 |
| LAS Theater |
The Lahore American School is a small school by international standards. Enrolment stood at three-hundred plus students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 at the time. But bigger does not always mean better.
The Grounds
LAS sat behind a high brick wall that surrounded the entire campus. To enter, one had to pass through a small security office.
Once through, the sprawling, neatly manicured front lawn flowed to the left. To the right, a ten lane swimming pool, with the usual trappings of chairs, lifeguard equipment, and showers tempted all with a cool dip in the water. Next door, a metal roof shielded a cracked cement floor and PE classes from the Punjabi sun. Next in line, the Buffalo Grill cafeteria offered students typical school lunches. The high school wedged itself next to the admin building.
What grabbed the eye more so than any other building was the large Admin building in the centre of the campus. With its’ rounded second floor balcony and large flags representing students from various nations, the Admin building made for a grand entrance.The lower level was occupied by admin and the business office. The library and nurse’s office was upstairs. Dana’s French class was across from the library. There, in a crooked little classroom, she managed to teach three different levels of French to the students. Students also rotated to her classroom for Psychology and Sociology.
Students joined me right next to Dana’s classroom. On little rickety, wooden desks we studied World History 1 and World History 2 (Grade 10 and 11). I also taught a Global Issues/Community Service class, also known as GICS.
The day started at 7:40 and ended seven periods later at 2:50. We both taught five of the seven periods.
Directly to the left of the Admin building rose the new Theatre Arts Building. Brand new, it provided a state of the art facility with a state of the art debt as well.
Behind and to the left of the admin building sat the elementary wing.
Surrounding the campus were trees with their branches overflowing the red brick walls. Flowers and other plants decorated the interior. It was part campus, part botanical garden.
 |
| LAS Elementary Playground |
Contract
Like the schools in Islamabad and Karachi, LAS’ package was very generous. Despite the great living and teaching conditions in Lahore, Pakistan was still not a top destination for teachers. Some teachers heard Pakistan and ran. The contract had to be good to help bring teachers in to work.
Most international teachers searched for the Golden Three: a great school, a great city, and a great contract. We felt we found a “Golden Three” school.
When we arrived, staff told us that this was a school where staff stayed up to seven or eight years. That is a long time in the international scene. Now, we were beginning to see why.
The school paid for our housing and provided a van that we could use outside of school hours and on weekends. The salary was in the mid $30-thousands, tax free. We were supposed to be taxed 15% but the government never got around to it.
The school actually paid us a percentage of our salary in USD, which went in to our bank on the Isle of Man. The rest went to our local bank. The amount was enough to cover our local expenses.
 |
| LAS |
The School
In addition to my teaching load, I was the Girls’ basketball coach and worked with the Student Council. Dana coached swimming.
Students had a choice of Advanced Placement English, regular English, Drama, AP US History, US History, Economics, US Government, Chemistry, Physics, AP Chemistry, AP Physics, Environmental Science, Biology, AP Calculus, Urdu, Computers, and Health/PE. All classes were in English except for Urdu and French.
School was closed every Friday afternoon so that the students and staff could pray. Friday was also wear your shalwar kameez day, a tradition that I quickly adopted because of how comfortable and cool they were to wear. They are also very slimming and, I have to admit, they made me feel sexy.
 |
| Derwin's Classroom |
School Nurse
The nurse’s office was just down the hall from the library. It was a small nook of a room that contained a couple of painted white, metal cabinets, a small cot, and a desk.
The LAS school nurse was infamous amongst students. Have a headache? Throat lozenge. Bloody wound to the head? Throat lozenge. Sore throat? Throat lozenge.
Understandably, it was a common joke amongst students that you were coming away with a throat lozenge regardless of what ailed you.
I had few interactions with the nurse but she struck me as matronly and motherly; a caring staff member and nurse.
 |
| Dana's Classroom |
SAISA
LAS was in the The South Asia Inter-Scholastic Association. This association included international schools from Karachi, Islamabad, New Delhi, Mumbai, Dhaka, Colombo, and Kathmandu.
Dana’s swim team was scheduled to fly to Colombo for a meet but security concerns cancelled the trip. The school felt that it was unsafe to fly to Sri Lanka due to the conflict between the Government and the Tamil Tigers.
Historically, the sports teams from Islamabad dominated SAISA. The main reason for their success was the large number of American students whose parents worked at the American Embassy. Legend has it that one year’s starting lineup for their basketball team all stood over six foot three.
Also, a member of the Pakistan private school sports scene was Murree Christian School. Murree was a small boarding school located in the foothills of the Himalayas. Again, legend has it that these children of missionaries kicked some athletic butt in many different sports.
Bomb Scare
A man had called three times during one of the parent/teacher conferences. One of the secretaries fielded his calls. On the third call, he said that there was a bomb on the school grounds and that we should evacuate the students.
We were led to the soccer field where we milled about and visited in the hot sun. No one seemed concerned at all. Despite an “is someone watching us” feeling in the back of my mind, I went with the flow and visited with staff and students.
The bomb squad – ordinary policemen with rifles or sub-machine guns and no protective gear – came to the school and searched the campus for seventy-five minutes.
After the police gave the all-clear, we were allowed back in to finish the conferences.
Some wondered if a student had paid the man to phone the school to say that there is a bomb on campus.
Students
I finished correcting a set of tests one evening and turned to Dana.
“It may be too early to tell, but they might not all be stupid,” I said.
I was only joking for we knew that was an understatement.
The boys were like any other young males around the world. You had your typical types: smart, geeky, athletic, shy, cool, and those that believe they are cool but are not.
Some struggled with school but most were well above average academically. Undoubtedly, they shifted the bell curve to the right.
For the most part, the boys were as passionate about cricket as Canadians were about hockey. Imran Khan was Lahore’s Wayne Gretzky.
Being a baseball fan, I loved to hear of the different bowling (pitching) strategies used in cricket. Different bowlers were brought in depending upon the surface of the pitch (field). A muddy pitch called for someone who threw slow but with a lot of movement on the “pitches” (swing bowlers). There were those that relied on speed (pace bowlers). They excelled on hard surfaces where the ball would skip quickly past the bowler.
One student enjoyed showing me how to release the ball off the fingers and wrists. Another carried his cricket bat with him from class to class, much like a security blanket.
The female students were a different story. All were well spoken, smart, and sweet. They were the types of girls that every mother or father would want their son to bring home.
Roughly seventy percent of the student body were boys. Some parents saw no value in paying tuition for their daughters who were only going to get married and raise a family.
The majority of the students were Pakistani as there were no embassies or big businesses in Lahore that would attract foreign workers. There were a few Koreans and an Aussie enrolled.
Otherwise, students with male names such as Shabaz, Muhammad, Tariq, Faizan, Qasim, Sohail, Shehryar, Ali, Hasan, Hussnain, Sher Ali, Shehzad, Harris, Ali Afraz, Sadiq, Faraz, Suleman, Mustafa, Omar, Zain, Jamil, Haseeb, Adam, Mohammed Ali, and Hamzah populated the class lists.
Sahar, Amina, Asma, Danila, Seemi, Farah, Aisha, Noor, Mavish, Tahira, Taskeen, Sonya, and Yasmin were popular amongst the females.
Later in the school year, several students created a website called lassucks.com detailing the reasons to hate LAS. Many derogatory comments were made about a few staff and students. Many of the staff agreed that the web-masters should be expelled. I thought they needed to be punished but not necessarily expelled.
One mother made an appointment to talk with me to discuss her son’s expulsion. She assumed, for some reason, that it was I who wanted him expelled, which I did not. Still, she tried to convince me not to push for him to be expelled. She, like many mothers, was being the protective mother bear.
“I’m not sure why you talking to me about this? I’m not pushing to have him expelled,” I said.
“Oh. Well, who is?” she replied.
I never revealed my colleague’s names saying I was uncomfortable doing so.
Other than that, it was rare to have issues with the students. Many would come by my room at lunch to joke or talk. Classes were pleasant. Students worked and did well. Some even laughed at my stupid jokes - I liked those students even more.
Staff
The local, Pakistani staff were all very kind, warm, calm, genuine, and professional. Not that the local staff in Kuwait were not nice, the LAS group just presented a different type of vibe.
I loved to visit with the office staff. They were sweet and happy to discuss life in Lahore.
For many, their family unit extended to their tribal village. Their relatives would have a house in a mountain village where they would visit during holidays.
They had a very strong bond with the family members in the villages.
As nice as they were, strong friendships were difficult to build with the local staff. They realized that we, as international teachers, would stay for two to seven years and then leave so it was easier not to form attachments.
Family obligations occupied most of their free time. They understandably admitted to being busy with family on the weekends.
The computer tech was a nice, competent man who was pleasant to visit with. He was the opposite of the computer tech that I had to deal with on a daily basis at The American Creativity Academy in Kuwait.
The rest of the teaching staff was much the same: professional and kind.
We did find out after we left that some of the teachers thought we left because we did not get more money for staying after 9/11. Nothing could have been further than the truth. I felt insulted that they could have had that impression of us. We left Pakistan for many reasons but money was not one of them. Money was never a consideration.
The Expat Staff was a unique and interesting blend of personalities.
One American converted to Islam and married an Indonesian woman. His family lived in Bali while he lived and taught in Lahore. He planned on buying a monkey. He wanted to move to the Old City to live but was warned against it by locals. They said that many would believe that he was a CIA operative and they would have killed him, or so the rumour went. He was all sorts of interesting.
Another couple had met while traveling in Kashmir. He was American and she was Australian. To find your life partner in war torn Kashmir on vacation is a wonderful story for the grandchildren.
There were two Canadian couples, a Brit and several Americans. I enjoyed listening to the English teacher talk. He was verbose and measured when he talked; very Thespian. All were competent, great people, and fun to be around.
The Director was amazing. He and his wife had been there for only a couple of years. He was supportive, encouraging, and professional. He was a great gentleman to work for. Through the 9/11 crisis, he handled himself with impeccable calmness, professionalism, and dedication to the school, staff, and students. That was not an easy line to walk.
I felt like we let him down when we decided to evacuate. If there was one reason that was going to keep us there, it would have been out of devotion to the Director.
0 Comments