First Impressions: The Job (edit)

My new job is at a small and fairly new private high school. To be specific, the school is entering the second half of it's 4th year, and its second year being accredited by US curriculum standards. The school is strictly Western style, i.e. all classes are in English, and we can wear our shoes indoors. There are about 40 students over the four years, skewed a little to the younger side. Almost all of them are Korean born and raised, but with at least some international travel, and enough English skills to pass the entrance exam. Actually the students don't arrive until next week; I've heard nothing but good things from the other teachers, so I am quite anxious to meet them.

I will teach Algebra, Pre-calc, and Chemistry. Apparently, I'm replacing a math teacher whose contract was not re-newed due to 'lack of passion'. There is a second new teacher - an English teacher left for a government job - but the other new guy is stuck in Vancouver waiting for the Korean embassy to process his visa! The rest of the staff is small enough that I shall mention each of them.

J__, J____ - is the administrator. The school is a project of Jeonju University, and Mr. Jeon is our conduit to the upper powers, as well as handling the business side of our school. He's a nice guy, picked me up from the bus stop when I arrived and took me shopping. His English is about equal to the better of the English teachers I worked with last year.

The only things I can say against him is to relate a story which indicates that he may suffer from a characteristically Korean brand of irrational stubbornness.

Apparently the school awards 50% scholarship to the top student of each grade. Well, there was a mixup in the grades last semester and the scholarship was awarded to the wrong student. The top student pursued the investigation and discovered the error. She and her mom were upset and considering switching schools. Now, ours is a growing school, we need our top students and the reputation they will bring us by gaining admittance to top quality colleges. Doesn't it seem obvious that the correct action is to immediately apologize for the mistake and offer the student the same scholarship? Instead Jason simply apologized, then after they said there were changing schools he offered a scholarship of lesser value. It was already too late. From what I've heard of this student it was a sad loss.

B____, J__ - teaches math, computers, and econ. He's friendly and sincere and looks a little like Kevin Nealon. I ran into him on the afternoon I arrived here, and his family invited me to join in their trip to a museum, mountain park, and dinner. He also has a super cute nine month old baby.

D_____, A_____ - teaches music, and, begrudgingly, health (you'll find out why later). She's enthusiastic and energetic. She's into bicycles, so I'll have a friend to help me shop and ride around with. Also, her roommate used to live in Daejeon and play frisbee with my friends out there.

B___, S_____ - Teaches history. Like the rest, she seems a very dedicated and passionate teacher. The other teachers say that although her classes are perhaps the toughest, the students seem to like her the best. That's a difficult balancing act, although as I recall a certain Mr. Thomas pulled the same trick during my high school days.

Y__, J___ - Another math teacher. She's a little quiet, but very helpful for all the questions I have. She also runs a public service venture with a local orphanage that the students can help out with.

H____, B_____ - Art teacher. She seems sweet, is there a dark side lurking? A lot of the students' art work is hanging on walls, or lying around the school building, and some of it is actually quite impressive.

A___, T__ - English teacher and principal. This middle aged Texan is the elephant in the room. He started just last semester, taking over from a very well liked principal. My first impression of this guy is that he is probably a pretty good ESL teacher, but is, to put it nicely, heavy handed as a manager. The counts against him: 1. He makes scheduling decisions that seem at best arbitrary, and at worst demonstrably flawed. 2. He requires a level of paperwork that yields a false precision and is one of the bureaucratic hallmarks of a narrow mind. 3. When questioned, he can ignore viable suggestions, questions, and alternative; and/or fail to provide adequate rationale for his policy. 4. As I guess you can infer by now, he simply speaks down to people sometimes. 5. He is an overly conservative Christian. Look for his books on Amazon and check out the one that is not about learning English. The text he selected for health class preaches abstinence 95% and has just one small sidebar about condoms and how they are not completely reliable. Another instance where this shone forth was with an extended dress-code war he had with Ms. B___, insisting that she wear shirts that cover up to the neck line. Eventually J___ told her: do your best to satisfy him, but what you wear is fine so just ignore his complaints.

Actually, if I didn't trust the testimony of the other teachers more than him based on my judgment of competence and character, I could justify all his decisions (at least the ones I've seen in person). And there is a very good chance that we can all get through the semester shrugging off any of his bullshit and dealing with our own business.

This school has so much going for it. I don't want you to get a negative impression because there happened to be more to say about one guy. Every story needs a villain. I'm actually more curious than concerned to see how things turn out now.