Home Thoughts From Abroad

I love drama. Some would say that is because I am a ham and crave attention. Well, all teachers have to have some sense of timing and teachable moment or they cannot be effective. But limelight? Actually I am painfully shy at heart and spent maybe the first 20 years as a teacher with painful sore throats that would often lead to strep for the first two months of every school year in absolute dread of having to stand in front of people and let them see how little I know. I have learned how to manage that stress, but limelight I leave to others. They are plenty of prima dons and donnas in this profession. Some of them are actually quite talented. Some of them simply have an inflated sense of self. Unfortunately, Drama Festival can bring out the worst in my colleagues as some of them cannot resist the spell of the spotlight. That is not what I love.

What I love about drama is how it brings a class together. Drama is more effective at doing this than almost anything else you can name. You can teach your class about working cooperatively together until you are blue in the face. You can design modules, and construct space, invent clever strategies, and provide endless examples. You can have literature circles and reading groups, you can plan seminars and workshops, but if your students have come from a restrictive and repressive education system – as Asians have by and large – then it will take months of patience and effort to bring them to the place where they begin to work together as a team. And even at that it may still not happen. Or you can let your class do drama and bring all that and much more about in a few short weeks. And have fun doing it!

Drama has the power to take us out of ourselves and teach us in a very practical and unforgiving way the absolute necessity of working together as a group. You don’t show up on time? Everyone on your team has to wait until you get there. You forget your lines? Everyone in that scene suffers from your failure. You have to work together on where you stand in relation to everyone else on the stage. You have to work together to move the props about and organize your costumes around a theme or time period. You have to work together on script and accent, on gesture and response. Everything everyone else does affects you, and everything you do affects everyone else.

As for the performance itself? That is just the icing on the cake. It is fun to see and especially fun to witness those who are shy like me come out of their shells and lose themselves in their characters. There were many notable performances that day in other classes. There were individuals who clearly have greasepaint in their veins, whose performances who outstanding. There were those who commanded the audience’s attention and compelled their admiration and respect. I commend them for their performances and the characters they created. But I was trying to do something else. I was trying to create a caring community through drama. And that is something both much harder to do, and more enduring.

I wanted my students to enjoy what others in their class were doing as they brought their characters to life. I wanted them to come up with their own suggestions on character and staging and share them with others. I wanted them to work together on their plan and then plan for little details. I wanted them to feel the rush of anxiety and anticipation and the absolute thrill of experiencing all of what you have planned take place in front of a live audience who laughs and applauds with approval at what you have created for their enjoyment. I love seeing the transformation in my students as they move from a sense of individuality to a sense of the unity of the group and the importance of depending on others for your own individual success. If you are thoughtful, if you are careful to allow the students to take responsibility for what they are doing, then what you build through drama is a community, instead of a class.

That is what I love about drama.

I am 65. I make no bones about it and no apologies for my age. I have earned every one of those years through the toil and dedication of my commitment to educational excellence. It is just that we all live in such a superficial culture anymore where the emphasis is all on what happened 15 minutes ago. Does anyone care that Ebola is still killing people in West Africa? See my point?

My students are always stunned when I say that I have absolutely no desire to be young again. Been there; done that. It was every bit as painful and embarrassing as what you are going through if you are young and you could not pay me enough to go through that again. I like the age that I am. I like what I have learned and done and who I have become. I know what the advertisements say and they all lie. Old is good; old is very satisfying. But it does limit your career options. Many countries will not hire above 65. Some set the limit at 60 and some post it as low as 55. It is their country; they get to do what they like. I may not agree with it, but I have to find a job in an increasingly smaller world.

With that in mind Pam and I went to the ISS Job Fair in San Francisco. We had registered for this job fair back in October, and had built a good part of this present trip around that weekend. As I noted in an earlier post, for us the Lord is always in the details of these things, and it is marvelous how He works out those details for our good. Pam had us booked in at the Holiday Inn at Fisherman’s Wharf, and the location turned out to be ideal, as the job fair was only a short trolley ride away and the area was jammed with restaurants and night life. We went down to the venue and registered as soon as we arrived and steeled ourselves for what I was sure was going to be a chaotic and demoralizing zoo in trying to land a job in a limited market.

Through months of careful planning and screening we had selected several target schools and countries as the focus of our search. One by one the Lord eliminated them until only two remained, both in our target destination of the Caribbean. Amazingly, neither school was at all concerned about my age; amazingly, both of them competed for my services. After a whirlwind two days, I accepted what seemed to be the best offer of the two, a school that offered me a chance to teach English in their International Baccalaureate program at the high school level. I start in August.

To say that I am surprised by this development is understatement. One does not expect to be landing a plum job in an area of interest and expertise at my age as easily as this. I know colleagues half my age who are struggling to find a position nearly as advantageous. Not only did I have two schools competing for my services, but I was treated by the hiring agency, ISS, with the utmost courtesy and consideration. If you are a teacher and you are looking to teach internationally, may I highly recommended this organization. They are true professionals

The long and short of it is that there is going to be another chapter in our lives before retirement. How long this chapter lasts is not ours to know at the moment. We went to Malaysia on the strength of a one year contract. By the time we leave it will be eight years. I will sign on for this position for two years. Perhaps that is all we will get. If so, we will be grateful. Perhaps we will get more. If so, we will be truly old before we retire! All we know for now is that I have a job and we are moving to the Caribbean this summer. You are welcome to come and visit us. If you don’t mind staying with old people.

Carol Dweck, America’s leading educational psychologist, conducted a series of ground-breaking studies (summarized here) into cognition that sought to assess the value of praise on student learning. Her intention was to determine if specific teacher responses impeded or encouraged learning behavior. Praise comments were divided into two categories: words and phrases targeting existing intelligence, and those targeting effort and ingenuity.

Readers can easily imagine for themselves what those comments might be. “Aren’t you a clever lad” is one that I often heard myself as I was growing up. On the other side of the coin would be phrases like, “You really worked hard on that assignment,” or “I like what you did in that part of your answer.” Students who solved the first problem were given the first set of praise comments, students who failed to solve the first problem were given the second set. The results were more than interesting; they have spawned an entirely new direction in pedagogy.

Students who were told that they were bright, clever, intelligent, gifted, and so on obviously enjoyed the attention. But a curious thing happened when Dweck gave them a choice on a subsequent assignment. Almost invariably they chose the easier task that would ensure them further praise of this nature; comments focusing on their existing intelligence. Students who were praised for their effort and ingenuity in tackling the previous problem were far more likely to choose the more challenging problem. This pattern repeated itself for the next few challenges.

However, when Dweck removed the option of choice in a final and most difficult problem, the students who had struggled through the earlier difficult problems were much more persistent and successful at solving this final problem than the supposedly “clever” students who often simply gave up in frustration. Even more remarkably, when Dweck gave all students the opportunity to mark their own work, the “clever” students were far more likely to lie about how successful they had been.

This landmark study has since been confirmed by a mountain of research and supporting theory, and “Growth Mindset” pedagogy has become something of growth industry of late. The tenets of this theory are few and foundational, and counter basically all that we have thought about learning for generations. The theory contends that there is no fixed intelligence. The brain is almost infinitely malleable and capable of learning and growth, even in advanced old age (a comforting thought to us older learners!). It seems that the much maligned adage of “fake it until you make it” actually makes good pedagogical sense. Apparently we all have the capacity to grow into our jobs simply by consistently applying existing knowledge and being willing to make the effort to solve the problems before us with persistence and ingenuity.

The downside, if there is one, is to be cautious of the messages we give to others. Praise for what they already know and can do well, is counter-productive and leads to both stasis and deception. Praise for what they are attempting that they haven’t been able to do before, encourages growth and persistence. In others words, we want to avoid our children saying “I can’t do that,” and encourage them to think instead, “I can’t do that, YET!”

One of the many things that Taylor’s College does well is honour their staff. I have been on staff for six and a half years now, not the longest I have been at any one school, but longer than my stretches at Scott Street, where I started, or Elgin Court, where I went next. I have watched many staff come and go during that time, as teaching overseas is a pretty transient position. In fact I am now the longest serving expat at the school, as my good friend Easton Hanna who arrived the same year as I did went home in July.

Malaysian teachers tend to stay longer, and in fact one of them, Ungku Nazli, received her 15 year recognition at this ceremony, and two other staff Joanne Ho, and Rowena Valberg were both recognized for twenty five years. There are staff in other programs who have been at Taylor’s even longer, as the company seeks to foster commitment and contentment. Other staff arrive in our program all the time; some stay for years, others for only a year. It is always good to have new interests and new commitments. But it is also good to have those who are prepared to invest their lives in this institution.

Education is a business in much of Asia, and that is just a reality. Some are offended by this; some like myself see the potential for a lot of good. I am currently engaged in developing this company’s corporate social responsibility, and it has been both rewarding and encouraging to see so many willing to commit to the larger good of the larger community even though their present workload is heavy and their days are long. Celebrating that commitment through happy get togethers like this is one way of encouraging that commitment.

See the slide show of this event at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2s70w2IKfA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I got this email from a former student a couple of days ago. I thought maybe I would post the question and the response in case they might be of help to others.

Dear Mr. Wise:

Hello there. I hope you are doing fine. I am not sure if you still remember me. I used to be one of your students. I am currently in the UK doing hospitality and business management. I am going through a difficult spell just now and I am just wondering about my degree. I am kind of getting bad results in my first year (pass or D/C/B) and even if try my best to score in year 2 and 3, is it still possible to get a first class degree? Do certificates really matter? And why do people look down on hospitality courses? Is it not academic enough? Please give me some motivation and advice.

Sorry Millie: 

I have been off for a couple of days with Deepavali and Muslim New Year. I tend not to open email that comes to my work address while I am holiday, because that just gets me thinking about work. That is one of my Strategies for Sanity. Here are the others:

Strategy #1: Prioritize: Write down a list of the things that you need to do and rank them in order of importance. Usually watching television will be the last thing on your list. I hardly ever get there, unless it is a really slack time in my life. Then do the things on your list in the order of priority. Always do the most important thing on your list first, even if it is the hardest thing to do. In time this listing process will become internal and habitual.

Strategy #2: Compartmentalize: do the thing that is in front of you now. Don’t even think about the other things that you are not doing because you are doing that thing. When you get to the next thing, do that with all your attention as well, and don’t think about the last thing – how well you did, if others liked it, yada,yada – just doing as best as you can the thing that you are presently doing. Do each thing you do with the same level of concentration and commitment and before you know it you will be doing many things well

Strategy #3: Rest: Never work for more than 55 minutes before getting up to fix a cup of tea. But keep the break to 5 minutes, then get back to work. Life is short and there is much to do.

Strategy #4: Visualize: Remind yourself of the long view from time to time. Talk about it with yourself and with others. The more you talk about your goals the more real they will become. It is of absolutely no consequence what others think about what your goals are. They don’t know you, they aren’t living your life; you are. Keep your dreams alive by discussing your plans with others and be prepared to listen to their dreams as well, for this is how we build a network of friends and allies who will support us.

Strategy #5: Laugh: God gave us this life to enjoy, so enjoy it. Laugh at the folly of life and your own weaknesses. Laugh at the silly self-important posturing of egotists, especially those in positions of power. Don’t they know that one day they too will stand naked before God to be judged by their Creator? Laughter is a great leveler and stress reliever.

Strategy #6 Accept yourself: For all your faults and limitations you are the person your Creator intended to make when He made you. He also built in you an enormous capacity to grow and become more than you presently are. But if He is prepared to accept you now for the way you now are, shouldn’t you as well? Yes you do stupid things; we all do. Only the truly stupid fail to understand how truly stupid we all are. So what? Stupid is part of who we are. So is creative, persevering, stubborn, forgiving, forgetful, caring, callous, naughty and nice. God loves us anyway. Let’s just accept that and do the best we can with what He has given us.

You will notice that all of this things have to do with ‘doing’ stuff, and very little of it has to do with ‘being.’ That is because “We are what we repeatedly do,” in Aristotle’s immortal phrase. Don’t worry about the ‘being’ part; it will take care of itself. Concentrate on the doing, and you will become.

All the best!

I don’t like saying goodbyes. It is hard to know what to say; how much or how little. You don’t want to presume upon another’s emotional space. Perhaps you weren’t as meaningful in their lives as they were in yours. You are trying to capture how you feel in words, and the words are too lame to describe how you feel. I was trying to explain to one of my classes the other day not to get too caught with money as a motivating factor in one’s life; that love was what motivated me, and in my humble opinion was more meaningful. They just kind of looked me. Huh?

But if this is going to be my last day in the classroom, and it may well be, I am going to talk about the most important thing in life. And that is love. So rather than talk about love today, in order to get the point across, I sang about it. Sometimes a song can get through when words can’t. I told them that when they were young love was often painful and full of loss and regret. Then I sang them ‘Hallelujah’ by Leonard Cohen. The hurt they understood! There is a lot of hurt and rejection around love when you are young.

Then I told them that when you are older that love can be a great comfort, especially in a stable relationship. And then I sang the ‘River is Wide,’ an old Irish ballad which has a hundred different verses. I chose ones that were most meaningful to me; ones that speak about God’s sustaining power to keep love alive. It is my conviction that without God in a relationship, that love is very hard to maintain.

The river is wide, I cannot cross, and neither have I wings to fly

We’ll build a boat that can carry two, and so we’ll cross my love and I

There is a ship, and she sails the sea; she’s loaded deep, as deep can be

But not so deep as the love I’m in; I know not if I sink or swim.

When love is young, then love is kind; just like a jewel when first it shines

Our love grows old, and yet it stands; for yet it’s held in God’s good hand

This life is like that river wide, and we don’t have us wings to fly

Our love’s a boat in which we ride, and so we’ll cross my love and I

We also watched the class’ production of Waiting for Godot which was great fun and a project that had really helped the class to understand that they were all in a community together. Then we had some ice cream and we all took pictures. In the new term I will be back at CPU, but not in the classroom. I will take on the responsibility of the Bario Project and cover some time in Student Success. I will have no class of students to teach. And I will miss it!

I have been in the classroom for 38 years and I couldn’t bring myself to say goodbye. I guess I am still hopeful that one day I will be back in front of the students that I love. I am so very grateful to the Lord for this privilege He has granted me for so many years. I wish my students all the very best on their exam tomorrow, and promise that I will mark, as I always do, with fairness and compassion. Thank you for your gifts and cards today. Be all you can be.

Mr. Wise

I have been to a number of weddings in my time. But few, if any, could match yesterday’s wedding between Easton and Yuri Hanna for its creativity, design and attention to detail; it was a marvel of organization and classic style.

We began with a tea ceremony at the house of Yuri’s parents. This was conducted in traditional Chinese costume and Yuri’s red Chinese dress was stunning. After some silly games that the bridesmaids conducted to test the groom’s determination to come in, we were admitted to the formal part of the ceremony that involved the obtaining of parental blessing through the offering of tea. It was charming and delightful.

Then it was off to the Corus Hotel in downtown KL for the pictures to be taken in the bridal suite, decorated by Yuri in the retro 60s Mad Men theme that they had chosen for their wedding. Little gift boxes adorned the room, along with some very classy black and white photographs on display along with retro vinyl and advertisements from that era.

After some informal shots on the canopy bed and more formal ones in the living room, the proceedings were adjourned for the morning and we all went and had breakfast and a nap. I confess I worked for three hours; deadlines being what they are regardless of the occasion.

In the early evening I collected a carload of guests and we all headed back for the reception and dinner. Once again Yuri’s design was evident everywhere. The reception room was entirely retro 60s complete with turntable, ads, and table favours. Most guests had followed the invitational suggestion to dress the part of the show, and it certainly added to the ambience to see the skirts, curls and makeup of the ladies, with dapper ties, stripes, suspenders and fedoras of the guys. We all looked pretty swell!

Speeches were blessedly short and sweet, and food and drinks were in abundant supply. Yuri went through three costume changes that evening, each one as elegant and stylish as the one before, and all the cheerful spirit and warm camaraderie adding to the genuine joy we all felt at seeing our good friend Easton so happily married to such a beautiful and accomplished young woman. We wish them all the best for a long and happy marriage!

Each semester the students at the Canadian Pre-University program where I teach put on a Drama Festival over on the main campus. This year my three classes did Act II of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, a play that was written shortly after the devastation of the Second World War that envisions a future landscape where billions have died in some global catastrophe leaving only a few survivors to make sense out of what little of their life remains.

The play consists of two principal characters, Vladimir and Estragon who meet two other people during the course of the play who are just as destitute and confused about what has happened to their world as they are. They spend the entire play waiting for someone or something to enter their lives and give them meaning, entertaining themselves with pointless exercises and engaging in conversations that range from the meaningless, to the poetic, and even deeply philosophical. Despite its depressing theme, the play is touched by traces of warmth and compassion, with liberal doses of dark, ironic humour.

Last year when my classes were larger I divided the second act into twelve parts and had my twenty five students each take a portion. I tried re-dividing the play this year for my smaller classes, but the divisions I had arrived at last year would not yield easily; it seems as if I had stumbled across pretty close the ideal separation of roles. So I asked my stronger students to take on two portions of the play, and as in typical in Asia, they did so without grumbling or complaining, bless their hearts!

Last night we staged our productions in the largest lecture theatre on the main campus, one that has a proper stage and tiered seating. Despite several weeks of advertising, promoting, and rehearsals, I confess I was disappointed with the audience turnout. The theatre was considerably less than half full despite my best efforts. However, that does not detract from the performances, which were enthusiastic, well-memorized, and well-executed. I sat in the wings ready to prompt, but frankly had little work to do all night and instead was able to see some really fine performances by students who clearly enjoyed the experience. It is a great joy to me as a teacher to see my students take on a class project like this. They got to feel like they had taken part in something larger than themselves and contributed to its success.

Many of these students come from schools where they have been punished for speaking in class. If they ask questions they are made to feel stupid or rebellious. To be placed in English in a small group where they are encouraged to talk to each other is a scary and difficult thing at first. To put their faulty language and awkward accents on stage in front of their peers is overwhelmingly intimidating. Yet once they have done so there is an exhilarating feeling almost of liberation from the shackles of years of classroom restrictions.

To see the students I am teaching tackle something that a year ago would have been unthinkable, and not only to succeed at it but to enjoy the experience and share it with others, that to me is the most rewarding part of being a teacher. Congratulations to ALL who did the best that they could to take on this challenge last night. I admire your spirit!

One of the highlights of any year is the drama unit that allows me to unwind a little and have some fun with the students that I teach. A pre-university school like ours is pretty stressful as there is a lot riding on the line for these kids. Entrance requirements for quality universities are pretty high and the pressure to nail those marks can drive our students to the breaking point. Drama is a chance to let some of that pressure out through assuming a character and escaping from the endless routine of tests and assignments. Asians love drama; their culture is rich in it and with their excellent retentive skills they do well at committing their parts to memory. They also love dressing up, and the costumes are quite often very creative and colourful.

Last semester I started a Drama Festival at CPU to take some of that acting talent and put it on display in a larger setting so that parents and peers could come and watch. It was a huge success and it is no surprise that we are doing a repeat festival this term. The festival itself will take place on Monday, but as you can imagine there is a lot of preparation that has to go into an evening like this. The venues were booked four months ago and I have been planning this unit for at least three months. A month ago we started studying the play and this last week has been all about blocking out the scenes and coordinating the movements. This Saturday afternoon I left room for those who were keen to practice to come in to the school and see how it felt to use the room we have been assigned.

I love this aspect of my job. I love the joy that I see in students as they work together with their peers. This group you see pictured here come from Malaysia, Iran and Kyrgyzstan, yet they practiced together like they were brothers and sisters and then went off to a meal together. I love that. Four months ago they were barely able to say their name in class; they were so shy. Now they are acting out Shakespeare. What a great privilege it is to be their teacher through that incredible journey!

If you are planning on coming to this year’s Drama Festival, it will held on the main campus between 6pm and 9pm. There are different performances in LT1, LT2, LT3, and DR2 (right beside LT4 above the construction zone; just follow the signs). If you come to see my classes’ perform, we are in DR2. We are planning to stage the entire play in three hours, and you can come for as little or as much as you like. We will start at 6pm, and we will end at 9pm. Check with your friends to find out the time of their performances. Whichever venue you go to, have fun, encourage your friends and applaud their efforts. See you there!