Climbing the (glass) wall

There are lots of famous walls around the world - the Great Wall of China, Hadrian's Wall, the Berlin Wall ... And now:

The Glass Wall

Obviously this one doesn't have the strength of those other walls, so it must be symbolic.

We have been very puzzled about its meaning and purpose. It all started ...

When we first arrived at this school, there was a partial glass wall separating off the small section of the teachers' room where the Teachers' Assistant had her desk. This was her little place - she held the keys to the various cupboards, and occasionally did photocopying, and guarded the paper ... one or two packets at the most. She still found time to do her makeup, sit on the radiator, and chat online with friends. She was a pretty girl, but her youthfulness, inexperience, and limited English made it difficult for her to actually assist us, the teachers. She did however learn a few words and would check with us occasionally, "Am I beautiful?" Finally, for a variety of reasons, she resigned her job and we were left to manage without her.

Left to our own devices we entered the area behind the partial glass wall and found that the cupboards with the keys really held nothing of interest or value. We got permission from administration downstairs, and removed the glass wall - adding some extra space and a sense of freedom to our teachers' room. Morale went up, there were more laughs and less grumbles.

Then one of our Turkish teachers was made teachers' assistant, along with her teaching tasks. She's a wonderful young lady - beautiful as well as intelligent and talented, a good teacher and good English speaker, and a good friend to all of us foreign teachers. Now things could begin to run efficiently.

We all work six days a week, with one day - Friday - off. We all turned up one Saturday morning to discover:

Yep. The Glass Wall. Only this time it extends all the way to the wall - we can no longer walk around the end of it, we have to go out of one door and back into the other.

Or we could climb over maybe.

It had an instant effect. Morale dropped, everyone was grumbling and muttering again.

We tried asking downstairs about why they had gone to all the trouble of building a wall that no one wants and has no useful purpose ... but they assured us that we would soon understand and be very happy about it. Its been a couple of weeks and we are still not happy, just quietly resigned. So what does this thing represent?

Its the old battle between marketing and education - is this a school where learning is paramount, or a business that makes money hand over fist? This is marketing wanting a bit more say in the education department.