Chapter 401.

Chapter 401.

Chapter 401. A Heart-Pounding Day Together with My Girlfriend: Eating Marshmallows while Telling a Campfire Story. (2/4)

So anyway, she received her two years long teachers college degree in her country about fourteen years before I was born. After she received it she worked as a teacher for eight years. In her country, although the education was free, you had to at least work two years in her country as a teacher otherwise you’d have to pay back the government all the money you received for your education.”

“Was that to prevent teachers from immediately fleeing to other countries where they could receive better pay after receiving their education?”

“Yes, it was. Though she would have loved to, she didn’t immediately leave for another country back then because of this. She was working for next to nothing as an elementary school teacher. High school teachers in her country were paid three times more than elementary school teachers. However, universities in her county weren’t accredited at that time so getting a degree in her country at the time wasn’t recognized in foreign countries. It was a major waste of money to get a degree that wasn’t recognized elsewhere.”

“Yeah, it would definitely suck spending all that time and money only to be told it amounted to nothing.”

I nodded in full agreement before I continued recounting my mother’s bumpy life, “Whenever summer or winter breaks came around, she’d travel to another country using the money she painstakingly saved up working as an elementary school teacher. After converting her money into foreign currency she’d barely have anything because of how bad the exchange rate was combined with her lacking pay. She couldn’t go around spending lavishly with the tiny bit of money she made as an elementary school teacher, the most she could do was take in the sights.”

“Wait, but after the two years she worked in her county, why didn’t she try moving to another country?”

Rosa stuck another roasted marshmallow into my mouth.

When I finished swallowing the marshmallow I explained, “Well, she’d gotten a car and she had two years left to pay off on it, she didn’t want to give it up.”

“What about the four years she continued teaching after that?”

“Honestly... she probably could have. But I guess it was a sense of helplessness. She didn’t know anything about the laws or the immigration process. It was only about three to four years before I was born that she decided to further her education and aim to become a high school teacher by applying to the university in the city her father had been living. As I mentioned before, her mother refused to pay for her to receive an education. However, her father was different. He offered to help her pay for her education. As such, she applied here as an international student and actually got accepted.”

“Oh, her father sounds like a pretty great guy.”

“Within the first month, she saw massive success with her one on one teaching method, what followed was an explosive boom of customers. Children who were taught by her saw immediate improvements in their grades and word traveled very quickly.”

“Only two months in, she rapidly expanded and hired three more teachers as she couldn’t keep up with the insane demand. She also bought up tables and chairs like crazy. She ended up with about six long tables and a hundred chairs. She was running this gig out of her mother’s poorly maintained backyard and basement she’d been cast aside to. She quickly racked up 239 students who’d dropped by all throughout the day.”

“She effectively ran a school with a capacity of 239 students who showed up every day while providing personalized lessons which operated Monday through Thursday. One set of kids would come in from 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM, the next set would show up anywhere between 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM. She even had adults coming in for lessons from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM.”

“Wait, hold up,” Rosa stuck out a stick and shoved the marshmallow on it into my mouth. If she’d said ‘objection’ just now, I probably would have burst out into laughter. When I bit into the marshmallow, she pulled the stick back and continued, “so you’re saying four teachers were dealing with 239 students AND providing a one-on-one teaching experience? Even with those long working hours, how does that even work out?”

“Well, the kids would be around for an hour and a half for each subject. They didn’t show up all at once though. It wasn’t the same as a classroom where everyone was being taught the same thing at the exact same time. The teachers would explain things to them one by one, provide them with problems to solve, and while they were doing so, the teachers would move on to help the next student in the meantime. Whenever one of the students got stuck on anything, the teacher would come back to them and explain things in a simple, very easy-to-understand manner. The children actually enjoyed being taught when they realized they could actually understand the problems and they didn’t want to leave.”

“That sounds... really exhausting though. Just how much work and effort would that take?”

“A lot obviously. But my mother was earning quite a sum of money this way. She was quite generous with the salary she paid the three teachers she hired. Converting it to our currency and adjusting for inflation it would work out to about $325 a month. But with how well it was doing, after six months she raised it to a bit over $400.”

“That’s considered a generous salary?”

“Well yeah, keep in mind, for her third world country, this salary was quite good. The cost of living was also lower in the past. This salary was on par with what high school teachers were paid there. Three times more than an elementary school teacher.”

“I see. From the sound of it, she’d be making quite a bit of money for herself though with that many students.”

“She did make a decent sum...”

Was it really worth it in the end though...