Sabini

This was a young lady who I would guess to be in her late twenties. She was from Germany but had almost no accent and what little she had was head and shoulders above that of the other non-native speakers which came later. She was average in appearance with a good personality. I know that she had a Masters Degree in Education and I believe she had one in English as well. I have thought about his a lot, but I can’t remember what grade she taught. I want to say third but I’m not sure.

She lived in the teachers quarters with us and made no waves. She cooked, cleaned and was a good housemate. No quirks or strange habits that I can recall.

However, she was not with us for a long time for it didn’t take long for her to get over the breakers with The Director.

At the time we had meetings at least once a month between The Director and the foreign teachers. At these meetings we discussed problems we were having, ways to improve the English Program and in general had discussions about teaching English as a foreign language. Or at least that was the pretext of these meetings.

At each of the meetings The Director always repeated his philosophy, and it never changed, about teaching which she said was somewhat dated and not necessary the latest and greatest way to go about teaching a foreign language to children. When he would start expounding his extensive knowledge about teaching, Sabine would always call him on what he was saying. She would cite recent studies and the possible benefits of doing things another way. She paid attention in her Masters Course and appeared to know her stuff at least to this layman.

Sidebar: In most of Thailand and at this school in particular, The Director is all-powerful with a true autocratic management style. He makes all the decisions. No authority is delegated, NONE, NEVER. The buck starts and stops with him, and no one, I repeat no one questions The Director. There is no tolerance in this area and no one is empowered to do anything other and sit and listen to him.

Anyway at these meetings, The Directors displeasure with this young upstart teacher was always evidence. You could tell by the scowl on his brow that appeared each time she spoke. Finally, he lost it and informed her in front of all those in attendance, in a loud and quivering voice, that he made the decisions at this school and if she didn’t like that, she should just move on.

She did. We continued with rote learning and picked up our pay envelope at the end of each month.. End of story.