Comments / Feedback: Not Exactly the Spanish Inquisition

by: Dana

I liked everything about this including the visuals (my degree is in Art History).

But I also took it as a personal warning. In no way would I ever want to be involved in any of these 'teaching' situations. My first and last instincts and needs and desires would be to take out a gun and shoot people. This kind of behavior does not always get a good reception. It should. I am in Hell.

When I worked on St. John in the Caribbean I often had the same response to the moronically stupid natives; but the natives, bless them, never took offense. They knew they were moronically stupid. I offer this as the very definition of irony. They didn't hold me accountable for holding them in contempt because they had the self reflective intelligence to know they had no intelligence. Boy, what a brain freeze that place was. But at least they were ahead of the Thais who do not appear to have any self reflective powers of any kind.

by: sawadee2000

I try to use as many visual aids as possible. Many times a simple picture can cut through a lot of blathering on. Certainly I understand that we all learn in different ways. Unfortunately, in many of my classes, the students' minds are off in Dreamland, so it really doesn't matter what I present, or how I try to present it.

Right now as I write this, we are in the second day of a school-wide academic competition. I'll probably write up a piece about it. But for now let me say that the "cream" of our school would most likely not fare well if they were up against schools from Korea, Japan or China. Not a single student could answer the question: "What is the sum of the Prime Numbers from 1 to 20?" My math skills are nothing to write home about, but even I knew that the answer was 77!

The problem is NOT that the Thais are stupid. Their ignorance comes from laziness, and a poor curriculum. This is certainly not exclusively a Thai situation. The education standards in the U.S have plummeted since my schooldays. We've "dumbed down" things to such a degree that many American students can't locate the USA on a world map!

I've given up trying to change the curriculum here. The schools is content to go on as it always has....that is to say poorly. No one will in fact admit that there ARE any problems. Oh well, as long as I get paid at the end of the month, I'll continue to pretend that I'm actually teaching anything.

by: atmcharlie

When I was teaching I gave up on the curriculum, bought some simple language cartoon videos.
If it's on TV they will watch it.
If it's on TV they will believe it.
It worked for students from 6-59.
It drove me mad when I corrected errors in the text books.
And found next term they had replaced all the errors.

by: Paul Garrigan

It can be very frustrating sometimes. Out of desperation I will frequently spoon-feed students but some will still fail. I will spend hours preparing power-point presentations, and handout. I even go to the trouble of giving vocabulary sheets in Thai and English so that they don't have to go to all that trouble of opening a dictionary. It can sometimes feel like a waste of my time.

I don't think that it has anything to do with their intelligence though. It is just that we have different agendas.

by: Dana

"I don't think that it has anything to do with their intelligence though."

Oh, please . . . just stop. I am old enough (and cranky enough) and presumably wise enough to be heartily sick of this political correctness. How do we measure intelligence? Someone tell me.

by: sawadee2000

Oh, many of these kids are intelligent enough, but many of them are equally unmotivated and often just plain LAZY. No one has EVER demanded ANYTHING of them, and they are happy to comply! Even the boys have NO PROBLEM learning to play a complex video game. Even the girls can memorize every pop song. The kids in our school's symphonic band happily spent hours practicing....with wonderful results, BUT don't seem to understand they need to spend a minimal amount of time studying. All that being said though, there certainly are plenty of students who simply are as dim as a 25 watt light bulb.

by: Dana

"Oh, many of these kids are intelligent enough"

Intelligent people have internal standards and set external goals.

by: sawadee2000

Perhaps clever is a more apt description. Many of my students are not suffering from a congenital condition, but rather a societal one. Academic learning is simply NOT a long standing tradition here. Very few people read books, INCLUDING the Thai teachers! Where are the libraries? Where are the museums? Children simply are not being inspired to be curious. In fact. given the importance of "not losing face", asking questions is not encouraged. In this way, intelligence is dulled. It is certainly easier, especially for Thai boys to "play dumb" and "act the clown", rather than be known as a nerd.

by: Dana

"It is certainly easier, especially for Thai boys to "play dumb" and "act the clown", rather than be known as a nerd."

Then they are stupid. The word is in the dictionary for a reason. You can only contort the language so much and then finally you just have to look in the language mirror and state the truth. I am short. If enough people state it differently do I become tall? Ridiculous.

by: sawadee2000

I agree that to "play dumb" IS stupid. I also understand how powerful the need to conform to the way of your peers can be for adolescents. Nobody wants to be "different". If the "accepted" norm among your peers is to act in a certain way, then you buck this attitude at the risk of ridicule.

There are simply no role models for academic excellence. In many cases these kids parents don't value learning. Oh, they may care which school their children attend, but often that's just to maintain social status.

The point I'm trying to make is that there ARE functioning brains in these kids heads, but for a number of reasons they seem unable to use them! That is dumb for sure. They COULD be doing sooooooo much more in every aspect of their lives. That is not just dumb, it is pathetic. It is unfortunately very Thai.