The coming days...

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I am writing this not to criticize our school (which we dearly love), but so that you can keep us in your thoughts and prayers during the coming days. We have run into yet another management snag.

The players in our story are as follows:
- Jean
- Doreen (Jean's co-teacher)
- Kevin (his job is to assist all foreign teachers in daily life)
- Mr. Zhang (the school head-master)
- Spring (an English teach in our department)

And it begins... Spring has gone on maternity leave suddenly (she has had some troubles, and was ordered to bed rest). This leaves her 4 classes with no English teacher, and the school said that they must hire another teacher. Today we were told that the Mr. Zhang has changed his mind - he is taking Doreen from her classes and Jean, and making her teach Spring's classes. Then he has ordered Kevin to take over as Jean's co-teacher. This is horrible in SO many ways, not only for Jean, but also for his classes and for Doreen. This is a huge slap in the face for her. She has been with these kids for 5 years, knows everything about them, and has a rapport with them. Now they want to take her away, give her classes that she doesn't know, with no foreign co-teacher to work with. Not to mention, Kevin is not a teacher! He was hired to help the foreigners with daily life and visa issues, not teach classes. He doesn't even have a teaching certificate!

Doreen is at a conference this week in the city, so she hasn't been to the school. When Jean called her on the phone, she couldn't stop crying, saying that she was so ashamed that the school would do this to her. She told him she'd been crying for three days. She is coming over tonight so that we can figure out a solution. Only Jean has the power to do something about this, as he is a foreigner and can object to changes. We know this is against our contract (they can't change co-teachers on us for no reason), and as long as Jean doesn't bring Doreen into it, he should be able to get this sorted out. The trick is... don't accuse anyone, do not say the decision was wrong, be firm and happy, maybe even nicely threaten to leave the school. If they realize they will lose two foreign teachers over it, and gain a bad reputation, then Mr. Zhang will change his mind.

Unfortunately it puts a lot of added stress on the teachers here, and on us. So please... keep us all in your thoughts and prayers. It is really unfair how the Chinese teachers are treated here, and if we can help in any way we want to... and pray for Jean, that he has the confidence and is given the right words to make a difference in this situation.

We will keep you posted on developments... most likely once Jean objects, this whole thing will blow over. At least I hope so...

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