I went to talk to the teacher I'll be subbing for. She gave me the low down on the job. Schools in Guam are substandard at best. The room is large and cluttered, as every classroom must be. There is a bank of computers along one wall and half the room is given over to office type desks (being a business class room). The air conditioning is set to 24 degrees centigrade. The teacher explained that it is a well equiped classroom because it is a GCC funded class. The other classrooms are not so well off and most do not have AC! Next week we will be in the audio-visual room in the library and then, she said, I will see what passes for an educational facility here on Guam.

I have already heard about the poor state of supplies and facilities. In some schools the teachers have to supply pencils out of their own pockets and chalk (or grease pencils) is not supplied by the school. Books are out of date and audio-visual materials are not supplied. Gordon used to work in the schools as a science teacher. His classrooms were stocked with the best equipment and had the best facilities anywhere. The school didn't do that for him. He is a born scanvenger and fixer. He would take a broken AV cart and fix it up better than new. Then he would lock it in his office and NOT lend it to be broken again. He once scavenged a number of broken VCRs and cannabalized some to repair the others. He had TVs in his room, fastened to the walls so they could not be borrowed. That is what a teacher needs to do to get decent materials on this island.

Private schools do not have this problem. Most are Christian schools teaching religion and education. The ideal job would be at St. John's School. They pride themselves on a 100% college attendance rate.

And I have a cold. Bah humbug! My throat is sore and my nose runs and I feel like crap. Ugh.