Entry 68

It was the exam day & one of my students finished his exam, handed me his paper & said, " Now, can I listen to music from my MP3 player ? " !!!



The other week the principal of the institute came to the teacher's room with lots of mobile phones & MP3 players in his hand !
He was so angry & said that he had got them from the students in classes ...
He said they send SMS to each other from the back of the class to the front during class time & they also listen to music from their MPS players ...
It was so funny, the staff all laughed and we were supposed to ask them to put all these things away during class time, or else they will be punished & their mobile phones & MP3 players will be gathered and handed over to their parents !

Entry 67

Last night my praivate student who is very active, sharp, clever, studious & hard_working was so tired that I really felt pity for him; he said on the day before yesterday_ on Friday (which is a holiday in Iran) _ he had been to school from 7 A.M. until 3 P.M. !



When I asked him the reason, he said that they have to attend maths classes on Fridays, because their school wants them to get highmarks in competition with other schools to be the best !!!
Nowadays schools in Iran have become a monster ...
I remember when I was a schoolgirl, I went to school from Mehr (October) to the end of Khordad (June), then studies at school finished and summer holidays started until the end of Shahrivar (September) ... We didn't study during the summer & we just had fun ... and on the last days of Shahrivar (September) I enrolled in the school & on the first of Mehr (October) schools started again ...
But nowadays everything has changed ...
I hear that parents start looking for a school for their children when they are 6 or 7_ I mean one or even two years before their children are supposed to start going to school _ the parents have to study & check lots of schools to make sure which one is the best, then their children have to pass lots of entrance exams in different schools so that they can enroll in one of them ...
This is the beginning of the process of studying:At school from the first years of elementary school they have to study hard, both in school and at home ...
And from the time they start middle school at the age of 12 or 13, they start becoming worried about " Konkoor " _ the entrance exams for being accepted at the university_ they go to lots of different educational classes besides going to school just to prepare themselves for univesity entrance exams, since there is intense competition between the students for entering the university ...
This is not the end: when they are accepted in the university & finish their studies there, they have to look for a job going through another difficult process & God knows whether they get it or not !