The Day in the Life of an Acting Principal

So as some of you may know, I am currently acting principal for about a week while Anne is away in a conference in Palau. It’s not much, considering that there are only classes for two of the days and a picnic.

This is what my first day as principal included. All I can say about it is, you don’t need coffee to keep you going all day, just be a principal.

6:20 I wake up very early Monday morning (that’s early for me, I can usually do fine getting up around 7:15 or 7:30 the latest) because I need to find keys to the entire school that Anne left me (one of the teachers had them but didn’t tell me about it). So when I found them, I had to open all of the classrooms. I’ve walked to parts of the campus I haven’t even been to yet this year because my classes I teach in are usually in two classrooms. Once I open all of them, I start writing lots of signs for the faculty/staff bulletin board near the teacher’s lounge. I have to get all of this information together about class schedules and basketball games and
announcements that we as faculty need to know. Whenever there is a game, the schedule has to be switched around so some students can go to the game early without missing class. I had to write this up on the board in the study hall. I also had to make some decisions about a group of seniors that were going to have permission to leave for the picnic island a night earlier. I had to find subs for a teacher who was going to miss class due to the basketball game.

And this was all before 7:00.

The rest of the day consisted of doing things Anne left me to do. It was mostly just checking up on people, but it involved lots of running around. The fun part of the day was dealing with all of the disciplinary cases. There was one where two students wrote their names on the Yappese flag. One of them that did it has had many conflicts with the Yappese students before, and it looked like a potential fight. But this Yappese Junior, who I respect probably more than anyone else here (including adults), handled the situation beautifully and the problem is solved now. Instead of having this island nation group wanting to take revenge on this other kid, he talked about it until all of the underlying problems were solved. There was another one with this serious problem child who has been constantly disrupting class and disrespecting students and teachers. Luckily, he’s my advisee (sarcasm … it’s also important to point out that, somehow, I became stuck with all of the problem freshman this year as my advisees). The priests that don’t even teach at this school know about him. He crossed the line in class, so I confronted him, chewed him out, and told him he couldn’t go on the school picnic this Thursday. Of course he was pissed, but I told him he needed a day to think about whether or not he wanted to continue attending this school, because at this rate, he’ll be gone by Christmas (I think he’ll be gone anyway). I also had to report late students and disruptive students from class and study hall – small, yet class related stuff.

All of this did not include classes which I still had to teach. But to be honest, after a long weekend on another island, and all of this other stuff, I had no time to plan (or grade! I’m so behind right now) that I just winged it.

Tuesday was a lot of the same. I was freaking out on the inside most of the morning because this Admissions Officer from Chaminade (pronounced SHAW mi naw) in Hawaii was supposed to give this presentation to the Sophomores and Juniors 2nd period. The entire schedule was messed up to this thing. He did not show up literally until 9:12, when he was supposed to start at 9:10. So I was running back and forth between the freshman who had to change their study room and the other classes to help set up and introduce this guy (it was a good presentation). I also spent most of the day figuring out boat trips for the entire school for the picnic, deciding on times for events, posting more notices for the teachers … and yeah, I had to wing my classes again. Plus normal duties like locking up classrooms at the end of the day, making sure girls got on the busses, and just a lot of overall worrying about everything. It is kind of cute how some of the kids now call me principal or joke around with me like start bowing to me. I joke around with them too, saying today classes are canceled, only because we’re doing
push-ups all day. My favorite line I used these past two days (to someone I was disciplining): “I don’t have to be principal to know what you did was incredibly wrong.” Sit down!

Those are most of the things I did. I’m sure there are more, but now, Wednesday morning (no school, thank all of the gods in all of the religions) I’m so tired that I forgot. Last night was the haunted house. I did not attend because 1) I was perhaps the most tired I’ve ever been my entire life, 2) getting scared out of my wits was not the form of entertainment I was looking for at the time, 3) I was a bit sick – still am, and 4) I needed some serious alone time.

Now, don’t let these details of the past few days fool you. I was, and still am, in fact very happy and I like the exhilaration of being constantly concerned about all of these things and making decisions and having students and teachers look up to me for certain things. It’s not a power trip at all – I rarely did anything for myself. I don’t think I had the chance. It was just good to be in a better position to help out more than I already am. However, it left me utterly spent. Maybe because these two days were a bit crazier than the normal school days, and because I’m in charge of the entire school picnic which is a pretty stressful event (Anne even commented that she was glad she was not in charge of that this year … thanks Anne). So overall, it was good, but I have never been so physically and mentally tired in a long time. Most of it is due to the fact that the past two weekends were off-island. Although those trips are a lot of fun, they are exhausting and not entirely relaxing or peaceful. It usually means not that much sleep. So it’s been about 3 weeks of non-stop action and no rest. Today is the first day of rest for me, although I need to grade all day, which is fine I guess.

For those of you concerned, I am doing much better since my last doomsday-like blog. Things have settled down, however the Junior class is still very divided, and the class leaders still do not realize the error of their ways or thinking. I feel bad for the other Juniors that are hurt by this one (and it really is just this one) island nation group that is too proud, to exclusive, and only concerned for their own. It’s hard, but there we go. I’ve learned to not take things as personally (which I’m still learning to do, because the emotion I have attached to this job gives me the energy I use to make my teaching somewhat good). And I’ve learned to realize that some people in leadership positions are incompetent, and I don’t respect them, but I need to work around that.

What else? This weekend is ANOTHER off-island trip. To Uman for the JVI retreat, which should be more relaxing than the other weekends. Have not been to Uman yet, so that’ll be good. Oh, the Sophomore CSP I went on last weekend was very good. Half of the island is actually an old Japanese WWII runway. If you look at the shape of the island, the northern half is just a long rectangle that sticks out. But many trees and plants have grown over it, although we could still see chunks of the flat concrete (the sponsor house I stayed at was on one). At one end of the island there are old Japanese planes. They’re not really intact, but you can see most of the body, and there many propellers lying around. I also spent most of the time playing and dancing and clowning around with little kids – what I do best.

Hopefully the picnic goes well tomorrow. I’m sure it will. What do you guys think of my braided hair? I took it off last night so I can wash my hair (for the first time in 5 days … gross). But it was actually pretty cool. By pretty cool I mean I did not have to worry about it falling in my face or really take care of it.

Shout outs: To Danielle, who sent a lovely package full of great teaching supplies. Also to Mary, thank you for your package. To the Cullens, great magazines and other things. Also to my mom and grandfather, who keep sending things my way. Also to Meg Frazier, just because. And to my brother, because he and I will take over the world one day. To Matt Brown and Will Versfelt for making me laugh. To Alex for getting married. To Meg Osborn for getting
married. For Dan Thomson for getting married.

Peace out.

Drama: Part II

(Note: new pictures are up! Go to the link "2nd Year Pics!")

Tol – Saturday

This retreat is exactly what I needed. I think it’s exactly what we all needed. We were all so overworked, stressed out, and, thanks to the past couple of weeks, emotionally drained. What we did today: have a very quick morning prayer, followed by basically whatever we wanted to do. There was PLENTY of food. We did a lot of swimming on the nearby dock. We sung with the kids some more. Before lunch we took another boat ride to a nearby island where we picnicked. We swam, snorkeled, and chilled on the hot beach in the sun eating snacks. We also stopped across the bay to visit the Turtle Cave (see pictures). It’s called the Turtle Cave because it is shaped like a huge turtle dug it (it was actually a flood). Really cool. Even as we hiked to it, kids appeared out of nowhere to follow us wherever we went. When we got back to our side of the bay, I ended up swimming on the dock with some kids for another hour. I had a bit of a sunburn and I was completely salted up from the lagoon water, but it was a refreshing feeling, since I’ve been cooped up at the school for the past 2 ½ months.

The rest of the day was spent with the kids, dancing some more and singing some more. They put on some shows for us because they love to entertain us constantly. I think some of their high energy and enthusiasm had to do with the fact that they had some visitors (from the prestigious Xavier High School no less) staying with them. It’s been a while since they hosted a retreat like this, since this land belongs to the Chuukese Mafia. They used to be the most notorious family in Chuuk, even in Micronesia. They smuggled
in weapons, tortured people, killed people to get their way. One of them used to be a Congressman and would even carry his gun with him at the capital. The main Mafioso is currently in the states for some medical treatment, but apparently he married like 22 women, and all of these kids surrounding us are his grandkids! But now one of the sons is a Catechist, so we have a cordial relationship with the sub-parish where we stayed.

But things are extremely simple here. No TV, telephone, Internet, cell phones, junk food, stores, roads, electricity, anything! It’s just high energy and beautiful scenery and lots of activity and simple happiness all around me. It’s exactly what I needed to feel re-energized from all of the energy I recently lost …

XHS – One week ago

So the Juniors, thanks to the fired-up class president (Pohnpeian), missed classes for an entire day. There was talk that we would be celebrating the 30 year anniversary of an entire class getting expelled from Xavier by expelling all of the Juniors. Most of the boys (all of the Pohnpeians) worked with the suspended kids in the morning, while the girls were just walking around not going to class. It was a mess. So they spent all day in meetings to go over their feelings and problems. Basically, by the end of the day, everyone was confused, hurt, angry, and nothing was resolved. So
they did have time to go to two more classes before the day was over: my classes. Great. I dropped my lesson plan, and told them, in as serious of a way as I could muster up, that they need to get all of their feelings out on paper. They needed to just write for 45 minutes straight. Micronesians in general are not good with expressing their feelings publicly, but on paper, they do a great job. So, I basically read every single essay, and gave about
half of them to the other teachers that were concerned (most of them were just addressed to me and no one else). Let me tell you, these kids felt very betrayed, misled, and confused. Most were upset with Fr. Arthur, but some were pissed at their own classmates. One very perceptive boy said that it was just the Pohnpeians who were only caring about their own countrymen.
Some said they didn’t want to walk out of class at all, because they didn’t do anything wrong, but if they didn’t follow the crowd, they would have been ostracized. It was a mess.

And the director wasn’t doing anything about it. In my opinion and in the opinion of others, he needed to deal directly with these two Pohnpeian boys and clear up the mess about the so-called “list.” It was these two boys that felt betrayed, and, selfishly and irresponsibly, they got the whole class involved. The director had another priest (Fr. Ken U., Yappese) deal with the situation … which was an awful idea because this priest didn’t know the details, and there was no communication between the two. It was absolutely ridiculous. The administration was not handling the situation well at all. They let these two kids walk all over them (and at the same time, walk all over the teachers – I was completely disrespected by the class president the other day, but there was nothing I could do because if I reported it, nothing would have happened).

What hurts also is how these kids really don’t care that they lost our trust, and they’re upset at us for being mad at them. One of the JVs had this great connection with that class. This JV was like their parent. When this JV was suddenly hurt by what happened with the chewing of betelnut (to re-clarify, it’s a type of local drug that involves chewing this seed with some other substances), it was as if the class disowned her. The JV felt very hurt, and although this person is extremely optimistic all the time, the JV was completely disheartened and even considered NOT staying on for an
extra year (this JV was very adamant about staying a third year.) It hurts to see her so down. It just adds to the hopeless feeling we get sometimes.

This is the best school in this area of the world, but the administration can’t take care of certain things that they should be doing. I understand if a place is poor or there is social injustice or the geography affects the circumstances of the place, but when the problems come from the (so called) capable people working here, it’s frustrating. The gross incompetence of this place gets to me. Seriously, it’s true that the JVs, these American
college graduates, are keeping this school together. Some would say that’s extreme and even a bit conceited, but it’s true. It also didn’t help my week when, as we were driving back from seeing the other two JVs, we were stuck behind a driver that was puking his guts out of the window WHILE he was driving his car. At that moment, I was glad for the first time that the roads were in such an awful condition because drunk drivers (which are like a daily occurrence here) would be speeding. But I digress …

The problem we have to deal with now is this huge divide in the Junior class between the Pohnpeians and the rest of the students. So much for the whole united family” feeling Xavier is supposed to embody. However, now this divide between ethnic groups is spreading throughout the whole school. It’s ridiculous. I don’t want to deal with these things that should have been taken care of or at least suppressed before it spiraled out of control. I have other things to deal with, like this freshman girl who is really sweet and awesome yet she comes to my office crying all afternoon because her
sponsor family makes her work over the weekend and there was a possibility of it turning into an abusive relationship. I need to deal with the freshman class (I’m their skills teacher) not doing their homework and most of them are failing and will probably not be here after Christmas. I want to deal with one of my advisee students who keeps cursing people and disrespecting other students that he was almost beaten up the other day by other boys, so I tried to intervene as indirectly as possible. I want to worry about
helping some seniors I’m close with apply to colleges and get them through that confusing process. I don’t mind that I’m not socializing, or having enough free time even to read, let alone do other relaxing things. I don’t mind that I have 4 classes to plan and grade for. It hurts that I have to miss next week’s sophomore CSP because I will be acting-principal for a few days (sweet). But when I see this gross incompetence from adults around me, when I realize that the Jesuits are not really giving a damn about this
place the more I am here, and when I see certain values that this school stands for not being followed through, it frustrates me.

These thoughts are a bit pessimistic and negative in general. It’s a new quarter right now, and hopefully all of this is behind us (I just learned that most of these boys will not be punished, which is also very ridiculous, but I need to take it easy or else I’ll have an ulcer). I want to get through this quarter without any serious drama. I want to focus on school, not other people’s responsibilities that aren’t being carried out. So some have been wondering, am I happy here? Yes, I am. I do love most of these
students. This blog does gloss over the great aspects of this school, but recently, it has been quite evident that the negatives seriously outweigh the positives. But I am doing fine and I have definitely grown from this experience. For instance, never before have I felt so angry at a person for disrespecting me, mostly because this student is neither poor nor poorly educated, and he only cares about his own Pohnpeian brothers. I have gained a greater understanding for why this place needs JVs, and it’s not just because of where it’s located. And after this wonderful weekend, I have learned what true simplicity is and how wonderful it can be. I want to continue getting better as a teacher, but I know that I did not leave my family and friends for two years to serve certain rich, spoiled kids. I could have stayed in Greenwich for that. I have a more defined pride in teaching and giving my time and energy for those who truly deserve it, because I simply don’t have enough time and energy to give to everyone here.

Tol – Saturday Night and Sunday

It was very sad to leave Sunday. I know some kids will forget us and simply be content with the exciting new visitors that came to their island. I slept on the ride back (I’m pretty desensitized to boat rides now) and it was evident that none of us were really psyched to get back. But our energy was replenished. I miss the kids already. Seriously, there were about a dozen little kids I wanted to adopt right away and just take home with me.

I’ll end this with an experience Saturday night. We went to the dock for a night swim, and we saw one of the most beautiful things ever. I guess in this part of the world, or in tropical waters, the plankton glow and sparkle at night when you disturb the water. Tom Hanks talked about it in Apollo 13 when he was referring to the glow of the wake of a boat. As soon as we jumped in, the water came to life with the dazzling sparkles of the reacting plankton. As we moved our feet and hands, a trail of stars appeared. We were
able to make water “angels” and watch our paths light up. It was extremely magical, under the starry, warm night.

Drama: Part I

The past few weeks have been dramatic, definitely among the most challenging in my life, and very pivotal with respect to my feelings towards this place (Xavier High School). However, the past three days have been some of the most enjoyable, relaxing, and beautiful in my life. Pretty extreme, but true. This past weekend was the faculty retreat to Tol; the past couple of weeks were the last in the 1st quarter, but also belonging to a huge incident that spiraled into confusion, chaos, and near-calamity. Let me begin with a journal entry from this past weekend, and I will narrate what’s been going on in my life (and head) by bouncing back and forth from this weekend in heaven to the past few weeks of hell.

Tol – Friday

The hour and a half boat ride to the completely other end of this lagoon was the start of getting rid of all of my worries. The day was beautiful, but with a strong wind, causing the waves to be a little choppy, but making it perfectly safe to travel on, especially since we were on a bigger, more modern boat that a Korean research owned. The wind was a bit harsh, but definitely refreshing. My hands gripped the rail as I anticipated every
bounce from the waves. We would get splashed, but instantly became dry from the hot sun.

This place is nothing but serenity. It’s a lush community of families at the edge of the water, facing one of the many bays of Tol. If we’re not facing the other side of the bay, we face the west, which has no other islands in view, just a barely visible reef on the horizon which separates our calm lagoon with the huge Pacific Ocean. There is a dock here to swim and jump off of. The stray dogs are friendly, the grass is trimmed, there are no
drunks, no blaring boom boxes, and there is a working toilet.

And there are DOZENS of kids. And palm trees swaying in the warm sun with the cool breeze. But back to these kids: they love to sing together and dance constantly … and that’s basically it, other than looking really cute. They sing the same songs over and over again, but it never gets tiring. They also love playing dancing games with each other. They get so easily embarrassed, and when they do something outrageous (like sticking out in a crowd!) it causes everyone else to roll on the ground laughing and laughing.
I thought that only happened in cartoons when people laughed so much, holding their stomachs while suddenly losing their ability to stand up, but it happens. They entertained us for hours, fed us tons of food of local delicacies, bananas, and all the coconuts we wanted.

It’s now 8:15 at night as I write this on a bench outside of our meeting house (the place where we gather, eat, AND sleep) under a bare light bulb. Some of the teachers are learning a song in Chuukese under a palm tree. I can’t count the number of children that are in that group … probably 30 – some are hidden in the shadows. Right now there is no rush to do anything, which is a first; I’m comfortable, even though my bed is a table/place to
hang all of my clothes. It’s cool out and I just sit, play with kids, dance with the kids, and play and dance some more. It is definitely peaceful here.

It was basically the opposite of this feeling about a week ago…

XHS – Two weeks ago

The drama all started the day everyone got back from the Junior Community Service Project. Problem: to the shock and surprise of the teachers, most of the Juniors were chewing betelnut. Not good, especially how some of them were on super-duper probation. Two of them, a Palaun and Chuukese student, were on their, like, 5th strike already. Fr. Arthur, the morning before the Juniors left, even asked those two if they could control themselves. They
both said no problem. That same night, they both chewed. Basically, it is galactally stupid, and, after a week of deliberating and discerning, they are expelled. Huge call to make, but I think the right one. It is a problem here that things aren’t always carried out (especially disciplinary consequences) when they should be. Anyway, they get kicked out, and a few other students get a week’s suspension, while still other Juniors lose privileges and so on.

Here is the kicker: Apparently Fr. Arthur asked two Junior boys – Pohnpeian, and apparently trustworthy (the two things are not related) – to ask the Juniors themselves if they chewed or not, because Fr. Arthur believed that if he asked himself, he would be lied to. So these two boys brought back a list, the director compared it with his list, and then he picked who would
be suspended or not. And here is where the confusion comes in: for some odd reason, the two boys thought that Fr. Arthur’s list never existed in the first place, so they were convinced they were lied to, and upset that they put their “brothers” on suspension, AND they got the whole class pissed at Fr. Arthur, and they even rallied their classmates to skip class to help the suspended boys with their work.

Problem: they weren’t lied to, and it happens that these two boys that were rallying the class really only cared about their Pohnpeian “brothers” and not the other kids on suspension. Long story short (too late!) for many days it seemed as if the entire or most of the Junior class was going to rise up in a rebellion, causing expulsion if they continued to skip class; many Juniors were hurt with the fact that they were being led to face consequences when they didn’t even get in trouble; and there was even more drama when it became clear that it wasn’t a class issue, but an issue with a few boys being loyal only to the kids from their own island.

This seems like dumb, high school drama. Well, it is! Except that certain people that are supposed to be running this school let this whole thing spiral out of control, leading to boys skipping class even when they were told not to, leading to an entire group of students call Fr. Arthur a liar when he wasn’t, and now cause a huge divide between the Pohnpeian students and the rest of the students at this school. MEANWHILE, all of the Juniors were so bent on feeling “betrayed” by Fr. Arthur and by each other that they
forgot the whole reason for this mess and the REAL lesson they should have been learning: they broke the trust of the faculty and administration, and they need to be feeling some sort of remorse for their lack of responsibility on this CSP. They are pissed at us for not trusting them. Typical high school behavior – understanding that they did something wrong, but they don’t want any consequences for their actions – but it’s so disheartening. It’s all a mess.

But that’s really not the worst of it …

TO BE CONTINUED...