Good bye Yellow Brick Road

The closing to my Saudi Adventure

I made a contract for 2 years and ended in one year and 14 days. Was it worth it? Would I do it again?

The answer to those questions is yes and no.

What did I get out of this trip?

Madain Saleh:

Egypt:

Yemen:

Horse-riding:

Scuba:

Aikido:

Not to mention teaching:
Summer work workshop – Pre – AP math.

Empathy workshop

Euro Games – Belgium.

Paris- short visit with a friend.

Personally:
Tested my self worth:
Tested my self-esteem;

I bought my first lap-top computer. I am writing the outline to this post while sitting in a train car heading to Chiang Mai, Thailand.


Friends:

Post KSA:
One year vacation in Thailand
Visit Angora Wat, in Cambodia
Visit to India
Meet friends in Thailand.
And a new story to tell.

Would I do it again? No. If you are talking about going back to Saudi Arabia, the answer is definitely no. There are so many other places and cultures in the world for me to see and visit. Many of them are a lot less challenging then KSA.

If I found myself in the same situation with another administration/school board would I responded in the same way?

I would hope that I would respond with integrity. Perhaps not exactly in the same way, hopefully I will have learned a few new tricks to toss in along the way.

I think I got a lot out of this adventure. I am very happy that I did it. I am also equally happy that it’s over.

Upon reflection: I was not given any privileged information. I did not know anything that wasn’t generally known to everyone else. In fact, I was usually the last to know anything. I wasn’t in the big gossip circles and I didn’t have an interest in the board meetings. So, I really was one of the last to know anything.

So, there was nothing that that I could have said that the board, administration, teachers, students or parents could not have already known.

My concerns were not greater then anyone else’s, in fact most of the time they were less.

The only difference from my behavior and theirs is that when I saw something happening I did not pretend it wasn’t happening.

When we were told that the whole administrative staff would not be returning, on the last days of school before the winter break, I felt that this was important and I wanted to know what was going on.

When it was obvious that we had two directors working at the same job at the same time in February 2007 and we had information that stated that the second director had been hired in October of 2006, during the beginning of the second half of the current administrator’s contract, I felt that I was entitled to some clarification.

When the board called in a teacher to an inquisition for asking the very same question that I originally asked I felt that she should not be there alone and that I should be there and I did what I could to make it happen.

When the board said that they did not like my responses to their inquisition and put me on administrative probations, claiming that I did not follow policy – probation mind you that does not exist in their policy manuals- I contacted a lawyer.

When the new Superintendent asked me: to buy books for the school with my money during my summer break, if he could look into my private sleeping quarters, or if I would give up some of my personal living space in my accommodations for the new teacher I said no.

When the administration had meetings with the teachers I asked questions about procedures and operations.

The things that I did were not great or even interesting.If I were at a place that respected people and education no one would have noticed. But it is clear that I was not at one of those places. That meant that where I was, was not a good match for what I wanted to do.

Sometimes I spent days thinking if I should write or say something. I would ask myself, if I were not to write it would it be because I was afraid to it. Then I would just have to do it. I was/am so against the idea of living in fear, which meant that even if I had a fear of saying of writing something that I would have to write it anyway, just to overcome the fear.

The fear of what? What if this wasn’t the kind of place that would allow people like me to say what I felt I needed to say. When I thought this way I would have to say it. After all how would I know if this was a place that would allow me to express my concern or not if I did not express then. If this was a place that would allow me to express my concerns nothing would happen. If it wasn’t then they hired the wrong person and that would soon be fixed.

It may not have always been easy for me to speak out but it was never very hard.