Thailand Schools....

All over in Thailand, there are hundreds and hundreds of foreign teachers teaching English. I initially thought that they would take anyone whose first language was English, but I came to find out that the Thai educational system prefers white females from America.  When looking at resumes for new potential hires for my advisors, they told me that the head Director and many parents have vocalized that they don’t want black teachers.  I talked to this teacher from Uganda and he was telling me how unfairly black people are treated in Thailand. Regardless of education, they are always paid less. Even if they have a teaching degree, they will get paid less than a white native English speaker with absolutely no teacher qualifications.  

Some of my precious students, Zen and Film.

I find it interesting because there is no substitute teacher system in place here. I think it’s mostly because Thai teachers just don’t take vacations or breaks and never get sick!  If a teacher is sick or gone, the other teachers just take over their classes.  I feel that most of the time you are on your own as a teacher here. I haven’t really felt a lot of support or guidance while teaching here. When I taught in America, a huge part of the structure of teaching was to have a support group and collaboration by teachers of the same subject and the same team, to discuss behavior, teaching methods and sharing ideas for lesson plans and brainstorming for new ideas. I feel this is a point of pride for our school systems back home. 

Our school sidewalk after a big rain!

 I found it interesting when I was told that there is kind of crisis for finding new teachers. About 25-30 years ago there was a government incentive to teach, so a lot of teachers signed up. In Thailand, teachers will teach for 30 plus years before retiring so there hasn’t been a need for new teachers until now, when all the old ones are retiring. I thought teachers were respected here but James said no, because people think that people become teachers because they can’t do anything else and they have no clout in government or politics. James said that this is slowly changing as education is seen as being more important than before. 

 A Thailand Sky...

A large bug we found in our neighborhood!

We had to prepare for our end of semester parent presentation.  I was in charge of the Math presentation again and then was in charge of a question and answer session at the end to show what the students have learned and what they were tested over for end of semester tests.  As the last time, I was very impressed with my students performance…I think the parents felt they money was being well spent! 

 An interesting fact I learned about Buddhism is that people are placed at different levels and are treated differently according to those levels. At first I didn’t like this, but then I learned that people are treated differently and helped differently according to what their needs are and what they individually need to reach nirvana and an enlightened state.  I feel that is true in Christianity as well. We are all individuals and at different levels and need different things to help us reach our enlightened state. 

A buddha on the go!

There are geckos all over in Thailand. In my house there are usually just little ones about 1-3 inches long. Outside my house there are big ones that are around 1foot long!