Iran Election Stories From Friends and Family

From Iran today:

Yes, there are many mothers (and fathers) who do not like the system. But most people here feel helpless to change the situation. and many feel that if they complain the school will take it out on their kids. So they remain silent and eventually find a way to get their kids out of the country. There is a huge brain flight from Iran (which has been going on for years). Many people leave for themselves, but many leave to save their kids.

The school officials are also not always totally to blame as they have horrendous requirements placed upon them that they are required to fulfill – requirements not appropriate for children. I am getting ready to homeschool if I have to. It would require a huge change in my life here this year, but all of our sanities are much more important than anything else. One of our friends here homeschooled her son in 4th grade because of problems in the school. She found a better place for him in 5th grade. We’ll see.

We have a tutor who likes working with our kids and is a teacher in my son’s school. She said she’d talk with the teacher herself. As for the rest of it – I’ll put up a fuss. That usually brings about some positive results – but not many.

One of the biggest problems here is the isolation Iran has created for itself.  While many people know theoretically how to create better schools for the kids and how to teach better, the people who actually have to put it into practice were all trained under such a system and have no clue how to do it differently. So even though you train a teacher, because he or she has not seen anything different, they don’t know how to do it (or that it can even be done differently or better). Most people who go overseas go for engineering or medicine, or some “important” degree. No one goes overseas to study education. While education is highly valued here, teaching itself is not a valued profession in this country, nor is it an even decently paid profession. If people could get out and about and see it done differently that would go a long way to improve the entire system here. But again – the government does not want any “cultural invasion” going on – even if it would benefit their children – and of course, forced religion is part of the system here and while it has never worked any place else in the long term, they would never accept that.