Bandit Garden Strikes Again!

bandit garden!

So the lockout is over! That means that today, for the first time in 4 weeks, Danish teachers who belonged to a union were legally allowed to go to work! 

Personally, as someone who has worked in the education sector for the past 10 years, I do have a lot of thoughts not only about the lockout, but on teaching and the state of education, in general. 

I had to run an errand today, and the clerk looked awfully familiar to me. I asked, do I know you? 

"You used to work at XX, " she recognized me. It turns out she used to attend one of the schools I used to work at. She's Danish, although of Pakistani roots. We got into a lively discussion about her education experience and what life has been like for her since graduating from this very expensive institution. I asked her, "Did you feel that you were prepared for what was next?"

She told me that when she graduated, she was the only student who had been at that school for 10 years straight. As a school that caters to Denmark's global families, most of the student body changes about every 3 years (the limit Non-Danish residents could live here without coughing up almost half your paycheck to the Danish state.  The result? "I don't think that my parents should have sent me there. Kids who permenantly live in Denmark need to be in a school that offers way more stability, and Danish, of course." Right now she is forced to go to school to catch up on the Danish she missed by going to this school. The unfortunate thing is, many parents send their kids to this school recognizing that offering an International education to their children would be better-preparing their children for this world. Many of these parents are immigrants, or parents of immigrants, and frankly, don't see a future here for their children. But the problem is...these kids are Danish. They need to be grounded in the country in which they live, just as much as the country that they come from. These are the children of our future. Isolating them in some elite, cultural bubble isn't doing them a favor (no insult to the institution). 

Anyway, that's a picture of the space given to my 6th grade students by the local playground that we frequent. We're going to plant some beans and flowers! I'll keep the pictures coming. 

Yeah, I have a lot to write about. 14 years of expat living, navigating motherhood, teaching, performing, foreign people, foreign ways...yes...where to begin?

adieu, 

the lab