Side Note – History Lesson: Mr. Morgan’s assistant is Ms. Shi (she is great and is a huge help for the American teachers). Mr. Morgan and Ms. Shi dated for like 4 years, but now they have been broken up for a while, but she is still his assistant. Mr. Morgan is now dating Ms. Li, one of the Chinese teachers in the toddler room. Mr. Morgan is 40 and Ms. Li is 24 (gross). Ms. Shi, and just about every other Chinese teacher, hate Ms. Li – for obvious reasons.
Anyway… I have been at MRA for less than a month and already, I have zero respect for the man. The first week, he spent a lot of time in my classroom helping me adjust and get used to the schedule so I got to know him pretty well right off the bat. First of all, he is one of the most awkward people I have ever met in my life. I am still trying to decide if it is a cultural thing, or if it is just him. He speaks decent English, but just so awkward… like he is unsure of himself and looking for approval, but also trying to sound authoritative and knowledgeable at the same time. It is almost like he is intimidated by the American teachers because his interactions with the Chinese teachers are completely different (but I’ll get to that part later). However, his interaction with parents is pretty similar – awkward.
He tends to talk down to people, too, which really drives me crazy. I feel like he talks to me like a child, and he feels the need to explain things to me over and over, unnecessarily. For the first three weeks, every time he walked in to my class he would tell me that one of my students was aggressive, and that he just needs to be reminded to not hurt his friends… “Thank you for clarifying because I couldn’t see that with my own two eyes. I am glad that you are here to remind me every day that he is aggressive.”
To call Morgan a hypocrite would be inappropriate. In fact, it would probably be understatement of the year. He does more preaching than a pastor on Sunday, but does not live up to a word he says. This man could talk an ear off about developmentally appropriate practices in preschool, but I can tell you that there is absolutely nothing developmentally appropriate about MRA – but again, I’ll save that one for another entry…
Aside from him being a tool of a human, let me tell you how inappropriate he is with the children (WARNING: if you are an American parent, you are about to have a heart attack. Bayer aspirin is recommended). From my understanding, his interactions/relationship with the children is completely culturally accepted, but I cannot get past it.
He acts more like a crazy uncle with the kids then the director of the center and a “teacher” figure. He wrestles on the floor with them, picks them up and throws the around, tickles them, chases them and loves interrupting class lessons. He allows the children to kick, hit and punch him and he loves to threaten them. His favorite saying is, “If you do not do ____, then I cannot let you ____.” They are empty threats, however, because he doesn’t follow through on anything. None of the children see him as any kind of authority figure. They do not listen to him and as soon as he walks into a room, they all think it is play time because that is all he does with them. Now of course everyone loves a crazy uncle, right? But how would you feel if you walked into your child’s classroom to see the male director of the program sitting on top of your child tickling him/her? Or my favorite, when children begin to hit him and punch him like they always do, he turns his body and sticks out his butt so the kids hit his butt.
The worst is when he comes into my classroom when I am trying to get the kids ready for a lesson. As soon as they see him, the boy automatically attack him, and I sit there, waiting for him to grow up so that I can continue with my lesson. Then after he leaves, I spend the next twenty minutes trying to get the attention of my 4 year olds back on the lesson. But then Morgan has the nerve to tell me that my boys are “aggressive”. I want to tell him, “No, my boys are not aggressive until you walk into the room and allow them to hit and kick you. Then, of course they are aggressive.”
I have seen kids slap him across the face hard enough to knock off his glasses and he laughs. Now tell me how I am supposed to tell my kids it is not ok to hit and kick and wrestle in school when an adult is not only supporting it, but encouraging it? Additionally, when he wrestles on the floor with a pile of kids jumping and climbing all over him, a child always ends up getting hurt because he is too rough with them, or another child accidently hits his friend instead of Mr. Morgan. Parents complain about the behavior on a regular basis, especially the Western families. Whenever the complaint is brought to his attention, he always seems so surprised… like he has no idea that his behavior is inappropriate.
Last week, I had to have a meeting with him after one of my parents was completely livid with the fighting going on at school. It was interesting having to sit down with my boss and tell him that fighting is not ok in my classroom and I would appreciate it if he did not play fight with my kids to encourage the behavior. I told him that my parents were outraged and that his interactions with my children were completely inappropriate and that his actions would land him in jail or at least one hell of a lawsuit in America. His response – “Oh, ok. I will try to cut back with your class.”
Well, I sure hope you are as worked up as I am right now. I think that you are beginning to feel some of the same feelings for Morgan as I do… Now let me tell you the other side of Morgan – the Chinese version. Now, apparently, the “Chinese Morgan” is very different from “American Morgan” (I use this very condescendingly because sometimes he refers to himself as “We Americans…” and sometimes he says, “We Chinese…” but I assure you, there is nothing American about him). Morgan is a completely different person to the Chinese teachers, and compared to them, our job and our relationship is a cake walk.
First of all, the job responsibilities divided between the American and Chinese teachers is completely unfair. I am the lead teacher, but the Chinese teachers are supposed to do all of the bitch work. They come in hours before us to ride on the school buses to pick up the children, then they stay hours after us to clean and disinfect the entire preschool. Throughout the day, they are supposed to do all of the cleaning and set up. They do not get a break throughout the day either while the American teachers get over an hour. Aside from their daily duties… you might be interested to learn that they do not actually make a wage. Instead, their pay in based on their performance throughout the month and bonuses are added and fines are subtracted for Morgan to come up with an amount that he feels is appropriate.
For starters, Chinese teachers get bonuses if they tell on each other – this makes for an interesting work environment (and I have learned that you can’t trust anyone). One the other hand, Chinese teachers are fined if they don’t wear enough make up, if their hair is not done perfectly every day, if they do not finish their lunches, if too many kids are absent from their class, if parents complain about anything, and anything else he feels like fining them for. It is appalling, and yet another reason why he would go to jail in America.
The other day, Mr. Morgan came into my classroom and asked for both of the Chinese teachers to step out into the hallway with him. Then he proceeded to tell them that they did not look pretty enough because they were not wearing enough red lipstick. If that was me, I would have slapped him! However, in the Asian culture, it is completely acceptable for the boss to enforce a “dress code” and fine employees for not following dress code. They were each fined 200 Yuan and wore a little more make up the next day. Then there are the American teachers… we roll out of bed, sometimes shower, throw our hair back and never wear makeup. Also, on days that the Chinese teachers can’t finish their lunch, they will scoop the left over’s into a bag and hide it in the garbage. The Chinese teachers tell me stories all the time about the things that he says to them or tells them to do, and I just can’t believe it. All of them hate him, naturally, but I just can’t imagine why they stick around (some of them for several years).
Anyway… I am done ranting for now. There will be more to come. I can’t wait to tell you all about my curriculum! I am in the process of making some huge changes to my classroom so I will let you know more about that later.
Zàijiàn for now
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