I know, as reading this, you might wonder how this affected all of us. Well, when investors and perspective homeowners stopped buying, the housing developers stopped building. When they stopped building, the employees were not needed. Then the subcontractors that did the construct, the plumbing, the electrical and the rest of the trades had no work. So the contracting companies had to lay off their workers. Also at that time, the suppliers were not selling to the contractors, so they needed to lower staff or at the worse close up their businesses. With all these workers being laid off, they have less money to spend at the malls and markets to these businesses had to lower staff too.

Now you might ask, what has this have to do with the Philippines. Many Filipinos work abroad. The term here is OFW’s or Overseas Foreign Workers. Many of these Filipino are contract workers with only a work visa. These workers send money home to help support their families in the Philippines. When employment was high and employers could not find Americans to fill the positions, the Government allows hiring through the work visa programs.  Eventually, if the layoffs and unemployment grows there will be more Americans available to fill these positions, many contracts will not be renewed and these OFW’s can lose their jobs and status to stay. If this happens, these Filipinos will return to the Philippines and the support for their families will be gone.

There is another problem how this economy crisis can affect Americans and the Philippines. As we get older, companies hiring look for the younger generations to fill the positions and less to the older applicants. There is a term “un-hirable.” This sometimes means you are too old to be desirable to be hired. If you’re in your 50’s or early 60’s companies will look at longevity. Why hire someone who is not going to stay and grow with a company in the long term. Many of these people, who know about the Philippines and the lower cost of living, will start thinking of moving here. This is not a bad thing by any means except many people who move here do not realize how live might be better and how it can be worse. In previous articles I have written about many of the differences living here. I hope they do not just pack up without visiting, seeing how life is living here as a resident and not relaxing in a hotel.

With this site and many others online, I hope people considering a move here will take the time to read and research to better understand.

Looking at that article and searching for others, I was more informed about the needs and hiring of Math, Science and Special Education Teachers.

In one article it mentioned a lot of the teachers are for Inner City and also remote locations usually not desirable to American Teachers.

I remember when I was a Field Engineer for a P.C. and Apple Computer networking company I was sent to Window Rock, Arizona, which is the Capitol for the Navajo Nation. The area was beautiful and just what you would dream of if you think of getting on a horse and riding the desert plans. When I mentioned it to the head of IT for the school district and joked about him hiring me as his assistant he told me I would not be accepted as a non Native American. The non Native Americans there were the teachers and they were hired as contract personnel since they were needed.

Also, as in the article from the LA Times, it mentioned the trouble the Filipino Teacher had with the uncontrolled Inner City students.

Here in the Philippines, most children are respectful of elders and would not fight in class or disrespect a teacher. One child I spoke to told me if a child was loud or uncontrolled, the other students would control him before the teacher had to step in.

That got me to thinking of the stories and memories from schools in America. I remember entering a school in New York City and had to go through a metal detector, which all students and teachers must use, to enter the school. Then I was patted down and my tool case inspected.

At a school in Compton California, you could only enter the campus through the school office because all gates were locked during school hours. Then walking through campus I see 2 Police Officers walking ahead of me. I noticed their utility belts with nightstick, Mace Can and Gun. I thought there must have been trouble or the 2 Officers were there for a presentation until I got closer and noticed their shoulder patch “Compton Unified School District Police.” I guess I was naive and never realized crime has reached a level where school districts had their own Police Force.

When I was a kid, the biggest fear was the Principal calling your parents in for a meeting, detention after school or at one school, being called into the Vice Principals office and feeling one of his paddles on your butt. Later, in the computer lab, one kid looked at me, and called to the teacher, “This guy is wearing a pager.” I did not realize, since drug dealers used pagers to get orders, or the payphone number to call, they were not allowed in schools.

I then thought about these Filipino Teachers, so new, so excited, walking into a class the first time and seeing these out spoken, wild, non respectful kids and wondering what they have gotten themselves in for.

The difference in schools and students from the Philippines to Inner City America is like going from a quiet movie theater into a high security prison.

All I can say to these teachers is Thank you, you are really needed.