What I learned yesterday

Last week Lina told me that a 50 or above was passing. I was astonished so I asked at lunch today. It seems that 80 and above is an A and a 79 is an A-. My students must be ecstatic at their homework grades. On Monday after the holidays I will get a list of point equivalants and adjust my later grading.

I spent most of yesterday with a social work colleague. She was instrumental in founding/revitalizing St Joseph School in Penang. The school takes in street children and other children who have experienced neglect or abuse. The children go to school during the day and then come back to the St Joseph to play, study, eat and live.

She wasn't aware of social service NGOs collaborating. They may work together on event, but these are ad hoc, short term projects. The NGOs do make referrals to one another and share some physical resources.

I had already heard that(1) small, economically fragile NGOs didn't have the energy or inclination to collaborate, (2) Asians don't do well at negotiation which serves as a disincentive to collaboration, (3) Malaysian NGOs lack leaders who can design/motivate a collaboration. In this conversation I learned about how race/religion acts as a barrier. Penang has several children's homes, including a Muslim/Malay home, St Joseph's (non-Malay b/c it is non-halaal), a Hindu home, and a Buddhist home. So inter-group activities tend to be minimal because of different races/religious/languages and foods. Of course, all the groups compete for funds.

We talked a bit about workshops, but they don't ask participants to develop a plan before the workshop is over. In addition the workshops are in English. Apparently benefiting from workshops is a struggle b/c of language skills (both with English and conceptually). Then if people learn something there are still challenges in implementing their new ideas. (Sound familiar?)