Stf is Angry

We had an interesting meeting today.

We were all ready for the meeting to start, just waiting for Stf, Mz and My to come in; they came suddenly. Stf handed us a 40 page document and instructed us to read it carefully till they came back after having a drink at the nearby restaurant. What the F****! You mean, we are your slaves or what? To read 40 page document carefully till you enjoy your drink! Luckily it was in German so I happily excused myself and enjoyed tasting a new bread while the others grudgingly started reading it. 

We all looked at the clock quickly ticking away while we just waited for them like abject fools. The trio returned after nearly 45 minutes and then there was fire and brimestone every where.

Stf was angry! Angry over the teachers's demands for money or pay rise. She was so haughty and arrogant. She told us that we could all resign if we wanted to. She could herself  fire everyone of us all in one go- she had hundreds of applicants to replace us. She doesn't owe us any money. She gave us a fine Christmas party last year and expensive gifts ( that trash silver ring which I threw away!) as well as a grand Octoberfest Party. Did we even know how costly was all that arrangement? How could we even think of asking for more money? We are not working here for free. We get enough salary; the other schools pay way lesser than her. If we are not satisfied, we are free to leave.

Mk was the only one to protest and in a face that expressed a deep anger and disgust.

"But we are not asking you any money. We are only reminding you what you had promised us. In last April, you together with that Tk had promised us that we would have to admit more children in our groups than the legal number and for every extra child you would pay us a hundred Euro once a year. We are only reminding you of your promise."

"Aah, that was said by Tk, not me. Upon my part, I owe you all NOTHING!"

The next blow she dealt us was to announce that she is planning to get her teachers Montessori method trained and so all the German teachers ( Ndn, Stf, Cl, My, Mk and Mz) will have to undergo this training for 6 months every weekend and would have to pay around 50/-. 

All the teachers gasped in horror! No weekend for 6 months! That sounded really like POW torture! While I wondered why no English teacher was included. But of course, the school and the system is prejudiced towards German. They only promote German, not English despite banking on their bilingual concept which brings them hoards and hoards of children. 

I broke in.

"Are you planning to get your teachers Montessori Method trained?"

"Ja."

"But where would we keep the apparatus?"

"The apparatus? What is that?"

"Well, Montessori method teaching is done only with the help of Montessori apparatus which is made of specific color and dimensions. And everything is taught only with the help of concerned apparatus. It is not a chair or a table which you could fit into any corner." Mko joined me too and corroborated my statement.

"Really?" She cried in surprise. "Well, I didn't know about all this at all. I think I need to talk to you in order to discover more." She smiled affably and quickly flitted on to the next topic of discussion not giving even a moment's time to anybody to react or to express their views. 

She left after an hour - and this was just a quarter of the meeting!

Mz began her list of points, all haughtily flung at us like chain saws. We discussed Christmas. This year, the groups will present Christmas carols to the parents. My group will be merged together with Mko's group to present "We wish you a merry Christmas..." I want to do a story enaction, Christmas dress up party in which all the girls can be dressed up as Mary and boys as Joseph with my group but I keep my mouth shut. It won't do to commit suicide! I just listened in bored silence how they were all arguing which song to do and rejecting every song as too difficult! I have a reason to believe I am any time their superior - I could do a whole play with lengthy dialogues and a lot of acting! 

Most of us wanted one German and one English song. After a lot of discussion, My concluded that two songs per group were too much-  we needed to choose just one song and chose one German song. This enraged Mks and he broke out loudly.

"Hey, This is too much. I can't tolerate it. This is disgusting. We are in a bilingual school. Both languages are important. Cristmas is such a prominent festival; we need to teach the children at least one English song. As it is, the majority of students in the whole school as well as in my class are the English speaking ones. They don't understand German. But I am not allowed to have my way. You do whatever you want; I don't want to say or do anything. It is so frustrating. Damnit."

My and Mz both just curled their lips in obvious leer and none of the other teachers including myself let escape any verbal or facial reaction; it would be as bad as telling you are Charles in front of Cromwell! Nobody wants to die a traitor...

Mtn also came in briefly to tell us how to send the weekly emails to the parents as some groups were still having problems. He was still in Stf's office working on the school computer when I went into the office to request Stf for a Christmas tree for my class too.

Stf promptly talked to her supervisor who replied I would have it possibly by tomorrow. I beamed at her graciously and then surprisingly she gave me a hug. 

We got over from the meeting very late. As we were going out I glimpsed Mks having a one to one meeting with Stf. Oh, God, I hope, he is not being fired, I thought uncomfortably.

I walked to the station in Stf, Ndn and Mk's company. Cl as usual, would either go alone or in somebody else' company rather than mine! We were but naturally discussing how bad we were feeling because of Stf. Surprisingly, I wasn't feeling bad at all. I had never believed in Stf and knew from the first moment that she would never pay us, never listen to us and do exactly what she wanted whether we agree with her or not.