Post 14: School House Rock

Schools have been open for a few weeks now, and I kept intending to write a thorough (and eloquent) blog post detailing my schools and life as a teacher. After the first few days at school, I felt too exhausted to write. Then, the material began gathering, accruing and coalescing (this is where the eloquence part comes in) into one massive load of information that felt too big to tackle-an experiential multi-headed monster. In other words, I put off blogging because there was too much to write about, and I was busy. So here is my first attempt. I think I have mentioned this before, but I work at two schools. The first is the main school in the district…
Wat Bot School
Wat Bot school has kindergarten (anuban) all the way through maw 3, or the equivalent of ninth grade. Education in Thailand is free up until ninth grade, and then students have the option of continuing with the final three years of secondary education, if they can pay. Wat Bot school has about 850 students- 650 pratom students (1st through 6th grade) and 200 matayum students (7th grade and up). There are somewhere between 30 and 40 teachers. As is true at most Thai schools, a vast majority of the teachers are women. The administrators, however, are men. Like in the states, the primary school teachers teach every subject while secondary teachers specialize.
I am teaching two maw 1 classes, level 1 and level 2. Within grades, students are divided into classes by their “levels”, or relative abilities. However, the divisions into level 1 and level 2 (at least for English) seem fairly arbitrary. Thus far the students who are in the allegedly “less smart” class are better behaved and more productive workers. My co-teacher, Pii Som, continually tells me how all the students are bad, not smart, and do not like to work. Since the “smarter” (read: wealthier) students go to school in the city, I think it is a common perception that students in the country schools are less capable. But from what I have observed, these are intelligent, motivated, and [mostly] well-behaved, normal kids, which means that they are willing to learn and will listen, but have difficulty sitting and listening to dictation for two hours (don’t we all?). They are all excited to be learning with the “farang” teacher, and even seem to enjoy my attempts at classroom management, a new concept for Thai schools. Many Thai teachers use varying degrees of corporal punishment, from light raps on the head to paddles. I prefer positive reinforcement. However, the ways students are treated is different here. In America, if the students do not understand the material, the responsibility lays in the teacher’s hands. The students may not be learning because the teacher is not presenting the material effectively. In Thailand, if the students are not learning, it is because they are slow, bad and stupid. No culpability at all is put on the teachers. And when a teacher takes an afternoon off to run errands or sit in another teacher’s classroom, it is the students responsibility to learn on their own.
I teach at Wat Bot school on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and two Wednesdays ago was the first day of school. It was a completely overwhelming experience at first, with 850 students and their parents running around in normal first day confusion, staring at me as they went. I will admit I was intimidated by the sheer number of children and unsure of my place within the school community. The students spent the entire first day cleaning the school from top to bottom. The day felt long and exhausting, but I knew it would get easier as it grew more familiar. The second day, I told my co-teacher clearly and adamantly that I wanted to observe her teach, as Peace Corps strongly recommends we spend at least two weeks doing, to assess the students and the teachers, and get our bearings. I was sitting in the back of the class with my pen and paper poised to observe and take notes, when Pii Som says “Bekah, come up to the front of the classroom. What will you teach today?” I had nothing planned and was taken off guard, but I improvised and tried to be dynamic and positive.
Pii Som had told me multiple times she did not want school to open and was not excited, but she totally fed off my energy and motivation. By the end of the class, she was smiling, having fun, and even building on the activity I introduced in the classroom. It made me see that by simply providing an alternative teaching model, I may be able to affect some kind of change. However, I recently found out that her attitude is not [only] a result of not enjoying her job. Apparently the paw-aw at the school and Pii Som do not get along. He is unfriendly, arrogant, and close-minded. She told me today that once I return to America, she wants to change schools because he makes her so miserable.
Wat Bot School has been open for four weeks, but I have barely taught. The students spent a large portion of time the first few days cleaning the school and then hanging out. The second week, the school had a 2 week “training” on manners and etiquette. The first week (but second week of school), only matayum students came to school- all the primary students had the days off. The teachers taught multiple rotations on various subjects, ranging from hand-washing (which I taught) to singing the anthem of Phitsanulok province to the appropriate length of hair for girls. There were also sessions on “wai”ing, the formal form of greeting in Thailand, and how to be polite when purchasing things in a store. Allegedly since the students are “bad”, this type of training is more important than actual education. The second week of the manners training, the high school students taught the primary students, so yet again, no actual learning occurred. Then last week, the school hosted a district wide English camp (a full post about that to come), so I did not teach my regular classes. It is totally normal on any given day for students to be roaming about the school, hanging out on benches, and generally doing anything but studying. If the teachers don’t feel like teaching, they don’t. It is frustrating for me to see sometimes, because I feel like these kids have so much potential and could be learning so much, but aren’t given the chance.
Thangam
On Mondays and Tuesdays, I go to Chumchon Ban Thangam, or the Thangam community school. It has kindergarten through sixth grade, and a grand total of 76 students. The school is underfunded and only has six teachers, not including the woman who cares for the anuban kids. Unlike Wat Bot school, where just as many teachers live outside of the community as in, a majority of the teachers at Thangam school were born and raised in Thangam. My co-teacher, Pii Orasa, is such a case. She teaches first grade and this year only has four students. However, the school decided to combine the first and second grade classes for English, and thus I have 13 students. Pii Orasa, unlike Pii Som, clearly loves to teach and loves her students. She has a wonderful manner with children and loves to sing songs and be silly in the classroom. She is a bit like a mother figure at the school, and the other teachers frequently wander into the classroom with questions or wailing children. Since Pii Orasa’s students are so young, I also teach the sixth graders with another teacher. That class has eleven students.
Everything is on such a small scale at Thangam it almost feels like an elf school. The fact that it is such a local, community-based school means that everything is very relaxed. The bell rings when teachers decide to push the bell button and the “schedule” is more like a general guideline. The teachers at Wat Bot school are relatively reliable about teaching when they are supposed to. Not true at Thangam, I think I have yet to be there one day when all six teachers were present. Howoever, the students are remarkably adept at taking care of themselves and never get into mischief. Furthermore, teachers at Thangam are constantly using the TV to “teach”. Each classroom does have a TV, as part of a push by the Thai government to integrate technology into the classroom. Most of the teachers will turn it on and either sit in the back of the classroom or wander off. The second grade classroom is right next to the bathroom, and I have literally passed it one time in three weeks when the TV was not turned on. This really bothers me, because no matter informative, having 7 year in a classroom and passively stare at a television is not educational. When I asked the teachers about it, they said it is because they are under-staffed and get tired, which is fair, but I know if I was to calculate the amount of hours the teachers actively spent teaching their students, it would be shockingly low. In some ways, it feels more like a day care than a school.
Usually when I teach the little kids, we take the class outside to the area underneath the mango trees. There are tables for the kids to sit on and work, and it is a quiet, shady space. Although I do not have a chalk board, I love teaching outside and the kids have room to move around, particularly useful when I have them make letter shapes with their bodies or play “letter zoo” (B bear, C cat, D duck, E elephant etc…). Pii Orasa is really good and keeping a schedule and starting class on time. Pii Sompit, however, almost always leaves the students to their own devices or turns on the TV, so I can basically teach whenever. There are usual times I teach, but if here or there I want to push class back thirty minutes or teach an extra half hour that day, it is fine. The sixth graders get so excited when I come to teach, but it is clear they are not used to using their brains at school. Seriously, the concept of critical thinking is new to them at age 11.
For lunch, we eat food hand-cooked at the school by a retired teacher, usually sitting at a picnic table under a big tree, and everyone shares fruit. When we finish eating, a few nearby students get corralled to rinse our dishes, and then the bell gets pushed again. I really enjoy spending time with Pii Orasa, even when I am not teaching with her, and when I have time, help her teach art to the first and second graders. I have already started brainstorming ideas for the school, like implementing a recycling program and holding a teacher training workshop (where I emphasize turning on a TV is not teaching) and all six teachers, and the paw-aw, have already made me feel welcome and valued.
PS-If you want a picture CD, email me your mailing address.
I miss you all!