I feel the need to hurt something.
My coordinator (whom I adore, despite what the rest of this blog may imply) asked me again about setting up a resource center. "Other oblasts have resource centers and we should have one," she said.
I'm all for a resource center, but I've been to the center regarded as Ukraine's best--the one in the Kirovograd Oblast--and it is in a room barely larger than a closet and locked up much of the day. It has the problems of every resource center that's been tried to set up by volunteers, the problems that causes the SPA grant application to specifically mention that they're not a good idea: access and organization.
Someone has to be present to A)Guard the resources, which inevitably include a copy machine and B)Check out the resources and make sure they get back. No one can afford a salary for this person so it's often left to the volunteer (as in Kirovograd) or a methodologist to unlock the room at certain times and monitor usage.
The thing is Zhytomyr already has a teacher resource center, but it's at the Pedagagical University and they only want their students using it. It was the reason the SPA grant was denied to Gail, my predeccesor: if you're not using the one you have, they said, why should you get money for another?
I actually came up with what I thought was the perfect option: I have a really good relationship with the oblast library, which recieved a Windows on America grant. Consequently they have a television, a VCR, a copy machine, two computers, a printer, free internet access, space and four librarians on the payroll. What they don't have is teaching materials. My coordinator has nearly a thousand books donated by British Councils and other groups, most of which sit in boxes at her house and which she distributes a few at a time to teachers. Why couldn't we put these two things together? The librarians could organize and make available the materials and teachers could copy or borrow books or video tapes with the available equipment. It would be open all day and materials would be widely available to all teachers. I could still get a grant, but it would be for things they didn't have: video and cassette dubbing machines so teachers could copy A/V materials.
But it's a territorial thing. My coordinator balked at the idea of someone else controlling (her word) the books. We discussed this at length for nearly an hour, me for the first time feeling our relationship could stand me disagreeing with her. I implied several times but never directly said they were not "her" books but donated for teachers to use. I don't think she ever understood the full weight of the implication, but her idea of ownership certainly came to the fore when she pointed at my laptop and said (turning my words back at me) "would you give that to the library to use because it's good for the teachers?" to which I responded "if it had been donated by British Councils, yes" at which point she got a little miffed and made clear that the books stayed at the institute. I made the suggestion that she just let them use the books in the boxes, but she said that just because she wasn't using the books now didn't mean the books wouldn't be used in the future.
I'd like to stop and point out that the materials are being distributed to teachers through her, they are getting used. She's not hoarding them, just controlling them. But still, she creates a bottleneck. If a teacher wants to look through materials, they can't. All they can do is (when she's not teaching or working on Olympiads) say what they need and look through the books she then chooses and loans to them. Actually, her not being able to suggest materials was one of her arguements that the books being at the library was a bad idea.
Okay, library was out. Well, how about have them at the insitute's small libarary? I suggested. She could be down there to suggest, but our librarian could keep it open all day. No, then the librarian would be responsible for them and it would be too loud for my coordinator to do her work. Well, if the director of the institute would have donated a room if I got the grant, why not just get a room now, have the books there and see about getting a copy machine later? No, the impetus for the director to give a room would be new equipment, she said; otherwise he'd just loose revenue he's getting from renting out institute rooms for business meetings. Can we use the institute's copier? No, it and the overhead projector she also wants and which the institute also already has, is only used by some people and locked up the rest of the time. I tossed out a couple more suggestions, including the teachers fundraising for equipment (I might as well hvae suggested we storm the Vatican for the look of disbelief I got) but it finally came down to: any scenario that did not have her in her own room with a copy machine, a computer and all the books was out of the question.
I still love her and I still think she's great, but she was pissing me off today.
It comes down to the way things are done here. A little bit of cooperation would mean we could achieve the goal of having a great resource center without the problems of access and organization. But apparently that's not the goal. Others limit her and her teachers from using the the projector, the copier or the resource center at the university, so why shouldn't she be territorial with her resources? I get where she's coming from, I just don't agree.
I may have to decide to be less hard-headed myself. I can get a non-SPA grant for such a center, but I've been picking my projects carefully and throwing my weight and work behind a grant that will ultimately produce one more bit of territorialsm grinds me the wrong way. Sigh. Before all is said and done I'll probably do it her way: the good will not be as great, but it will help some teachers and that's what it's all about anyway.
Still, the way I feel right now, I think it'd be nice if we went back to settling territorial battles with maces and swords.