It's All About the Youth

*Disclaimer: I have met a few great teachers elsewhere in Thailand or in the big province level schools - what you are about to read is what I know here in my village.

Here is what I see EVERY TIME I walk into the classroom – the Thai teacher SITTING in the back of the classroom, with a stick in her hand and yelling out some instructions or instead of instructions, just bossing the kids around, calling them stupid, fat, or whatever else that suits her mood. Then I come in and she says “OH Kru (teacher) Dta Wan is here to teach all of you how to speak English”, the students follow that by a synchronized “good morning Teacher” (and its 1:00pm). Maybe once or twice out of all last year did I see her write or actually instruct her students. And she always complains to me “ oh dta wan, I am just so busy” so I think to myself, “ what are you SO busy with?”. The teacher rarely teaches anything, but I am expected to achieve fluency in all the students. Honestly, I really do not understand a lot of things (specifically in rural Thailand): how some teachers can become teachers without feeling ‘passionate’ about the kids /about education, how some teachers are considered 'english teachers' without a degree in English, or how a teacher is regarded as the utmost prestige of people (the damn TITLE) and the kids have to bend over backwards to serve them without getting anything beneficial in return? But you know, most of the time, you just stop asking, pondering and thinking of the unfairness of it all

Sometimes I wonder if it’s just me. I also had an education from an Asian country for 7 years of my life (elementary and a year of secondary). I’ve seen my friends (girls and guys) get beat up by the teacher because they were late for class; we used to work our asses off to clean the classroom every week while the teacher sat there and told us what to do. But at the same time, we learned so much from those same teachers, those same teachers would ‘bend over backwards’ FOR US to make sure we learned what we had to (and sometimes made us learn/study WAY too much). I had a teacher cry because she was so hurt from how much a classmate of mine had disappointed her. So I know, all Asian culture have their differences/similarities they might hit their kids the same (yes, corporal punishment is not right but development happens slowly), they might boss their students around the same because they simply can; but mostly importantly I think ALL teachers (rural and modern) should CARE THE SAME. They should show the same kind of passion for their job and especially for the future of these students. Because when you are little, all you need is someone that believes in you, someone who believes in the fact that with a little push, you can do better, be better and achieve something greater.

So I show up, no matter how much I dread the actual teaching of English (with my little to none teaching skills), I show up to be that little push; unfortunately, when little to nothing is being taught in class, and when 95% of the adults think the students are ‘only children’ with no capabilities, all that left is very little room for higher achievement. At the Life Skills camp last month, I asked during a session, “so you guys don’t want to be doctors, scientists, lawyers” and a majority of the kids replied “oh no no no, we cannot do that... Not capable” …

If you believe in what I am saying at least a little bit, please, help me be that little push by allowing me and the amazing members of the Youth Development GIG to host this year’s National Conference – Youth Serving YOUth. A conference might not change everything, but at least, for those 3 days, the Youth will be surrounded by people that truly believes in them, believes in their capability and the future of Youth as leaders of their village/of tomorrow (maybe also then, Thailand will stop having sub-district mayors that ONLY have a 4/5th grade education...just saying)

We would greatly appreciate your support and donations! (Sponsoring a group will cost $200 and sponsoring a single youth attendee will cost $60. As little as $1 or up to $1,000, any tax-deductible donation will be greatly appreciated)

--We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future – Franklin D. Roosevelt ----