, and in the end, most teachers just did what they did last year without regard to the instructions. Classes, which were supposed to go on as usual, were eschewed in favour of putting up classroom decorations and practising dances with little to no relation to the countries they were supposed to represent. Students did not spend time attempting to learn about other cultures but instead simply wore expensive costumes in which they moved their bodies to pop tunes. The notion that this day should be anything more seemed not to penetrate even the higher levels of the school's hierarchy. All celebrations include dancing and pop tunes. This is a shallow community. The time lost to preparation for these dances might have been used in preparing for the upcoming exams, but wasn't. When the students fail these, we,teachers, will no doubt be held accountable. Now the Christmas concert approaches, yet another, "really big show."
After the event, J. and I went for ice cream, ordered the "thick shakes" which were, well how do I put it, not thick. I guess the thin milkshakes were packets of powder. We then went for pizza at Papa Ron's which was alright. Here's the point though, we took a becak for what we thought would be a short run home. The driver was either dyslexic, insane, or unscrupulous--or all three. He took us all over creation with J. scolding him all the while, and then turning to me saying, "he can go whereever he wants, I am not paying him more that 15,000 rupiah." When we finally did get home, the right half of my body was numb. It had been a long, hot day and a shower was in order, but we've run out of gas in our water heater and so only a cold bath beckoned. Within minutes of completing (rapidly) the cold shower, the power went out, again.
During Ramadhan and Idul Fitri, power outages were rare, but this past week they have been frequent and lengthy. The worst part is the loss of airconditioning and so sleep is a difficult undertaking. The power came on at some point late last night and today we have school, on Saturday, because the parents don't think we work hard enough.
Back to UN Day. As a result of falling on a day in between numerous other celebrations, there was not a great deal of time to plan this out. In addition, the instructions kept changing, and in the end, most teachers just did what they did last year without regard to the instructions. Classes, which were supposed to go on as usual, were eschewed in favour of putting up classroom decorations and practising dances with little to no relation to the countries they were supposed to represent. Students did not spend time attempting to learn about other cultures but instead simply wore expensive costumes in which they moved their bodies to pop tunes. The notion that this day should be anything more seemed not to penetrate even the higher levels of the school's hierarchy. All celebrations include dancing and pop tunes. This is a shallow community. The time lost to preparation for these dances might have been used in preparing for the upcoming exams, but wasn't. When the students fail these, we,teachers, will no doubt be held accountable. Now the Christmas concert approaches, yet another, "really big show."
posted by athensinternational at 4:04 PM
1 Comments:
Michael,
As you describe the wonderful UN day celebration I find myself wondering if you had to take off your shoe and pound on the podium to maitain order. I think you're under-selling your abilities as mc. I would bet that only a third of the people in attendance talked while you were talking, which would be better than average, no?
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