Jump to content

Stradavarius37

Advanced Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    2,290

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Stradavarius37

    Schools asks for too big budgets for joining competitions: Obec

    in Teaching in Thailand Forum

    Posted

    <script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

    <script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

    <script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

    I come from a small country town. I was a member of their band for 15years, scouts for 12 years. If we needed funds, we put on our uniform, rolled up our sleeves and got to it to make them. We would do playouts on the streets of a weekend, old folks home concerts, marches, parades, you name it. With the help of parents, the community and businesses we never were short of what we needed. If you can not teach the younger generation to get off their butts, and work for something, you are dooming them to handouts and robbing them of vital pride. If they are that good, money will always follow talent. Staging some sort of protest to guilt a billionaire into footing the bill is disgusting.

    Keep telling yourself that the government/education system owes you a living, see how far that gets you....

    Oz

    Time for another cup of coffee. I think the kids are playing on your lawn. Go get em!

    If they were out on my lawn playing, I'd throw some money their way... what's your point?? Do you have any valid reasoning, other than sniping at my coffee intake schedule? Thought not!

    The comment was about your negative and grumpy comment, early in the morning, before you've had enough coffee to temper the "grumpy old man" mask you are wearing. You don't know that these students AREN'T out earning money. You just assumed that. You don't know the context behind the protest of the billionaire, you just assumed that you do. Your assumptions are coloring your comments without all the facts in, your comments are negative, you need coffee. Go drink it outside, and for once, let the kids play on your yard without growling at them.

    Schools asks for too big budgets for joining competitions: Obec

    in Teaching in Thailand Forum

    Posted

    <script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

    I come from a small country town. I was a member of their band for 15years, scouts for 12 years. If we needed funds, we put on our uniform, rolled up our sleeves and got to it to make them. We would do playouts on the streets of a weekend, old folks home concerts, marches, parades, you name it. With the help of parents, the community and businesses we never were short of what we needed. If you can not teach the younger generation to get off their butts, and work for something, you are dooming them to handouts and robbing them of vital pride. If they are that good, money will always follow talent. Staging some sort of protest to guilt a billionaire into footing the bill is disgusting.

    Keep telling yourself that the government/education system owes you a living, see how far that gets you....

    Oz

    Time for another cup of coffee. I think the kids are playing on your lawn. Go get em!

    Two Thai universities almost crack global ranking

    in Teaching in Thailand Forum

    Posted

    <script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

    Music yes, but that's not really what Universities are renowned the world over for is it? There is not a nobel prize for music and important though it is, academically it's a bit of a cul de sac, a fringe subject. Only in Thailand could relative failure be hailed as some sort of success, embarrassing really.

    Juillard is fringe? The Guildhall in London - not world renowned, i see.... The poster thinks that because music isn't on HIS radar, that its not on the world radar. I disagree, obviously. There is not a Nobel, but there is a Pulitzer Prize for music. Same league, no? People who think music is a "fringe subject" should think about how their world would be without it. Medicine might keep you alive, but music is one of the things that you stay alive for.

    As for calling Thailand's higher education system a failure, I would say that there are definitely failings at the national policy level. And those need to be addressed, but it will not be a quick fix. If you ask a veteran Thailand resident to compare the education system of Thailand in the 70s vrs today I would bet that they would say its much improved, while still not measuring up to western standards. I would imagine that in another 40 years it will be that much more improved,

    Two Thai universities almost crack global ranking

    in Teaching in Thailand Forum

    Posted

    <script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

    Mahidol Department of Music, being BY FAR the best and most famous music school in Thailand, also gets the best musicians. Its a very good cycle and I am sure that will continue.

    And yet didn't exist 15 years ago - im sure it just became so through the patronage of the hi-sos, and not through vision, philosophy, innovation, and industriousness. And thankfully our students don't play on yamaha keyboards either :)

    Schools asks for too big budgets for joining competitions: Obec

    in Teaching in Thailand Forum

    Posted

    <script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

    47 million for the entire country isn't a lot but over 9 million for one competition is.

    True, but the government system is built so that you ask for 10 million, you get 1. When you know that, you work within the system to get what you can. A request for 9 million would never have had the expectation of receiving that amount.

    Two Thai universities almost crack global ranking

    in Teaching in Thailand Forum

    Posted

    Ive taught at Mahidol for 11 years. It is a quality school - comparable to many state schools in the US, and there are a lot of quality teachers and students, and the campus and facilities are quite excellent. Some of the individual faculties are average, some are excellent, some are world class.

    That being said, it is not the standard level of the typical Thai university. In fact, my faculty (Music) get at least 1-2 admin groups per week from other universities coming to speak with my boss, asking how they can learn to develop their programs to a similar level. My boss' answer is always the same - you must have quality. (in everything you do).

    My boss is one of the rare visionaries in the education world in SE Asia, but hopefully his work has benefits throughout our sector and beyond. Brick by brick my citizens....

    Which degrees would you be most interested in?

    in Higher Education in Thailand

    Posted

    <script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

    Apparently you still failed to read the summary course description...

    100,000,000 baht would buy 100 Yamaha keyboards... per student! lol

    Great - now purchase 1 baby grand piano for performances (and maybe 2 more for faculty offices), and at least 10 upright pianos (probably closer to 20-30 if you have individual practice rooms, which I am sure you do right?) Cost for that - closer to 30 million. You planning to open a university level degree program using yamaha keyboards? International standard indeed :)

    Schools asks for too big budgets for joining competitions: Obec

    in Teaching in Thailand Forum

    Posted

    <script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

    Tone down the rage there Grandpa. A lot of them do a great deal of find raising to make these trips happen. And frankly - most trip support is external 47 million over an entire nation isn't a lot of money


    Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

    My sister in law is employed as a teacher at a government school in Kananchaburi. Every year the entire staff go on a one week all expenses paid holiday. This year they are off to Phuket and last year they were in Chiangmai. This all comes out of the school budget, why can't some of the schools use this money instead of spending it on staff perks?

    Why don't you ask them? Frankly, taking staff on team development, in service training, etc is a fairly standard practice across most sectors. Did you think they were spending all their time at the beach? Probably most of the day was spent in the conference room in group seminars.

    Which degrees would you be most interested in?

    in Higher Education in Thailand

    Posted · Edited by Stradavarius37

    Creating another underfunded "for profit" music program is not what the country needs. Also, your idea of what music students do after graduation is woefully uninformed. What is the money for? Equipment - basics (chairs, tables, music stands), specialized (instruments - pianos, percussion, etc) and computers for the "music business" component you want to offer. Facilities - practices rooms, small ensemble rooms, large ensemble rooms, sheet music, a library facility to support your students, or at the very least, subscriptions to basic online databases for your students. (or maybe you better plan to pay for a subscription to our music library for each of your students,which would help your profit margin). Then you need instructors - a full music curriculum of 50 students with 5 instructors? Sure, if you want to hire the best barstool "Jack of all trades", "I got a music degree in the 60s while I was a hippy" group. But you wont be getting anything in terms of quality, which means your training will be substandard, and your students will suffer in the short term from lack of resources and educational opportunities, and in the long term from a lack of substantial skill and knowledge training that will allow them to succeed. Also, private lessons are taught individually, which means you have to have a large list of adjunct hourly instructors to begin to cover all the instruments (unless you are only teaching guitar and drums to future rock stars).

    Frankly no quality student would go to a program as you describe, because students can judge quality, so you are feeding upon the students who couldn't get accepted to Mahidol Silpakorn, Rangsit, Payap, Kasetsart, Chula, Srinakarinwirote, Bansomdej Chaophrya etc. The chances of a student with miminal or no musical talent (which is what you would be getting) becoming a success in a program like yours with no resources to speak of is a flight of fancy. You would be stealing their money, nothing more.

    Stick to a discipline that can be taught in larger groups (business administration, etc) with minimal overhead, at least there you have a chance to give students and education that is moderately non-terrible.

    Lastly - i don't know you, and nor do I wish too. Its your own narcissism in thinking that I am making assumptions about "you". I was simply pointing out that the idea presented, to open a music degree program is a non starter with no potential to produce anything resembling a quality standard.

    Which degrees would you be most interested in?

    in Higher Education in Thailand

    Posted · Edited by Stradavarius37

    I know exactly how much it has cost to create the world class music program that Mahidol hosts. I also know how much moneyware it costs to supply the hardware, software, and peopleware to develop music quality. Anyone posting on a TV forum asking "is this a good idea" doesn't have one.

    There are 76 university music programs in Thailand - 75 of them are severely underfunded and lack even the most basic equipment to make a go of music. If you have 100 million for the basics, then my apologies. If not, stick with a less cost-intensive major area of study. How's that for snark?

    Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

    Two Thai universities almost crack global ranking

    in Teaching in Thailand Forum

    Posted

    <script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

    I think this a really great achievement, and congratulations to Chula and Mahidol. I've been to Mahidol on a number of occasions, and it really is a very international flavour university. The Salaya campus is quite impressive, and it appears to me, to be a well run and flourishing university, that embraces learning and co-operation outside of Thailand.

    How on earth can being ranked outside of the top 200 be an 'achievement' ? We had a report the other week saying that King Mongkut University in Thonburi was ranked higher than either Chula or Mahidol, yet no mention of it here. Cheating, plagiarism and corruption are rife in Thai Universities, they would come near the top in those rankings! What important research is any University in Thailand doing, or has ever done? Mahidol has a good dental faculty, that's about it.

    Spoken like someone who has no idea what they are talking about...lol

    • Like 1
×
×
  • Create New...