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These are the things that have ultimately convinced me to accept the post.
I spoke with people currently living in Minsk about the situation, including several of the single female teachers, and all of them feel safe enough to stay right now. I also spoke with my friend Josh. I’ve known him for like 12 years, and he is the person who convinced me to work for QSI in the first place. He knows some of the teachers moving to Minsk and some already there. He also worked with the director of my school in Shenzhen for years and trusts him (with regards to cutting my position in China), so I don’t feel like I’m being duped. And I spoke with longtime QSI employees that I know personally and trust about how my transfer offer was handled, and they all agree that the organization as a whole really is doing its best to both do right by staff but also keep the schools open.
My best work friend at Shenzhen is the IE coordinator, and she’s kept me in the loop as much as she can, and basically, our numbers have drastically fallen. I think our elementary and middle school has lost fully half its students. And unfortunately for me, ESL positions are the easiest to fill. English teacher jobs in general are easy to fill and there are a lot of teachers. I knew this when I started teaching 14 years ago, but I love it too much to change. Although I have thought about getting a social studies endorsement. If I was a math or science teacher, then I could pretty much get a job anywhere, at any moment (visa and border issues notwithstanding). But I’m not. So it’s not so much that my job disappeared but that there aren’t enough students to justify continuing to fight to bring me, Deb, back. They absolutely hired as many teachers who are already in China as they could, and I don’t blame them.
What I am grateful for is that QSI has worked hard to find transfers for us (this has been going on since at least June) or offer severance. I’ve heard from teachers in other organizations (via Facebook groups, so take it with a grain of salt) that many of those schools are simply cancelling contracts without other offers on the table for the staff.
One thing I have had to learn is that at the end of the day, your job will always prioritize the company because that’s how businesses work. It is the exception, not the rule that a company will bend over backwards for its staff, and the same goes for schools. Someday I’ll tell you about my horrible experiences with the McMinnville School District in Oregon, but that whole year was so traumatic I get nauseated even thinking about going back to the state of Oregon itself.
Anyway, the other person I spoke with was my uncle Mark. This is the biggest factor in accepting. My uncle treats me like his own daughter. He was in the FBI for many years and has experience working with foreign governments, including experience in Russia. After he retired he was a consultant, mostly for banks investigating fraud and money laundering, so he is well informed about things like organized crime and shady government dealings. He is also well informed about current world political dealings — not in that he deals directly with them since he is fully retired but he likes to keep up on things. There are few people in the world I trust to have as complete and balanced an understanding of the world as any civilian. Which is not to say he is unbiased. He stressed his concern for my safety over having a job. He gave me great advice about what questions to ask, things to read, and in the end, he said he was comfortable with me taking this job. He didn’t say, “OMG yay! Go to Minsk!” But by the end of our conversation, I felt comfortable enough to accept the job.
One of the things I’m most looking forward to is getting back into “regular” English teaching. That is, I’ll be teaching writing, American Lit, British Lit, AP Research, and I think sophomore English. I loved working with my IE kids and team in Shenzhen, but TOEFL classes and schools are legion, and even though I’m in an accredited international school, I’ve found that having the Intensive English on my resume has meant it gets dismissed a lot because a lot of TOEFL language schools are shady as heck. I’ve chosen to teach only in accredited international schools, especially those with IB (International Baccalaureate) and AP (Advanced Placement) curriculums, partly because those organizations tend to be less shady and to be located in places I want to live. The problem is that many of those schools want teachers to have at least two years experience in an IB school. Diplomas from these schools are accepted at pretty much any university in the world. There are big tests each year to earn that diploma, so staff at those schools tend to be well trained, licensed teachers and not 22 year old kids looking for adventure for a year. Not that there’s anything wrong with (most of) those kids, but for me, teaching is as much my calling as my career, and I want to be in a school that provides ongoing professional development, which I will continue to get at QSI. I also love, love, love teaching literature, critical thinking and reading skills, helping students become better writers. I admit I’m apprehensive about teaching American and British lit because holy moly that curriculum is stuffed to the gills with Dead White Racists, but that means I also get to be the teacher who helps kids see that. I loved my high school English teachers, but they didn’t work much outside the Canon. I want to be like my amazing grad school professors, but I also don’t think it’s right that I didn’t get these amazing teachers until I was in grad school. I’m not saying I’m the perfect teacher, but if I may brag, I try hard, every year, to expand my own horizons and break down my barriers, and I try to take the kids along with me.
Anyway, if you’ve made it this far, thank you. And THANK YOU for all your care and concern. I might seem naive to be so trusting and hopeful in this world, and maybe I am. But I hope I’ve reassured you that I’ve done the best I can. A two-day turn around for an answer about such a big life decision is far from ideal, but I hope I’ve reassured you (and myself, as I type this) that I’ve drawn on a lot of resources and experiences that have allowed me to make this decision with as clear eyes as I’m able. I don’t think an extra week to think would have changed my mind. And, as my uncle said, since I’m not being asked to fly out tomorrow, I can watch the situation and if things change or if I feel unsafe, I can say no. It might suck for the school, but my first duty is to myself and my family just as the school’s duty is to itself and its students. I’m choosing to trust that this is the best choice I can make while keeping in mind that I get to decide if I get on the plane when the time comes.
I spoke with people currently living in Minsk about the situation, including several of the single female teachers, and all of them feel safe enough to stay right now. I also spoke with my friend Josh. I’ve known him for like 12 years, and he is the person who convinced me to work for QSI in the first place. He knows some of the teachers moving to Minsk and some already there. He also worked with the director of my school in Shenzhen for years and trusts him (with regards to cutting my position in China), so I don’t feel like I’m being duped. And I spoke with longtime QSI employees that I know personally and trust about how my transfer offer was handled, and they all agree that the organization as a whole really is doing its best to both do right by staff but also keep the schools open.
My best work friend at Shenzhen is the IE coordinator, and she’s kept me in the loop as much as she can, and basically, our numbers have drastically fallen. I think our elementary and middle school has lost fully half its students. And unfortunately for me, ESL positions are the easiest to fill. English teacher jobs in general are easy to fill and there are a lot of teachers. I knew this when I started teaching 14 years ago, but I love it too much to change. Although I have thought about getting a social studies endorsement. If I was a math or science teacher, then I could pretty much get a job anywhere, at any moment (visa and border issues notwithstanding). But I’m not. So it’s not so much that my job disappeared but that there aren’t enough students to justify continuing to fight to bring me, Deb, back. They absolutely hired as many teachers who are already in China as they could, and I don’t blame them.
What I am grateful for is that QSI has worked hard to find transfers for us (this has been going on since at least June) or offer severance. I’ve heard from teachers in other organizations (via Facebook groups, so take it with a grain of salt) that many of those schools are simply cancelling contracts without other offers on the table for the staff.
One thing I have had to learn is that at the end of the day, your job will always prioritize the company because that’s how businesses work. It is the exception, not the rule that a company will bend over backwards for its staff, and the same goes for schools. Someday I’ll tell you about my horrible experiences with the McMinnville School District in Oregon, but that whole year was so traumatic I get nauseated even thinking about going back to the state of Oregon itself.
Anyway, the other person I spoke with was my uncle Mark. This is the biggest factor in accepting. My uncle treats me like his own daughter. He was in the FBI for many years and has experience working with foreign governments, including experience in Russia. After he retired he was a consultant, mostly for banks investigating fraud and money laundering, so he is well informed about things like organized crime and shady government dealings. He is also well informed about current world political dealings — not in that he deals directly with them since he is fully retired but he likes to keep up on things. There are few people in the world I trust to have as complete and balanced an understanding of the world as any civilian. Which is not to say he is unbiased. He stressed his concern for my safety over having a job. He gave me great advice about what questions to ask, things to read, and in the end, he said he was comfortable with me taking this job. He didn’t say, “OMG yay! Go to Minsk!” But by the end of our conversation, I felt comfortable enough to accept the job.
One of the things I’m most looking forward to is getting back into “regular” English teaching. That is, I’ll be teaching writing, American Lit, British Lit, AP Research, and I think sophomore English. I loved working with my IE kids and team in Shenzhen, but TOEFL classes and schools are legion, and even though I’m in an accredited international school, I’ve found that having the Intensive English on my resume has meant it gets dismissed a lot because a lot of TOEFL language schools are shady as heck. I’ve chosen to teach only in accredited international schools, especially those with IB (International Baccalaureate) and AP (Advanced Placement) curriculums, partly because those organizations tend to be less shady and to be located in places I want to live. The problem is that many of those schools want teachers to have at least two years experience in an IB school. Diplomas from these schools are accepted at pretty much any university in the world. There are big tests each year to earn that diploma, so staff at those schools tend to be well trained, licensed teachers and not 22 year old kids looking for adventure for a year. Not that there’s anything wrong with (most of) those kids, but for me, teaching is as much my calling as my career, and I want to be in a school that provides ongoing professional development, which I will continue to get at QSI. I also love, love, love teaching literature, critical thinking and reading skills, helping students become better writers. I admit I’m apprehensive about teaching American and British lit because holy moly that curriculum is stuffed to the gills with Dead White Racists, but that means I also get to be the teacher who helps kids see that. I loved my high school English teachers, but they didn’t work much outside the Canon. I want to be like my amazing grad school professors, but I also don’t think it’s right that I didn’t get these amazing teachers until I was in grad school. I’m not saying I’m the perfect teacher, but if I may brag, I try hard, every year, to expand my own horizons and break down my barriers, and I try to take the kids along with me.
Anyway, if you’ve made it this far, thank you. And THANK YOU for all your care and concern. I might seem naive to be so trusting and hopeful in this world, and maybe I am. But I hope I’ve reassured you that I’ve done the best I can. A two-day turn around for an answer about such a big life decision is far from ideal, but I hope I’ve reassured you (and myself, as I type this) that I’ve drawn on a lot of resources and experiences that have allowed me to make this decision with as clear eyes as I’m able. I don’t think an extra week to think would have changed my mind. And, as my uncle said, since I’m not being asked to fly out tomorrow, I can watch the situation and if things change or if I feel unsafe, I can say no. It might suck for the school, but my first duty is to myself and my family just as the school’s duty is to itself and its students. I’m choosing to trust that this is the best choice I can make while keeping in mind that I get to decide if I get on the plane when the time comes.
