MikeyIdea

4 minutes ago, Don Mega said:

 

I do not for one second believe there is any organization in the chaos at all, seems very random to me.

 

I thought the same once but there really are patterns and organisation in the chaos. It just take time to learn :)

Parvo is super important, remember that it needs to be topped up after x? years

 

Your local vet will know what vaccines to give. Trust him

 

Ticks: 15 is ok, it's when you can teach children to count to 100 on your dog that you really start to worry :)

It is not tick season now (that's the hot season)

Shots: Shots last a month I think it was, my vet will check his records and refuse to give if too close so don't take them more often than the vet recommends

The small bottles: You can buy small bottles to pour on the neck, they work pretty well too. Can't remember how long they last

Tick shampoo: I find them pretty useless really

 

 

Ehhh, I have been driving over 400,000 km in Thailand the last 25 years and I think that it has improved a lot

 

I did agree when I came here, I do not agree any longer. I have learnt that Thailand driving is not anarchy, it is organized chaos. Big difference

 

I have taken my daughter to over 50 provinces in Thailand by car

 

It is safe if you learn to adapt

 

3 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

 

Your condescending assumption about my lack of experience of the Thai education system is as misguided as your bizarre and similarly unsubstantiated theory about the authorship of the Wikipedia entry to which you take exception.

 

For the record, I have lived here for18 years and my wife and I have already seen five children through the Thai state school system. I have spent a lot of time talking to teachers and parents, as well as my own and other youngsters about this subject.

 

One can nit-pick endlessly on the causes, but the fact remains that Thai education is a miserable failure even by regional - let alone international - standards.

 

It is not fit even for the basic (and in my view dubious) purpose of creating "productive co-operative members of the society in which they live", let alone for equipping young Thais to compete in an increasingly international marketplace.

 

The current administration's obsession with using the classroom to inculcate future generations with a dogma based on nationalism and an arbitrary set of core values dreamed up by a retired soldier can only make matters worse.

 

 

 

Quote  "Prathom (ประถม) 1–3, are for age groups 7–9; the second level, Prathom 4 through 6 are for age groups 10–12;  the third level, Matthayom (มัธยม) 1–3, is for age groups 13–15. The upper secondary level of schooling consists of Matthayom 4–6 for age groups 16–18 and is divided into academic and vocational streams" end quote

 

1) Prathom (ประถม) - the correct written form is ประถมศึกษา, ประถม is only used in speech, it is never written

2) Matthayom (มัธยม) 1–3, is for age groups 13–15) - Wrong again, Matthayom 1–3 is มัธยมศึกษาตอนต้น in Thai

3) Matthayom 4–6  - The Thai translation is not included this time but the article has already stated that it is มัธยม. The problem is that Matthayom 4–6 is มัธยมศึกษาตอนปลาย, not มัธยม

4) Matthayom (มัธยม)  - the correct written form is มัธยมศึกษา, มัธยม is only used in speech, it is never formally written

 

Quote "Village and sub-district schools usually provide pre-school kindergarten (anuban อนุบาล) and elementary classes, while in the district towns, schools will serve their areas with comprehensive schools with all the classes from kindergarten to age 15 and separate secondary schools for ages 13 through 18"

 

5)  District towns do not normally server their areas with classes from KG to age 15, they normally go from KG to 12, few go from KG to 15. The separate secondary schools are from ages 13 through 18, at least that is correct

 

Quote "many high school students will commute 60–80 kilometres to schools in the nearest city" end quote

6) Obviously... as Professor Snaps said: Many high school students do not commute 60–80 kilometres to schools in Thailand

 

I must say... I apologise for saying that you haven't been here long enough. With 18 years, you have. It does not change my opinion that if you challenge when someone says that the article is wrong in many places, then you should have enough knowledge first. You do not 

 

I can find 6 mistakes where the Wikipedia article is wrong by only reading to the second paragraph. You didn't find them

 

You thought that I by criticizing the article object to that Thai education is bad, I do not, it IS bad, of course it is

 

I think we agree 100% on that education is bad and if you have been here 18 years then we probably also agree perfectly on where and why it is bad

 

I criticize

1) The mistakes in the article = the article should not be published for fathers to read until it is of better quality

2) People who assume that the Ministry of Education is full of Thai idiots who don't understand that they need to change. - I went to the MoE to follow up on a case when I was interpreter in Thai Juvenile court. I saw that the MoE has lots of Thai's with Ed degrees from abroad. The manager I talked to there had an Ed.D from a British university.

3) People who come here and want to change Thailand not knowing that there are reasons for why education is implemented the way it is

4) People who don't realise that it is not possible to change in one place without getting counter-reactions in other places

5) People who don't understand that Thai's have in their mind valid reasons to support their decisions
- Some rich Thai's will not send their kids to international schools because they think that their kids turn into impolite obnoxious little monsters. These rich Thai's are not mindless sheep... They have in their mind very valid reasons. Same with the farmers in the village our daughters mother come from, they are not brain dead sheep. They have reasons

 

The only places where I can see that we disagree is that I want to improve education in Thailand with minimum impact to Thai culture and I see nothing of that in what you write. I would be interested in if you take that and the Thai's opinion into consideration

 

And that I find errors in the article and you don't of course

 

Mikey   

14 hours ago, Nabili said:

Hi Mikey,

thanks. Good Information... well don't like them as it prolongs my stay... but good to know.

 

The mother should show up..... she has an interest here... you can imagine which...

 

My Lawyer told me that due to the new surrogacy laws they will not let me leave with a newborn without the mother or without a court ruling from the family court. 

 

I wonder if the appealing time is mandatory if both parties consent... so it's not really a fight just has to be done via court.

But oh well... so overall rather 4 months... instead of 3...

 

Cheers

 

 

Appeals time is mandatory, there is no way around that

 

I don't know about newborns but it wouldn't surprise me at all if immigration would blankly refuse. Thailand is pretty good at controlling childrens movements nowadays

 

You need time to get passports, that's fast for the Thai passport (both the mother and you must consent in person unless either of you have sole custody by court order, takes 2-3 days, 1,000 + 40 baht and they send by EMS) but your embassy will probably take weeks, if not months to either process citizenship and then passport or get a visa into your daughters Thai passport.

 

Your daughter should have the right to enter the country you're going to too, not only the right to leave this country 

 

24 minutes ago, The Deerhunter said:

Lots of interesting stuff there, Mikey.  Please see my #29 post. And yes I use neither Line or FB and have no problems but Wifey uses Line all day.  I am sure it is RAM getting cluttered with loading and shuffling unnecessary stuff somehow.

I would think that Google 's system checks and would not load a version of Android that the phone cannot cope with.

 

2 things

1) Cleaner / Monitoring Apps - Many of them will definitely reduce battery life. I always have Virus scan turned on but turn off all other checks. It is IMO better to turn on once a week or so, execute and then turn off again

2) The "*#9900#" doesn't work on all Android versions. It's a very strong command actually. Will work very well if it works and will do nothing if it is executed on a non supported Android version. That's what Android programmed it to do anyway... You would end up with a very dead phone if somehow this command goes wrong. Hard reset only option

 

Backup first, then try it

 

Sent from my Nokia 3315

18 hours ago, SOUTHERNSTAR said:

. But the real question is why phones dont regain its full speed after you cleaned it up. My thoughts are that with operating system upgrades the older phones cant cope and this is in the end making them very slow. 

 

I normally do not see that phones don't regain their full speed after clean unless... Big unless though. Ehh... 2 unless actually

 

Unless 1

It's a very common thing that Line, Facebook loving Thai's complain on that their both Androids and iPhones are bad, root cause is the same, not enough internal memory left. They go to a shop and get it reset and installed again for 200 baht. It's quite often fine if it's a small shop somewhere that only resets but if you bought the phone with a subscription and therefore go to a service center, then they will also upgrade to the latest OP and you normally end up with a turtle  

 

I checked my daughters mothers Galaxy Grand 2, now bad of course and now with Android 4.4.5 something when it originally was shipped with 4.2. Bad idea

 

Unless 2

Android is not as good an operating system as "the other brand that I don't like that much". iPhone is more controlled and thereby also more stable, I don't like to admit it actually but it is true. My highly scientifically analysed statistics come from using my ears and listen to the noise from the commercial dept in the company I work for. They have a couple of hundred Androids and equal number of iPADs/iPhones. I work in the IS dept

 

Android does have a problem with that also "OP" (operating system) gets clogged up with crap over time and it can go as far as it slows down too. Reset doesn't always clear that, I don't know why because it should. I would guess it is because the small shops / counters fixing bad Androids mess up / take short cuts. We don't have this problem at work, hard reset and our Galaxy tabs are fine

 

Mikey

The other party always have 30 days to decide if they want to appeal the court order or not. You can get copies of the court order almost immediately but they will not contain the proper stamps. For that you will have to wait 30 days. I don't know if Immigration will accept copies without proper stamps as evidence and let you out. It is not likely

 

The mother will have shared or sole custody until the court order takes effect so you can ask her to go to the amphur and get a printed paper where she gives you permission to take the child out of Thailand. That will work fine and you can leave with the child before the court order becomes valid. Your lawyer can send the paperwork to you when it is ready

 

It will be several sessions in court if the mother does not come to court at all by the way

 

Mikey

2 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

The Thai education system, in common with its counterparts across the world, is based on an outmoded model created to serve the needs of the Industrial Revolution and designed to churn out compliant cogs obedient to authority and happy to take their place at the capitalist conveyor belt.

 

It was out of date half a century ago, let alone now. with the world on the verge of a new technological revolution in computing and robotics predicted to make most human labour redundant within half a century.

 

Of course it is... We all agree on that

 

2 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

I am doing all I can to prevent my leuk krung child from being dumbed down and robbed  of her creativity and natural curiosity by a Thai state school system run on rote learning, endless testing to see how much largely useless data a child can absorb, and, of course, corporal punishment.

 

Here I don't agree with you and I do not do what you do.

 

I think it is my duty to not rob my half Thai daughter of her inheritance so I instead do all I can to let my child be able fit in to and understand both worlds. It's harder work of course but as I have written before, I am confident that she will be a high performer as long as she chooses something that she likes

 

2 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

When one takes into account the Ministry  of Education's bloated budget and the appalling results achieved, this must rank as on of the worst value-for-money educational systems in the world.

 

The MoE aren't idiots at all and they know very well what is going on, the problem they have is that there are 50 million plus Thai's in this country who don't want change

 

2 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

Unfortunately,  the working classThai parents whose children are the victims of this iniquitous neglect,  are almost uniformly supine when it comes to demanding something better. After all those years of them being brainwashed at state schools, what else should one expect?

 

it is actually the working class Thai's who don't want the system to change the most...  You know that of course.  What you don't know or don't accept are the reasons, perhaps because they don't match your values. The Thai's who don't want to change actually think they have valid reasons for not wanting to change. It has to do with their core values

 

If I am wrong then I apologise but it sounds like you have not been here long enough to understand that the goals of the vast majority of Thai's are very different from westerners

 

I have lived the last 23 years in the same working class soi in Bangkok and I love it there. I have changed a lot the last 25 plus years in Thailand. The working class Thai's have not, actually they haven't changed anything almost. They have it much better but they haven't changed.

 

My neighbors used to hit their kids fingers every time they wanted to explore something even slightly dirty and scared them of ghosts all the time. They didn't care if the kids slept day or night almost, they didn't care if it was quiet when the kids should sleep, they didn't care about times for food. 

 

I recommended the cheap Thai books you can buy at Big C with good advice how to help children develop better 20 years ago, they were no more than 40-50 baht. The parents didn't look happy when I did, they came with an excuse about money, then went a bought more beer half an hour later. I stopped mentioning it because I saw that they didn't like it, they didn't want to change, they wanted to continue to bring up their children the way their parents had brought up them

 

Some of the families are still there today. I saw their kids grow up, one girl had 2 abortions and two kids by the age of 20-21, then she sterilized herself. I asked her: You're only 20, what if you and your boyfriend split up and he fights for custody and you have another boyfriend? I could see that she didn't like it so I stopped. Thai's don't want to think of the negative

 

This girl is 22 or so now, she still hits the fingers of her children when they touch the ground, she still scares them of ghosts so that they don't walk away so that they themselves can sit down and drink. She still screams at them with and without reason and do not consider if actions are good or bad for their future development. So do everybody else. In short, they still bring up their children the same way their parents brought up them. They have it much better though so the kids will probably finish university in 20 years time, full of knowledge that they have memorised but can't use, same as today 

 

The neighbours can see that my daughter is different from their kids, she has more initiative, she dares to try, she questions, she has more self confidence, more imagination (and that is despite going to a Thai bilingual school). We talk about our kids and I tell them that it's about how we teach our kids and not the school they go to and the neighbours walk away convinced that it is the better school I send my daughter too that makes the difference...

 

This is what I have seen of the poor Thai's the last 25 years. I have achieved a lot the last 25 years. I have paid of my house, my car, I have it much better. My neighbours the Thai's have it much better too. And they have laughed and had much more fun in life than I have the last 25 years

 

I have 2 points

- The first one is that it is very possible to let a child go through the Thai system and she will become what you as a parent are if you put in enough time. She will have less knowledge though, Thai schools don't keep up with western schools of course. That does not mean less ability.

- The second point is: Why are you sure your way is correct? I look back at my friends from the university years. They have much more of everything in life now when they are old but they have also had much less fun during their lives than most poor Thai's have

 

What do you want to do Krataiboy? Force the Thais to change to be what they don't want to be? I think you are wrong

 

2 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

As a teacher, you clearly failed to learn much about the well-documented inadequacies of the Thai school system - shortcomings which are now acknowledged even by Thai educational establishment.

 

I am not a teacher, I am a MSc working for a multi-national in Bangkok. My argument with what you write is that the inadequacies and the shortcomings you want to change now didn't come by coincidence at all. They have been shaped over generations to suit the Thai culture. They are no mistake

 

2 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

The low IQ and poor academic performance of Thai state school children, which has attracted considerable media coverage, is clearly of legitimate concern not just to the government but also to millions of parents who lack the funds to send their offspring to expensive international schools.

 

Of course it is. But the understanding is at the level where also the rich Thai parents who send their offspring to expensive international schools are partially destroying the benefit by demanding that the schools give 10 homework assignments per week, make them more Thai to give their beloved offspring a better chance in life... And that is what the rich, the cream of the cream do

 

I do hope that Thailand changes because I feel sorry for all the hard work that the Thai's put in the wrong way, not getting much in return. But I hope that Thailand changes at a pace that Thailand is ready for

 

2 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

Your attempt to dismiss the lengthy and detailed Wikipedia discourse on education in Thailand by claiming it "looks like it has been written by a bunch of different foreign teacher(s) . . .  who got fired from Thai schools and want to take revenge in any way they can" is so palpably absurd that it makes me extremely thankful that my children were never entrusted to your teaching care

 

I absolutely agree with all the negative aspects of the Thai teaching technique. I can't write all the negative effects better than Sandemara did in post  http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/952060-education-going-backward/?page=2#comment-11305939. I agree with Every Single One Of Them   

 

So why do I then claim the article has many mistakes and why do I claim that it is misleading people?

 

You haven't been here long enough to be able to see the mistakes, that's all

 

I can only get to the second paragraph of the article before it gets laughable

"many high school students will commute 60–80 kilometres to schools in the nearest city"

 

That is clearly written by a westerner who don't know that Thai's never would allow their children to travel that far. It's a joke. A Thai will let the child stay with a relative instead because it is too dangerous. And they have lots of relatives. There is more when you read through the article 

 

Come back in another 15 years time when you know enough to see what more is wrong 
 

Probably :)

 

Fist of all, go in and delete all data for Facebook and Line. I use File Manager but there are many ways to do it. You can check how much internal memory you have left at Settings - General - Storage (Device memory and Available Space less than one gigabyte is a warning sign) - where this is differs a bit depending on operating system. 

 

Find the folder where Line pictures and videos are stored and delete all (but keep the directory). There is a option in settings in Line that deletes all content, works the same. Do the same for Facebook

 

I use a little app called AppMgr III to move software from internal memory to SD card but it can also be done by going to Settings - general application manager and move there. Not all apps can be moved. Another really irritating thing is that while this function moves the actual application, it does not always move temporary files, pictures and videos. This differs depending on mobile phone operating system but Line is a good (bad) sample where videos and pictures (content) often continue to be stored in the phone memory also after actual application is moved to SD card... Idiotic

 

You need to watch out which SD card you have if you move apps to external SD card

SD cards have speed classes from low speed (2, 4, 6) to high speed = 10 and even faster nowadays (not necessary). The SC card will say "Class XX" somewhere. Class 2, 4 is slow, we should only buy class 10 nowadays, prices are cheap anyway. Class 10 can handle high quality video without stuttering.

 

Facebook and Messenger may very well stop working if you move them to a slow SD card, only move if class 10 :)

 

 

Quite a common problem on Androids, it is normally not hardware related.

 

Android is bad at cleaning up temp files, de-install software and still crap not used left etc. You can use the phone longer if you move apps to SD card and of course you must always store all videos, music and pictures on the SD card all the time but you'll finally run low on internal memory in the phone anyway.

 

This happened to both my daughters and her mothers Galaxy tabs, factory resets cleared the problem. Took 2 hours each to install and set everything back as it was - Phone quick again

 

Facebook and Line apps normally stores all their images and videos in internal memory and not external SD card, removing all content can often give you half a gig or more. Good place to start 

 

The mobile phone IS quite old, if you plan to keep a mobile phone that long then you should turn off automatic operating system updates too. Each one adds a bit of functionality and 18 months adds so much overhead that you'd like a more powerful processor

 

29 minutes ago, jvs said:

I would imagine some one with just a car would say "i can make it there!"

Yes you can but, you will never get back out!!!After the sign that says 4x4 only you should not go with anyother kind if vehicle except

an off road motorbike.

 

Ha, that made my day

Auntie Glen says - I've put up a sign saying only 4*4 but people still ignore it. They get down of course, but you see, then they can't get up again   Quite adventurous of you to take that road in the darkness I must say, I have never considered that

 

Fully booked was a bit of a surprise, she probably had a big group from a Thai company. Didn't think about it but better to call Charlie and check. What Thai's without 4*4s do is to book with Charlie, drive to the police station in Ban Pilok and park the car there and a driver will come and fetch

 

Going at the back of Auntie Glen's old white Tiger 4*4 -  I have wondered the same, you'd need a helmet to survive the trip there sitting on top of the rear axle :) Cracked skulls are bad for business

 

So lot's of Thai's there when you were there. Auntie Glen still speaks English with a slight Australian accent also after 52 years in Thailand, that got to be a record, I have never heard of any westerner who has been here longer

 

Jokkradin waterfall to the right a few kilometres before you turn left where the 4* 4 only sign is nice. It's free, has level area for tents, toilet and shower, the water comes straight from the waterfall and is exceptionally cold     14.686141, 98.380859

 

 

6 hours ago, MikeyIdea said:

I see nothing of the Thai traits you talk about in my daughter

 

One correction... I use "you" but I reply to a post by recycler, that's not correct. I was referring to Sandemara's excellent description of Thai personality traits in post 31

 

5 hours ago, recycler said:

I'm not babbling, I posted about the content, not the methods

 

And after that you talk about the methods. You should read Sandemara recycler 

 

8 hours ago, sandemara said:

formal education services throughout the world are more about preparing children only to be productive, co-operative members of the society in which they live

 

I can only reformulate and change a bit in what Sandemara  already put so well

 - It is the duty of the formal education services in different countries to prepare children to be productive and co-operative members of the society in which they live

 

Sorry to bust your bubble but Thai students don't live in your homeland 

 

Many things in Thai schools are inefficient, yes absolutely, it forms the Thai people and make them passive etc.., yes absolutely, but you cannot just make isolated changes, a change will effect in more than one area, there will be both positive and negative side effects

 

I say what I always say: Active parenting can bridge most gaps. I see nothing of the Thai traits you talk about in my daughter. I will move her to an international school for grade 7 because I can now afford it but driven by my experience of the Thai educational system. I am happy that she has absorbed Thai values too and has a broader base to make her decisions in life on 

 

I am confident that she will be a high performer as long as she chooses something that she likes

 

It was a lot of hard work and I loved it 

 

 

On 05/11/2016 at 11:04 AM, jcisco said:

If you go and add those comments regarding the page to the talk page, i'll likely mark the page for deletion and it will pass

 

I have added the comments, mark the page for deletion so that it does not spread more mis-information please 

 

Beautiful post Sandemara. You show an insight that many westerners who have been here for 15 years still don't have. You have nailed many of the underlying cultural differences of Thailand compared to the western world.

 

It's not that the people at the ministry of education are idiots who don't understand better, the MoE are aware of what you write. The problem statement is how to incorporate this into Thai's without stopping them from being Thai's, without changing them and Thailand too much

 

34 minutes ago, sandemara said:

However, the way private tutoring businesses and "international" institutions seem to be thriving throughout the country tells me many people are voting with their bank books for something other than "traditional' education practices.  Fine, but a bit sad for poorer families who want something better for their kids.

 

Well yes, but the Thai parents who are paying are often not aware of what is making the real difference. That's why most English programme schools in Thailand have more homework, more extra tutoring than Thai schools. The parents ask for it. Partially the same with international schools now when 90% of the students are Thai in many of them

 

+1 :)

 

23 minutes ago, whatproblem said:

My son goes to a Thai school but I also teach him at home after school ,you can't rely on Thai teachers ,they are only there for the money.

 

Hmm, Thai's know that primary and secondary school teachers are paid appallingly low salaries. Those who still chose to become teachers do it either because teachers have high status, they like to teach, or because their parents want them to be a teacher.

 

None of them are there for the miserable salary they get

 

I have no idea why the post came... Sorry guys

Just now, bbbbooboo said:

Hmmmm....... educated children might start asking embarrassing questions.TIT

 

A question has to be embarrassing to be embarrassing in the western culture, here too many or unnecessary questions are embarrassing and impolite without having to have an embarrassing content

 

 

2 hours ago, recycler said:

Every government adds to the compulsory curriculum with new political, military and religious content, rarely something is removed, resulting in less and less time for basic skills like reading, writing, match, etc. Basic skills are increasingly moved to the already extreme amount of homework.

 

On ‎9‎/‎20‎/‎2016 at 2:52 PM, recycler said:

For her education you would be a lot better of in the UK, unless you are prepared to pay astronomic term fees at International schools.

 

Thai education, even in bi-lingual or English program schools, is very bad and loaded with compulsory political, military and religious content that is considered more important than learning to read and write.

 

You are again babbling about political and military content, I have already replied to you about that and you chose not to answer of course

 

Military and political content? There is nothing about military and political content in the Thai curriculum and it is not taught in Thai schools either. There is however a whole lot about Thai culture, Thai tradition, Thai social values, Thai history and it is even compulsory to know how the Thai electoral system is built up. Please read the Thai curriculum... It is readily available on the internet in Thai.

 

This is not a surprise: Thai schools teach everything that Thai values find important, they teach everything based on Thai values, they choose to teach what is important for Thai's, they teach what Thai's are proud of and proud to be. Most westerners find that pretty useless, sure. It's hardly up to foreigners to dictate what is important for Thai's and thereby should be taught in Thai schools though

 

The problem with the Thai schools is not what Thai schools teach, they teach what the schools should teach considering that they are Thai, the main issue is how they teach it and that it is more important to learn = memorise all the above than it is to be able to use it

 

Thai schools influence how learning is absorbed. Thai children tend to rely on memorisation first, logical and critical thinking second. This is also what the OP posts about. I expected that when my daughter started school and tried to compensate for it at home, I have been worried too but I think it works OK. It's a bit weird, she has mainly Ds and Fs in Thai subjects and As and Bs in English, she is a bit lazy so she would be somewhere in the middle in Europe. I am confident that she will be a high performer as long as she chooses something that she likes and... I am happy that she has absorbed Thai values too and has a broader base to make her decisions in life on 

 

I have an old western friend living in Trad, his half Thai son has been schooled totally within the Thai system, with a western father and a university educated Thai mother at home. He is the best in his class here and I think he would be the best in his class also in a British school

 

Educated Thai's talk about the failure of the Thai educational system and it is of course true and Thai schools are generally bad at preparing children for life. It has had quite a lot of media coverage in the Thai press, yes there should be more emphasis on Maths and Science but it is not much about that wrong things are taught actually, it is more about that it is taught the wrong way.

 

PM Prayut also brought up critical thinking but that is difficult to match with Thai culture. I have many times over the years heard Thai's say that they don't want their kids in International schools because they become impolite, obstinate even. It took me 15 years to stop laughing at it but then I realised that it of course is true. They are taught self-confidence, taught to question but not how to implement it in a Thai cultural environment.

 

OP, I don't think you should worry too much, kids do go through stages, it's up and down and that is also how life is.

 

Do be active in their education and in their life, in a friendly non pushy way, be their primary role model in life and your kids will copy you, the good as well as the bad :) Less extra tutoring, less emphasis on knowledge and more on EQ of course

 

Your kids will do fine. Good Luck

 

Mikey

 

2 hours ago, MilesofSmiles said:

How did the wikipedia edits turn out ?

 

Of course the warnings are taken away. The article has had quality problems since 2008 and it hasn't been taken down yet. Why would Wikipedia want to take it down now? They could have done that 8 years ago if quality of that article had been important to them

 

53 minutes ago, jcisco said:

If you go and add those comments regarding the page to the talk page, i'll likely mark the page for deletion and it will pass

 

I just added comments to the actual page, the page lacks references in so many places that it should be verified and improved before it is made public - people should know what they read 

 

'''This Wikipedia page is definitely one of the worst Wikipedia pages I have ever read. 

It draws conclusions from mysterious non named surveys, sometimes a reputable organisation that of course has formally published its work is mentioned but there is no link to it,  much in the page is in negatives like "Teacher development and associated problems", it states "facts" totally without reference

 

There are totally incorrect statements like "many high school students will commute 60–80 kilometres to schools in the nearest city", the word "bestowed" is sarcastically in quotation marks but no reference to why. I can't be bothered to continue, the quality of the article is simply too low

 

The Wikipedia page looks like it has been written by a bunch of different foreign teacher with bachelor degrees in any field who finally got fired from Thai schools because of their alcoholism and want to take revenge any way they can 

Please add references and remove statements that cannot be verified"

 

I have done what I have time to do. If it is removed, then parents like the OP will continue to be mislead by bad Wikipedia material, up to others to act upon or accept

 

 

I really enjoy the subject but don't have time to make a long answer now. Short start...

 

I've been in Thailand for over 25 years now, I haven't been teaching here for 20 years but I think I keep up pretty well because I live mainly in the Thai world so to speak, I speak and read Thai (won't mention my writing, ok? ), I have a daughter in grade 6 in a bilingual school in Bangkok and I have followed her and the school closely, I have several western friends who have worked as teachers in Thailand for several years. Not an expert but awake I suppose

 

That Wikipedia page is a joke, definitely one of the worse Wikipedia pages I have ever read. 

It draws conclusions from mysterious non named surveys, sometimes a reputable organisation that of course has formally published its work is mentioned but there is no link to it,  much in the page is in negatives like "Teacher development and associated problems", it states "facts" totally without reference

 

There are totally incorrect statements like "many high school students will commute 60–80 kilometres to schools in the nearest city", the word "bestowed" is in quotation marks but no reference to why. I can't be bothered to continue, the quality of the article is simply too low

 

There are many problems with the Thai educational system, some Thai's openly talk about the failure of the Thai educational system and there clearly is some truth in it of course. I will move my own daughter to an international school for grade 7 because I can now afford it but driven by my experience of the Thai educational system

 

But...

 

The Wikipedia page looks like it has been written by a bunch of different foreign teacher with bachelor degrees in any field who finally got fired from Thai schools because of their alcoholism and want to take revenge any way they can  

 

37 minutes ago, 212Roger said:

Perhaps I misunderstood your post and/or read it wrongly.  But, I do NOT believe "guns reduce burglaries."  Quite the opposite.  If burglars believe or feel you do not have a gun to protect your belongings and your family, they will definitely burglarize your house before a house where they think and believe you do have a gun..  This is pure and simple logic.

 

Thanks for clarifying. I have been looking for statistics that can prove either of us right. I can only find that more or less violence and burglary is linked to misery, especially unemployment. Both you and Strange were quick to find a sample where nearly double the unemployment rate coincide with violence and burglary. I have asked for statistics where we cannot see the other links I mentioned. I find several articles linking unemployment so that seem to be a stronger driver than low average income 

 

On 02/11/2016 at 10:45 PM, MikeyIdea said:

I'd like to read statistics proving that relaxed gun control = more guns in cities is reducing burglaries in those cities where we also cannot see the other links I mentioned. I'm open and want to know, please show me

 

There it is. I got no answer. Can you find me 2 cities where nearly double the unemployment rate and loose gun laws coincide with less violence?

 

Find me that sample and I will study it and learn from it

 

Thanks

 

 

21 minutes ago, 212Roger said:

My man, "Strange," thank you for answering my question for me.  Well done!  I find  the opposing argument too tedious and hardly worth it...  Again, I concur with "Strange."  As the old adage goes,  "Who's the idiot?  The idiot, or me arguing with the idiot?"  Nothing personal...    

 

212Roger, you are contradicting yourself. In one post you say yes to my opinion that guns don't reduce burglaries and in another you say that it reduces burglaries

 

Which one of your two opinions do you stand for?