Deadend Street - Coordinator

Deadend Street – EFL Coordinator

.

There are losers who lose themselves - taking the wrong turn in their lives, missing the right path that would have lead to their personal growth and happiness - and then there are losers who, though not seeing the light, have enough social skills to fool themselves into thinking that they are doing something important for humanity. They attain a position of authority because no one has bothered to check on their empty credentials. They end up denying the men, women, and children they influence the chance to find their own light. The detours their victims must take causes them reach their destination slower or sometimes not at all; they die or get sick before they have the chance to complete their journeys. Deadend Street is that kind of a loser; the kind of loser who makes others to lose.

Let’s go back to Deadend’s youth and figure him out. His youth somehow contributed to his later miniscule failures in life. His misplaced confidence, for one, can’t be traced to his college years; there weren’t many on his resume. It happened to him earlier than college. His claim to fame is that he started using computers when he was ten years old in New Zealand; he must have been one of the first in his hamlet whose parents could afford to buy one. But the computer skills he’s accumulated in twenty-five years since his first video game are few. “I love computers,” he wrote on his page, and went on to name his favorite movie sequels. This is from a person who is not only a “coordinator” but a “Computer Engineered Language Learning (CELL)” expert. His students have more computer knowledge than he himself. “They only had two colors twenty-two years ago,” he wrote on his blog, and he fondly remembers both.

His higher education consists of on-line courses at Simon Frazier University; an on-the-job-training. His semester in San Francisco State was spent after his coordinator title was bestowed upon him. He was hired at Shu-Shin high school five years after he left New Zealand, a year after meeting his wife, a student in his bushiban. He lied when he said he had lived in many other countries. She believed him; why not?

 In Taiwan now twelve years since leaving the green pastures of New Zealand, seven years sitting in his office, eight years married, someone might wonder how he kept getting a contract at Shu-Shin each year. Perhaps they’d wonder if he was married to a daughter of a school board member or if his dull persona made him safe to hire at a dull school; someone who cared about children’s education might wonder. This writer wondered.

I left Lowell two months ago to retire in Taiwan. Why Taiwan? Because my wife is from Taiwan and I had no reason not to retire there. I like the food and the willy-nilly street life. After twenty years, I kept my promise to retire in her homeland. I think of myself as a real teacher and I’ve been told I teach English to speakers of other languages rather well. I have a motive, too: The world can be a better place to live in if governments and institutions helped the people within their borders. Like Owen Caulfield, I want to catch students from falling in the rye. That’s why, though I dreaded working another full-time teaching position, I chose to apply for the full-time teaching position at Shu-Shin High School.

The position at Shu-Shin seemed like it was my manifest destiny. It was a high school. It was teaching English to speakers of Mandarin. It was near my apartment to ride there by bicycle, the technology students could use ethics to accompany their skills. I had all the qualifications in the want ad: “Shu-Shin High School (Taichung) seeks experienced/motivated teachers. Ideal candidates will possess the following:

l  University degree + CELTA/TESOL

l  Strong work ethic/excellent lesson planning/assessment & materials design skills

l  Open mind for new teaching practices and willingness to develop professionally

l  Communicative language teaching background

l  2-3 years secondary (high) school experience

The competitive package and three months paid holiday and bonus was really a bonus; I would have taught there without it. And so I answered the want ad and wrote an e-mail to Mr. Deadend Street:

“I am David Emerson from Lowell, Massachusetts, USA, where I was a public high school ESL teacher for twenty-five years. I retired in October 2012 and moved to Taiwan with my wife. I may be the person you want for the teaching position at Shu-Shin High School advertised in Dec. 2, 2012's Taipei Times. I have a permanent resident card and live in the Beitun district of Taichung. I am currently teaching children in a local bushiban, riding a bicycle, and writing blogs and a textbook for the "Taiwan Community Curriculum" based on a curriculum I wrote and used at Joe Ettor High School where I was also faculty advisor for the Bread & Roses Social Action Club. My Mandarin skills are a little rusty but I can get by. I lived in Taiwan in 1979 and from 1984 to 1989 teaching college composition classes and as EFL director at Dominican School in Taipei. If I could be of service to the students at Shu-Shin, please let me know. I can be contacted at this e-mail address or call me at home phone 0424364191 or cell phone 0989377020. Thank you.”

He wrote back:

“Hello Emerson and thanks for your email. In order to move ahead with an application we require an up to date resume as well as a cover letter. We're specifically looking at candidates right now who have extensive experience at the secondary level in Taiwan. As it stands, we've had a number of applications from such teachers with MA's in in (sic) TESOL or Applied Linguistics. If I am to move ahead with your application I'll need these ASAP as we're currently scheduling interviews.

If you're unsuccessful on this round of applications I'm sure you would have a competitive application for Semester 1 2013/2014.

Regards, Deadend Street”

     I hadn’t even been invited to an interview, yet, and this man was preparing me for being “…unsuccessful on this round of application.” In fact he changed the job qualifications from “…2-3 years secondary (high) school experience” to “…candidates who have extensive experience at the secondary level in Taiwan.” I do have seven years TESOL experience teaching and writing curriculum in secondary schools in Taiwan and I had told him so. He had the gall to warn me, “…[they've] had a number of applications from such teachers with MA's in in (sic) TESOL or Applied Linguistics” and, “…[he'll] need [an up to date resume as well as a cover letter] ASAP as [he's] currently scheduling interviews.”

     Immediately, I e-mailed him my resume, cover letter, photo of me with the student club I advised, and a link to a website with a curriculum I used in some of my classes, just to show that I had “…an open mind for new teaching practices,” as he requested in the want ad.

     But Deadend Street was in a bind in early December at Shu-Shin High School. One of his teachers had told him she’d be leaving to get a teaching position in another school. What was he going to do? “At least finish this term and enter the grades,” he urged her, not wanting to pull himself away from his trophy desk to substitute for her, or worse: have to explain why another teacher he hired was leaving the school so soon. There were six weeks left before final exams and the Lunar New Year holiday and sixty students in each of three classes to enter grades for. “What a headache,” he said. He would have to stand in front of the raw sparse classroom, the size of a mess hall, and teach! No. He had to find a replacement for her.

     The administration didn’t read English and wouldn’t see the ad he paid for in the Taipei Times but they knew another teacher was leaving; Deadend had to tell them. That’s what coordinators do. So Mr. Lu, a stalwart of the school, a former student, would put his research project on hold, and finish the classes. Mr. Street could then concentrate on finding a new teacher for the spring term.

     And so the opportunity had risen in his life to put things straight and really do something for his students and humanity.

“Thank you for responding to my offer to teach,” I wrote back, biting the bullet of his put-down reply. “Here is my resume and a photo of me with the Bread & Roses Club I facilitated at Joe Ettor High School in Lowell. My MA is in education and Asian Studies. I would gladly show you my complete credentials and portfolio at my interview with you. In addition to teaching ESL in Ettor for twenty-one years, In Taiwan, I taught secondary levels as the ESL Coordinator at Dominican School for three years, In addition, I wrote the curriculum for Joy Children's English Center as well as establishing my own after school center. I taught at Fu-Jen and Tamkang University full time and part time at Culture College.”

“I believe,” I went on, “that high school language programs should be relevant for students understanding and improving the world and people's living conditions. The students studying technology in your school will need a philosophy which the Taiwan Community and Bread & Roses Curriculums would foster. Google "David Emerson: Bread & Roses" to see Sweatfree Communities website and a curriculum I would modify for use with high school students here in Taiwan. Please contact me if I can be of service. Thank you,” is what I wrote.

But zebras do not change their stripes and this zebra from New  Zealandwas no exception. I would have been the perfect choice to replace the native English speaking teacher who had to leave. After all, I had all the qualifications Deadend Street required, except for one, and a big one it was: I am more qualified to do Deadend’s job than he. That was too much for his ego to bear.

So I wait, not holding my breath, while Deadend sits in his office and wonders perhaps if I will annoy him and expose his deficiencies. Not for a moment does he plan on giving me a proper response and acknowledge receipt of my resume and cover letter. A response or a nod to my qualification would be out of the question. His only concern now would be to manufacture the other candidates he so boldly said were waiting in the wing to teach TESOL at Shu-Shin High School.

 Yes, the students would suffer, as students suffer all over Taiwan, in private and public schools, in bushibans, but they would never know what they were missing. A loser from New Zealand had led his flock astray and would, forever more, flock himself.