Irresponsible

My big project here at the Institute was to teach a tool on how to use ICT to encourage democratic citizenship.

Interesting idea.

We are using schools in Romania and schools in Florida.

I adore my classes. The teacher is awesome, and he tries so so hard with this project.

The Florida classes have been less than enthusiastic. I emailed to see how they were doing and never got a response. I emailed again. And again. And again. Nothing. My boss emailed them. And emailed them. And emailed them. Nothing.

My Romanian teacher needs an answer. Romanian schools have two weeks vacation starting Monday. Last Friday, I promised to find him a new partner.

I emailed our Floriday contact who called me long distance. I explained the problem and he said that the Florida class must have lost interest.

Did they not consider it important enough to tell *me* this? Or my boss? Are they ignoring our emails or do they not check them?

The Florida coordinator said he would try to get another class. It's been a week and I haven't heard from him. I emailed him on Tuesday to remind him of the deadline and he wrote back that he hoped he would have an answer soon.

The problem with North American classes is that they are too structured. Teachers already have their lesson plans this late in the year. In that sense, Romanian schools are better. While kids are kids everywhere, the teachers I have dealt with did not teach out of a textbook. They encouraged discussion, thinking out of the box and alternate forms of problem solving.

However, I am also dealing with "affluent" schools for gifted children.

The Romanian students here have classes in civics and philosophy. The coolest thing I had at their age was art and gym. Most of the teachers have here masters degrees. Several of my teachers in high school had masters but in junior high? I don't think any of them did.

One thing I did notice was the lack of dress codes. I helped out at a Project Citizen showcase and I was shocked at how the girls were dressed. Crop tops, see-through shirts, ultra-tight jeans. In junior high! Some of the schools have uniforms but the students wear whatever they want underneath.

I explained to one of the teachers that our schools at home had dress codes. At my high school, skirts could be no more than three inches above the knee, our shirts had to reach our waistbands, girls could not wear spaghetti-strap tank tops and no one could wear clothing with beer or cigarette logos on them.

She told me that at her school, teachers don't have the right to dictate how students dress. She had colleagues suggest to parents that their child dress more appropriately for school, and had the parents fly into a rage. "Don't you tell me how to parent *my* child. You have no right to suggest how my child should dress!"

Far cry from high school, when I remember guys walking around school with duct tape on their shirts to cover up the offended logos and slogans. It was supposed to encourage an environment for learning.

I discussed this with a colleague, who said that students dress this way to express their individuality. I countered that you can be an individual without looking like you're ready to go to a disco. (Actually, I worded it along the lines of "they don't have to make themselves look like prosti-tots.") Of course, then we got into a discussion about the horribly short Romanian skirts (she saw nothing wrong with three inch long skirts) but I'll save that for another post.