More Turmoil in the Education System

Hello. Having almost completed the first half of the summer term (they call April to July the academic summer term here), it is becoming clear how much schools have scaled back demand for supplies since Easter. More and more, TAs are taking over classes (if they haven't been cut too) or deputy headteachers and resource teachers and PPA covers give up their normal duties to take over classes. Alternatively, classes are getting divided up and sent to other classes around the school if a teacher can't make it. And teachers are increasingly hesitant to take any sick days at all. I have been glad for two days of tuition a week, as it has been difficult even to get four days of work a week if you're just on supply. There have been quite a few days where I, and all of my friends sat at home the whole day. Due to all of the holidays we had the last five weeks (Easter Monday, wedding, May Day), TimePlan wasn't having to pay its guaranteed staff for eight days, but this fortnight, I've been called in a few times to go to a school that hadn't requested a supply as a support person. I speculate that TimePlan is trying to curry favour with schools by sending freebie teachers sometimes--they have to pay me now anyway, so they might as well get some value out of me.

It is not an easy time to be in Britain, and for my housemates who are planning on staying around for another year, job security is a precious commodity in terribly short supply. The management who look after our house recently changed hands, and there is some question as to what the lease arrangement will look like come September. My housemates then, are all trying to consider different options for what they might do given various options and circumstances. For my part, I am very happy to be saying goodbye to Britain shortly...it just doesn't seem like a very hospitable environment in which to live and work at this juncture.

In the meantime, I am home nursing a cold today, and hoping to be well enough to accompany David on a daytrip to his old stomping grounds of Cirencester (where he grew up) on Monday. Next week is our holiday week, and then it's another 6-7 weeks to go before school breaks up and I come home.

Until next time...

Postscript: It is now six hours later, and I thought it was worth noting that we have just had our first decent rain in about three months. Or rather, I periodically hear thunderclaps and it starts up again, so it may keep up for several hours yet. Fine with me since I'm in today anyway. A good start for the parched plants here.

Hello, and hi again after a long silence. The last two months have been filled with lots of things, and it's hard to know where to begin. I finished one term doing full-time tuition at three different schools, and have now started part-time tuition two days a week, with the intention of supply teaching to supplement my income. In between academic terms was the Easter two-week holiday during which my family ( mom, dad, and Joel) came to visit (their first time in UK).We had a fantastic time, though like North Americans, we tried to cram-pack way too much into the time we had. We spent a week or so in London environs, exploring Greenwich, watching the Changing of the Guard, touring around the city on double decker buses, and taking in all the concerts/shows we could (a choral concert at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Lion King). Pictured

below, here are some of us at Kew Gardens, a horticulturalist's paradise SW of the city in Richmond.

We went to the Netherlands for my family's middle weekend here, where we had the opportunity to visit some friends from Nigeria whom the rest of my family had not seen in 22 years (I had visited them last fall). Ali and Djurre went out of their way to show us lots of things, and we had lots of laughs, besides getting to know their sons (2/3 of whom were not yet born 22 years ago).

After our brief trip onto the continent, we began our road trip up to Edinburgh. David did most of the driving, for which we were all grateful, since road signs/rules are rather different in Britain than in Canada. We stopped in York for a very brief visit one evening. We participated in an Evensong at Yorkminster Cathedral, and walked through the Shambles and along a small portion of the medieval wall that still stands.

In front of Yorkminster Cathedral

From York, we went to Durham, the site of a lovely Norman cathedral. We walked along the banks of the river in the sunshine.

After a two-hour stop in Durham, we moved on into the Borders of Scotland, where David stopped to meet a friend, and we stopped for lunch. Then David took us to Greenlaw, from which my dad's Robertson ancestors emigrated in 1826. This is the (typically, sandstone) church where we found several distant relatives buried. David was also speculating about my blue blood when he found a connection between the Hume and Robertson families--apparently there is a Hume Castle nearby, though we didn't have time to stop and check it out.

We got to Edinburgh at last, and spent some time our first evening there wandering around the Leith Docks and area, since we were staying nearby.

The next morning, we set out to explore Edinburgh and walked along Princes Street, where we stopped to see the large Jenner's store (think Macy's), before walking along toward Edinburgh Castle, pictured below.

That afternoon, we visited the John Knox House, located on the Royal Mile, before scaling the trail up to Arthur's Seat. It was a fairly steep climb, but interesting craggs and heather(?) along the way. That night, David took us across the Forth Bridge and we looked at Edinburgh from

South Queensferry.

The following morning, we set off for the Lake District. Again, we felt the tension of not being able to stay and enjoy the scenery as long as we would have liked.

This is one of the lakes, where we ate our lunch. After lunch we walked along the trail to the Aira Force waterfall. We drove through Ambleside and got out in Grasmere, with the intention of finding the lake and walking around it. We never found the lake, but we saw lots of sheep and lots of stone walls and stone houses, with the evidence of an abundance of stones all over the area! We were impressed with the narrow lanes and switchback roads also in abundant supply in this area. In many areas, the roads were no more than 1-1/2 lanes wide (British lanes; with North American lanes, we would've been ok:)We stayed in Conniston for the night...the parking regulation stated that starting Good Friday, cars could only park on the street outside the hotel for 30 min at a time. We arrived on Maundy Thursday, so we just made it under the wire...David drove the car around the block for 10 minutes on Friday morning so we wouldn't get ticketed after 9:30 (the regulation took effect at 9 am).

Early afternoon, we arrived in Birmingham. We went to a pub for lunch on the enthusiastic recommendation of our hotel staff. I had an insight into the pecking order in terms of who gets served. Joel ordered two meat items plus a beer, and he got served in short order. Mom and dad had each ordered one meat entree, and they got served next. David ordered a vegetarian meal plus a soda and lime, and he had to wait a bit. I ordered a vegetarian meal (since I was not eating meat or dairy for lent) plus a water, and I had to wait an additional ten minutes after David was served, probably half an hour after Joel was served. I was not a happy camper at all, since this was now a 3:00 lunch. Lesson learned: never eat at a pub if you're a cheap, no-alcohol, vegetarian eater.

We attended a Tennebrae service at a church in Birmingham that evening before heading back to our hotel for a quiet evening.

The next morning, we headed off to Stratford-upon-Avon, where we discovered that masses of people had arrived for the convergence on one day of: St George's Day, Shakespeare's birthday, and Shakespeare's deathday. We walked around town, and visited Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare is buried. We also took a boat tour of the River Avon, which was quite nice, although hot enough that one woman fainted from heat stroke. The weather was highly unusual for the duration of my family's stay...highs of 17-26C every day and only 5 minutes of rain one day. Heck, it hardly ever gets to 26C here in July or August, never mind April. Here is the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, home of the Royal Shakespeare Company, which has just been reopened after several years of renovations.

We had a lovely dinner with David's family on Saturday night, before heading back to London to the London Mennonite Centre--where we had stayed a week-and-a-half earlier while in London. We are some of the last folks who will be able to stay at the current LMC, as it has been sold, and will be closing in July. The trustees are working to find another place with less expensive real estate, probably elsewhere in London, though it's possible it could move away from London altogether.

Sunday morning, we celebrated Easter at Westminster Abbey. The security cameras were already up, though no the trees for the royal wedding.

Since my family left, it's been a bit slow getting back into work. The first week, we had Easter Monday and the Royal Wedding to chop two days off the week, and this week, we had May Day. Furthermore, today is polling day, the referendum on the alternative vote as well as some local elections, so some schools are closed for that. (I am suspicious I will have a qiet day home today, as it is 9:35 and I haven't gotten a call yet.) Nevertheless, I have no doubt the next ten weeks will fly by. I just booked my flight back home for July 27 this week.

I'm hoping to make a trip up to Iona for the June half-term holiday, and then David and I want to get down to Devon/Cornwall after I'm finished school to meet his sister and tour a bit of England I haven't really seen yet.

David and I are pursuing leads on work for him in Canada. He has a passport, and is working on getting a visa. He has been in contact with a number of people at York and Ryerson Universities, among others. If you have leads on jobs in mental health/public health and/or the immigration process, I'm all ears!

Shalom to you this spring...Julie

Reflections on "The Naked Now"

I have been reading a very engaging and provocative book by Richard Rohr recently, entitled The Naked Now. It is subtitled "Learning to See as the Mystics See," and has provided much food for thought. The dense ideas contained within have caused me to read and reread and reread again many of the chapters in an attempt to begin to understand what he's actually saying. While I'm sure I haven't grasped more than a fraction of what he's saying yet, here are the main messages I am drawing from the book.

Authentic Christian faith is NOT about adhering to a correct set of dogmas, principles or beliefs about God. That is a very dualistic, either-or, win-lose approach to seeing the world, and unfortunately, Western Christendom has fallen into this very trap as much as anyone else. The church tells people what to know more than how to know, what to see rather than how to see.

What Rohr is challenging us to is a nondualistic way of seeing the world, of opening ourselves to being open to experiences, of being willing to hold unresolved tensions within ourselves without needing to find immediate solutions, and to weigh positive and negative consequences without rushing to label, analyze, or judge the "wrong" or "perfect" answer. He calls us to let go our need for control.

I particularly liked what he said about how we transfer our own either-or mentality onto God. This is what he referred to as "the two heels of a Christian Achilles":

1. The individual Christian is told to love unconditionally, but the God who commands this is depicted as having a very conditional and quite exclusive love himself or herself! The believer is told to love his enemies, but "God" clearly does not; in fact, God punishes them for all eternity. This stifles and paralyzes many believers at the conscious or unconscious level, and it should. Such a message will not save the world and surely will not produce many great or loving people. The many loving Christians I have met in my life usually have had at least one unconditionally loving parent or friend along the way, and God was then able to second the motion. There are remarkable exceptions to this, however. I have met a few humanly unloved people whose need for divine love was so great that they surrendered to it--utterly. The Gospel worked for them.

2. Under the message that most of us have heard, we end up being more loving than God, and then not taking God very seriously. Even my less-than-saintly friends, the ordinary Joes on the block, would usually give a guy a break, overlook some mistakes, and even on their worst days would not imagine torturing people who do not like them, worship them, or believe in them. "God" ends up looking rather petty, needy, narcissistic, and easily offended. God's offended justice is clearly much stronger than God's mercy, it seems. Why would anyone trust or love such a God, or want to be alone with Him or Her? Much less spend eternity with such a Being? I wouldn't. We must come to recognize that this perspective, conscious or unconscious, is at the basis of much agnosticism and atheism in the West today.

He describes Jesus call to repent as really a call to change: to have the humility to keep growing and changing throughout our lives. Love and suffering are the two paths by which our inner defenses must be broken down to enable us to open ourselves to nonpolarity thinking, to die to our old selves and open up in new ways to new understandings and ways of knowing.

I have been through a range of emotions today, both joy at some of the ways I feel God is speaking to me through Rohr, and also anger at current world politics--both the way I think the current British government is causing great injustice by forcing the poorest people in Britain (through massive cutbacks of social services and unfair taxation) to pay for the economic problems brought about by the richest members of the population, as well as the whole situation in Libya, and confusion at what a faithful response to such situations might look like.

I think if I read Rohr correctly, it is I who need to be changed: to forgive myself for the ways in which I am complicit in the structural injustices in our world, and to seek to live more justly on a personal level in whatever ways I can.

British English Terms and Their Canadian Translations

I want to record some of the British expressions and vocabulary I have learned in the time I have been in England. Here is a sampling of some expressions:

"I'm not bothered." I couldn't care less.

"I'm feeling knackered." I'm completely exhausted.

"Y'alright?" How are you? (A bit like the Southern US version, except a bit less drawl and much less l in alright.)

"That's a bit dodgy." Looks a bit sketchy to me.

"Essex girls" Teen girls who dress provocatively (read, "tramp") and parade around pubs and night clubs, particularly at weekends

"In'it?" Isn't it?

And here's vocabulary that was either new to me, or used in a different way than I am used to.

loo and toilet--used to refer to the entire room in which the toilet is housed; they don't use the words bathroom or washroom here.

subway--a walkway under busy streets enabling pedestrians to cross safely.

tube--what in Toronto is called the subway; an underground train.

full stop--period.

rubbish bin--garbage can

trousers--pants

pants--underwear

jumper--pullover sweater

rubber--eraser

braces--suspenders

crisps--chips

chips--fries

courgette--zucchini

aubergine--eggplant

swede--turnip

cornflour--cornstarch

playtime--recess

headteacher--principal

aeroplane--airplane

telly--T.V.

flat--apartment

Tom-Tom--Sat-Nav

I fancy--I want/desire

snog--kiss

the Secret Lives of Teachers

I found this book of poetry about teachers in the library at one of the schools I tutor at a little while ago and thought I had to copy down a few of my favourites. I share them here for your enjoyment.

Hands

by John Kitching

Last Saturday, shopping with my mum downtown

I caught a glimpse of Mrs. Brown.

she must be 50 if she's a day.

Her face is wrinkled

and she's gone quite grey.

she's very old-fashioned,

Wears blacks and blues,

Thick, thick stockings,

and granny-type shoes.

But imagine if you can,

My huge surprise.

I hardly could believe my eyes.

There she was in the Saturday street,

Just as usual, greyly neat.

But walking along arm-in-arm

And holding the hand

Of a rock star from my favourite band.

And then I tell you

(I nearly missed it)

He took her hand

And gently kissed it!

And then my mum whispered

In a voice that just carried,

'But didn't you know

Those two are married?

Mrs. Brown's been married to him for years.'

I hardly could believe my ears.

Who would have thought

Rock stars could ever have wives--

Or that teachers could ever

Have such secret lives?

This next one tells you a bit about the status of teachers in Britain.

Extra-Money Activities

by Gina Duthwaite

Mr Count who teaches Maths,

became a comic just for laughs.

Behind the bar is Mme Drench,

who by day takes us for French.

Dinner lady, Mrs. Kipper,

took the job as part-time stripper.

Mr. Smart from Art and Craft,

earns more for brushing floors. It's daft!

Miss Plummy-Tongue, of gentle breed,

who listens to us when we read,

at night is now attending to

the cloakroom and the ladies' loo.

German tutor Herr von Frizz

compiles the local knowledge quiz.

Jack O'Toole O'school caretaker,

got appointed as head waiter.

Mrs. Note, the Music tutor's

ringing bells for 'TIME,' in future.

We hesitate er...to announce...er...

the Head's applied to be a bouncer.

Postcard from the Edge

by Jane Wright

Dear class ______(fill in year)

I'm having __ a wonderful time ___ sweet dreams of you ____a nervous breakdown.

We arrived after 16 ___ hours ____ days ____Hell's Angels helped us fix our flat tyre.

Still the hotel is ____ atop a huge cliff; ____sliding over the cliff ____not built yet

and the views over ___ the sea ____ the bins ____ Tesco's (a major grocery chain) car park

are staggering.

I'd like to ___take in the sea air _____teach the world to sing _____strangle every one of you personally

but the doctor says ____I should take it easy _____I'm a raving loony _____I need help.

You mustn't think ____I don't miss you _____I like you _____because it hurts your head.

But I admit taking this holiday is exactly ____what I needed ____what you needed ____what the rest of the staff needed.

I know that little chemistry experiment was ____an accident ____an act of genius ____an act of sabbotage

and that you didn't mean ____for it to happen _____to blow up the school ____to set my cardigan on fire.

Auntie Jane ____is looking after me very well ____is sick of the sight of me ____has fallen in love with one of the Hell's Angels

and says I should be up and about by ____next week ____next Christmas ____the time she counts to three

otherwise ____she'll have to get the doctor back ____she'll shout for Uncle Alfie ____there'll be trouble.

See you ____soon, I hope ______not if I see you first ____in court.

Your _____loving _____demented ______redundant

teacher,

____________________ (sign here).

Through the Staffroom Door

by Brian Moses

Ten tired teacher slumped in the staffroom at playtime,

One collapsed when the coffee ran out, then there were nine.

Nine tired teachers making lists of things they hate,

One remembered playground duty, then there were eight.

Eight tired teachers thinking of holidays in Devon,

One slipped off to pack his case, then there were seven.

Seven tired teachers weary of children's tricks,

One hid in the stock cupboard, then there were six.

Six tired teachers under the weather, barely alive,

One gave an enormous sneeze, then there were five.

Five tired teachers gazing at the open door,

One made a quick getaway, then there were four.

Four tired teachers faces lined with misery,

One locked herself in the ladies, then there were three.

Three tired teachers wondering what to do,

One started screaming, then there were two.

Two tired teachers thinking life really ought to be fun,

One was summoned to see the head, then there was one.

One tired teacher caught napping in the afternoon sun,

fled quickly from the staffroom, then there was none.

St. Albans and Havering Park

You may have noticed that since I began dating David, I have gone from a weekly blogger, to more like a monthly blogger. Somehow my weekends seem to fill up a lot more lately!

In late-January, David and I made a trip to St. Alban's one weekend, a town established around a monastery named for the first British Christian martyr, St. Alban. It grew up very close to the even older Roman town of Verulamium. Part of the old Roman wall (some 1800 years old) surrounding the town is still standing . Here we are standing in front of the St. Alban's Cathedral.

I love the interesting names the English give to their pubs. In case you can't quite read that, it says, "Ye Olde Fighting Cocks."

We had a lovely lunch at Cafe Rouge in town, and then headed to the Roman Museum to learn a bit about the Romans in Britain.

Here is a photo of the cathedral from a different perspective when we were coming back at dusk.
We had a fun day with less than an hour ride each way. Best part...the train trip only cost £6.80 each.

Last weekend, David was at a workshop for the weekend so I had a busy day at home on Saturday doing all the errands that I never seem to find time to do these days. Then on Sunday, several teacher friends came over for potluck brunch before going for a walk through Havering County Park, just north of my house. The weather was fine, and it was nice to get out for a walk with them.

Jessie, Jess, and Filomena.
Rolling English countryside.

Whilst I hear reports of -30 C and 20 cm of snow back home, we here are experiencing mostly cloudy, mild weather with the occasional burst of sunshine to relieve our SAD symptoms. One of my housemates is taking Vitamin D to lift her mood. However, the trees are all budding, and it feels like spring is around the corner. We aren't going to work and coming home in pitch blackness anymore, so that feels good. And I am looking forward to a visit from my family in April. The Eurostar tickets for our trip down to the Netherlands to visit some Nigeria friends arrived today. I don't think much of customer service in England generally, but I must say, the Royal Mail does a darn good job, since I only ordered them about 36 hours before they arrived!

Hope this finds you well. Take care. J

New Year

Hello everybody. It has been another couple weeks since I posted. What have I done since?

David and I went into Central London on New Years' Eve, but waited too late to get a front place view of the fireworks, as all access points had just been closed off by the time we arrived shortly after 11. So we walked up to Trafalgar Square and watched the New Year in on the jumbotron screen instead. Lots of drunken partiers and piles of rubbish on the sidewalks! I got sprayed by champagne at midnight by one enthusiastic reveler.

I spent that weekend at David's place and we had a really good and relaxing time together. We discovered a mutual interest in Scrabble amongst other things, and tuned in to part of the 12-day BBC special feature on Mozart (over the first 12 days of the New Year, they're playing every single piece of music the guy ever wrote!)

I met my friend Trish (from my Rouge Valley church family)--who was visiting various friends spread around the outskirts of London--in London on Wednesday last week, and we had a good time walking through Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, and Covent Garden and then going to the British Museum for part of the afternoon. It was a nice chance to catch up with her and to receive and send greetings to folks back home.

I went into school again on Thursday last week (the kids had returned on Wednesday) to get organized for this school term, and did a bit of tutoring on Friday. Then I met Trish and David downtown for drinks on Friday night before Trish went to see west-end show, Billy Elliot. Again, we had a lovely time together.

After spending Friday night and Satuday morning with David, I came home on Saturday afternoon, to allow him to spend some time preparing for an interview--which by the time I write this, should be over or almost over. He is interviewing for a public health job, which involves researching/asking questions relative to the government's proposal to get rid of a layer of middle management within the health system and delegate a lot of managing to GPs instead. This is an area of personal concern for David, and he is eager to be involved in asking relevant questions about how this might work, or indeed, what the long-term outcomes of such a decision might be. So he has spent a good chunk of the last week boning up on the current structure of the NHS (National Health Services) familiarizing himself with the relevant information/terminology.

Today I have taken off work, since the school at which I tutor is being inspected by OFSTED today and tomorrow. This is an inspection in which teachers are each evaluated during their lessons as to the effectiveness of their teaching and the school is evaluated as well. It is a high-stress event for all concerned, particularly for schools which have received poor results in the past.

Tomorrow I will be back at my other school, Five Elms again, and then Wednesday I am going to meet the head at another school in order to get started tutoring there in the next week.

Hope you are having a good start to 2011. 'Til next time,

Julie