Teaching overseas - then teaching immigrants in Canada - has shown me that classroom styles differ around the world.
One woman from Afghanistan told me I finally looked like a teacher the day I wore a khaki green skirt. Had I stumbled on the traditional color of a teacher's uniform all over the country or only in the school she had attended? I don't know. But I sensed from her smile that the color reassured her that I was finally a "real" teacher!
One student told me that in her country it was insulting to have the teacher sit on the desk in front of the class. (It's so easy - standing there - just to lean on the desk, and eventually sit on it...) I don't remember where the student came from - but I stopped doing it. Perhaps other cultures felt the same - and I didn't want to be misunderstood.
Occasionally immigrant men would tell me they had never had a woman teacher before - they had attended boys' schools. Was it demeaning for them to be taught by a woman? I suspect so. (Perhaps this explains why many eventually quit.)
I remember discussing cultural differences with a British teacher who had taught in India, He had moved there for several years with his wife and children. One day a colleague approached him and said: Your son insulted me in class today.
I'm so sorry! the man from England replied. What did he do?
When I was explaining something in class, he asked me "Why?" the teacher from India said.
Apparently, this was viewed as questioning the teacher's authority.
The British man tried to explain that in some countries, children are encouraged to ask "Why?" (But it was a tough sell!)
So does anything insult North American teachers? (According to teacher, poet and stand-up comic Taylor Mali, here's one thing that does!)
In a word: Disrespect.
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