Vagabond With Flowers: Hasadee School

Yesterday, Lara and I were invited by Dave to teach at a local government school half an hour away from Isara. We were able to get a feel of how education was taught in an actual school setting. We began the day by getting picked up at 7 am, (-____-) which was a bit too early for us. Once we arrived to the school, Dave gave us a quick tour around the campus and introduced us to the principle. He then gave us an overview of his weekly schedule and typically, on Thursdays he teaches 5 classes. We observed the class dynamic and saw that the students at this school were taught quite well. Dave does an excellent job teaching his students and it's definitely reflected in their performance in class.

We had a chance to have one-on-one time with a few of the students by playing various word games using flashcards, having them read specific books that indicated difficulty level, and having simple conversations. He encouraged his students in all the different levels to speak with us and create a simple dialogue to develop conversational skills. His advanced class was really inspiring! The girls that I spoke with were almost fluent in English-- it was almost as if they were native speakers. I asked them typical questions that expressed their favorites (food, hobbies, subject, pop stars and such). I learned that Big Bang is in fact, a big bang with the Thai teenagers (sorry, I had to!). They're this Korean group with 5 members who are apparently easy on the eyes. Haha. A few other conversations were almost successful in that I had to reword my questions because I spoke too fast or didn't pronounce a word that they were familiar with clear enough, or even the accent perhaps threw them off since Dave is from England and our accents are striking.

In one of Dave's classes, (I forget which one) he pulled out 4 of his high ranking students from another class to come and do a bit of story-telling. Two of his students did a short story-telling piece, one gave an animated story about a turtle and a rabbit while the other introduced his favorite hobbies. It was a delight to see these students speaking English publicly with enthusiasm and most importantly, confidence. The two were so confident in their speech and even communicated the humor well enough in their stories to the students that they gleefully laughed out loud. I'm hoping not at him, but because they actually understood what he was talking about. Hah.

As the day dwindled down to its final hour, I began to reflect about the hours spent with the students. As a perpetual student, I often times forget that learning is a process and that nourishment and support is imperative. I think that with these students, they are given a sufficient amount of support by Dave to continue their education and stir enough motivation to learn such a complicated language. After spending the day with Dave and hearing previous stories told by other foreigners, I'm finding it difficult to evaluate and communicate thoroughly the Thai education system through this space because I don't want to impose these ideals that may appear divisive. From what I have been told, the Thai education system has reached complacency and often times, foreigners interject to break this habit but have relentlessly been discouraged to do so because 'that's the way it is here'. And although the stories I have been told involve corruption and dishonest fraudulence, I still believe that people are passionate enough in their work to break these cycles and produce good work that will influence others in a positive way. I just think education is extremely important and should not for one minute be overlooked by complacency or debilitating excuses.

Overall, my experience at Hasaden school was an enlightening one. I love seeing children laughing and enjoying each other's company, laughing at each other's faults when answering a question incorrectly, hearing story books read aloud reminiscent of my elementary school days (I haven't read or heard Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see in helllllllllaaaa long!), singing songs about five monkeys getting injured from a disastrous bed jumping experience and other simple things I learn to appreciate that children remind me of, like laughing out loud and being carefree.

I'm going to be cheesy and end this post with a quote from Kirk,

"I don't know about you guys, but I heard that the children are the future"

PICTURES!