Well, that escalated quickly.

Warning shots fired, battle lines drawn.

There are many issues at the med school that I have already written about.  I wrote some follow up as a couple of comments on my last post that I do not know how many saw.  I now that I now get very few email notifications now and must scroll though the app to see if anyone commented on anything so I do not know how easy it is for those interested to find these comments.  Those who have seen them, please forgive the repeated information.

The first day of class this semester was Wednesday.  One the day before the summer vacation, they emailed the syllabus to us.  On Monday afternoon, they send us an updated syllabus and something called a “framework” for the final exam.  Less than 48 hours before class begins.  I have other commitments that need to be met and I do not wait until Monday afternoon to plan for that week.  I didn’t even open the email as I was busy with other things and there was not time to act upon any information in it before class time anyway.  However, I could see that there were several back and forth emails between the school and the faculty on these issues through out Monday and Tuesday.  The last being a at 7:45 pm Tuesday with class starting at 9am the following day.

From the beginning of the school year we were being told we must meet several sets of mutually exclusive goals.  Being in similar situations earlier in my career, I chose what I felt was the best option of each set and sailored on.  One of these impossible to coexist sets of goals was for us to standardize both the classes and the tests despite the wide spectrum of starting English competencies between the stratified classes while providing level appropriate material for each class, while not deviating from the textbook and covering all the material of each unit in a single week.  All those who taught this textbook last year adamantly opposed this as it takes more than one class period to cover a unit.  The highest level classes, mine, got it down to 1 and 1/2 classes.  The lower level classes 2 or more.  Yes, for those who have not read my earlier posting, all classes use the same book, from false beginners who have never communicated with a native English speaker to those who are US/Japanese dual citizens and  grew up in the States and have part time jobs teaching the language here in Japan.  Far from ideal, it was workable as we teachers were  allowed to use whatever material from the book and elsewhere as suited the abilities of our different classes.  No more.  They must get the exact same everything.

Tuesday afternoon I received an email from the school addressed to me only with a subject line related to students departing my class.  That was the gut punch I reported earlier.  7 wanted to leave my class; four due the level being too high for them and 3 because, reportedly, my methods did not suit them.  I was also given a list of complaints from my students and told I must adjust my class to solve these.  These reinforced what I have already reported, no tasks that are not in the textbook, no homework that differs from what the other teachers are assigning.  In class content cannot differ from what the other classes are getting.  For the first time in my 25 plus year career I am entering two entirely hostile classes on Wednesday.   

However, 2 of the four who were allowed be reassigned turned up for my class.  One seemed both genuinely surprised that she was no longer in the class….her classmates told her to check her Gmail account instead of the school account and there she found the notification.  Just recalled that.  Hmmmm.  Using unofficial email for official business.  What to make of that?  They send emails to both my school and personal accounts, much to my chagrin, but in this they sent it only to the student’s privates accounts.  The surprised student thanked me sweetly for allowing her to attend my class the first semester.  Bizarre.

After they left, a discussion in Japanese ensued between the few students who were then in the classroom.  One asked why their recent classmates wanted to leave my class and was expressed surprise at their reason.  After the class, another student told me that those who left have no desire to use English.  There is more but I already put that in my thread as a comment to my OP.

Having no gainful employment today, I started going through the emails the school sent on Monday.  After the first one I replied stating that the test needed to be set long before the start of the semester, before the start of the school year actually if someone other than the teacher is going to write it and that less than 48 hours before class time is far too short.  I reminded them again that I can no more drop everything and read their emails and reply as they come in than I can do so for others during classes at our school.  Although I did have much more to say along the lines of our stated goals not being met they way they are having us conduct our classes but nothing on the test specifically was said in my email that I sent individually to the Sub Director (SD).  Her response was to mischaracterize my comments in a reply to the entire English Language facility stating that I was complaining about the test, and that they would thus have to rework it.

I replied first to then other teachers excluding the SD letting them know that I did NOT comment upon the test as I had not yet even seen it and gave a brief synopsis of what was going on.  Before I finished and could send it, one of the teachers remarked that they could not understand my position and supported the SD.  I then responded to all including the SD stating that I did not comment on the test and did not appreciate her misrepresenting my comments to the group and asked if I needed to say more.  I added that I had emailed her privately (through the schools email account) too limit the spread of the issue but that as she choose to go public and misrepresent my comments, would she like my to publish all the emails between myself and the school?

Then I apologized to my coworkers for them getting involved in this but asked them to note who dragged them into it.  This confirms in my mind that she has in fact been misrepresenting things to my students.  If I had the means, I would be contacting a lawyer.