Pride Swallowing Seige

(A prize for spot that phrase) Yes readers, sometimes teaching is most certainly that, particularly in another country. Generally the teaching so far this semester is going really well I think and most students are pretty nice, but some classes just have a bad feel to them, especially those late in the day where the students are lazy and recalcitrant. The honeymoon may be over now that they are starting to get their rubbish homework back…

As well as general giggling, laziness and probably slagging me off in Arabic I almost had a rebellion in a so-called ‘Advanced’ class t’ other day because of my ‘If you phone rings during class you are marked as absent’ rule. Despite giving a warning, a particularly low-ability student’s phone rang and I made a show of reluctantly marking him absent.

Most of the class were up in arms about this decision, telling me it was ‘haram’ which means forbidden / against God / or just really bad and unfair. A few classes back I had let a first offender off, on the condition that they all agreed this would be the one and only time. They apparently didn’t care about this agreement (even the kid whose phone I let off, one of my arch enemies who I had last year also) so I reminded them that it was also ‘haram’ to go back on their word. That shut them up a little. It’s always satisfying to use their own culture / religion against them, ha! The culprit whinged for forgiveness all lesson, most hearts were hardened against me (I did not relent) and the lesson trundled to its’ end.

I got changed into jeans and t shirt and went out again, where a student from last year looked me up and down and burst out laughing to himself, seemingly just because I was dressed in clothes that he had not seen me in before. Now that’s got to be haram.