Nearly a month and a half after starting work at the college, I finally met the head of the English Department. To be fair, this person didn't actually have the title of Head of the English Department until a few days before I met her, but the fact remains that up until we met, I was under the impression that Dr. Doha, who didn't speak much English was in charge, and that I had already met all of the English teachers. Turns out, there is a whole other staff room with about 5 more English teachers that I had been blissfully unaware of, stuck as I was in the reject staff room, with the part timers and teachers who taught other subjects in Arabic.
From the beginning, our meeting was a rocky one. One of the security guards knocked on my door during class and told me that so-and-so wanted to see me. I had no idea who so-and-so was, and couldn't imagine anything so serious as it would be necessary to leave my class for, so I told her thank you and that I would see her after class in about 45 minutes. About 10 minutes later there was another knock on my door. This time it was so and so herself. I need to see you she said. I told her to please wait 5 minutes while I gave the girls something to do in my absence and then stepped out into the hallway with her. She was incensed. "Do you know who I am?" she said. "No." I said. She seemed shocked. This seems to be a common reaction. As the only American on staff, absolutely everyone seems to know who I am, and for some reason, in return, they seem to think that I should know who they are. I do not. Furthermore, even the ones I have been introduced to, I don't remember their names, and barely recognize their faces.
She explained that she was the Head of the English Department and demanded to know why I didn't come to her as soon as she had asked. I pointed out that I was in the middle of a lecture, and that I would be happy to meet with her as soon as the class was over. She seemed surprised to hear that I as teaching, which is a strange thing to not know when you come looking for someone in a classroom. She asked if she could come in and watch. I said sure. She came in and stood in the front for about a minute and a half. I was getting their attention back after the group activity I had given before I went into the hallway to speak with her, When she interrupted to yell in Arabic at a girl in the back. I wasn't quit sure what the girl had done, but from the voracity of the yelling, it seemed like she must have murdered someone's child or something. She turned to me to ask If I knew the girls name. Since I had about 80 names to learn and this was only the second week of classes, I did not.
She made the girls say her name, and then told her to leave, and told me to mark her absent for the day. Then she stormed out behind the girl and left me to it, telling me to find her when class was over. The girls and I looked at each other sort of bewildered, and I was glad to see I wasn't the only one caught off guard by what had just happened.
After class, I made inquiries of the other staff, and eventually found her office. She told me to sit and she gave me a new schedule, which meant that instead of teaching 10 classes a week I was now only going to be teaching 7 because they had hired some new teachers. This was good news for me. Then she told me that the girls had been complaining that the classes were too long. I told her that the classes were supposed to be 2 hours, but that I had already cut off 15 minutes to make them 1 hour and 45 minutes. She suggested that I give them a break in the middle, and I explained how I had given the students this choice and that they chose not to have a break. She told me that the students were complaining that I was marking them late. She told me I should give them 10 minutes leeway at the beginning of class. I told here I was already doing that. She told me the students were complaining that they had too much homework and that I shouldn't give them more than three workbook pages per class. I told her that I usually only gave a page and half. She told me that I should only use the workbook and not give homework over Whatsapp, and I explained that the whatsapp was optional, for extra points, except for the weekly listening and speaking question, which they could do in person anytime before or after class. She shrugged and said, well, I'm just telling you what the girls are complaining about.
She called me her sister and assured me that she was very happy with my teaching and she knew I was doing a lot of activities and things with the girls and that they liked this, but they just wanted me to change those few things. I stuck to my guns. These girls are going to be doctors. They need to learn now the importance of being on time, not when they are 30 minutes late for a surgery and the anesthesia is wearing off. I explained that most of the girls were very behind in terms of language skills, and catering to their weakness by having shorter classes or not giving them homework would only make the problem worse not better. I stood by my addition of listening and speaking homework to the reading and writing workbook homework by pointing out they would need English to communicate with the mostly foreign nurses and doctors they would someday be working with. She listened and nodded along with everything I was saying. "You are right," she said, "but, you know, the girls are paying to attend, so we have to do what they want, which reminds me. The mid-term scores were all too low. So we need you to give them a very easy 4 -point quiz, and we will add that score to their mid-term." She and I looked at each other, and we both silently recognized the absurdity and immorality of arbitrarily adding 4 points to everyone's scores, but neither of us said anything about it. I thanked her for her suggestions, and for finally letting me know that someone was in charge, since I had no idea before. She told me that she had just been given the role that week or the week before, and to come see her if I ever needed anything and she wished me great success.
Sadly, I'm feeling more and more that success is less and less possible in this environment.
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