I'm a retired teacher and just thought I'd leave this here ...

 

The rewards of teaching

 

I decided to pen this after seeing one of my ex students build a very successful business in Vietnam and having the feeling that I played a small part in making that happen. I remember her well, already at the age of 13, she was proving to be a very confident person who loved life, and quite by chance there was a boy in the same class who I shall tell you about.

 

I got this class when they entered high school at 12 years old; 26 pretty normal Thai kids and I was tasked with the unenviable role of getting this bunch to speak English, or at least be able to get by in an English-speaking environment, and I had them for an hour every day.

One of my first exercises was to get each student to think about what they wanted to be when they finished their education, this would give me a heads up and I’d find out if any of them had already formulated a plan.

 

I gave them a whole day to consider their answer, which I wanted in written format, and I collected them at the end of our second lesson.

Most were as I expected, 75% said they wanted to be a “businessperson’, which to them meant walking around in expensive tailored suits signing documents and telling other people what to do. This notion came from the Thai soaps, you know, the ones where the CEO of this very successful business looks about 19 and he does little else other than signing documents and talking on the phone. When asked what does a businessperson actually do, the kids who came up with that ‘career’, stared at me with a blankness that reminded me of first grade; when you ask a 5 year-old why they like the colour blue!

 

A couple of the boys wanted to be pro football players, which is fine by me – set the bar high and all that – most of the girls wanted to work in an office, one wanted to be a singer and actress, and one boy said he wanted to be an airline pilot, which you might think normal at that age, yet he used the verb ‘will’ and there was an air of confidence about his writing.

 

I asked him a few questions about his career choice and immediately got the impression that this guy was serious. Let’s call him Rak.

 

I then began to pay more attention to Rak and found, much to my surprise, that he wasn’t into online gaming, nor was he into social media chit-chat, which was all the range in the year 2000. He always did his homework assignments and was genuinely interested in English, so I made a mental note to follow his progress through life.

I taught that class for the next 5 years and got to know them all quite well and when they left school at the end of Mathayom 6, the majority went to uni, and our pilot-to-be went to Mahanakorn University, studying computer science, and with a top GPA, he graduated at the top of the pile after 4 years.

 

He was snapped up by a US tech company called Western Digital, who had a facility in KL in Malaysia, and I saw him on a number of occasions, just before he went to the US to learn about hard drive design. He spent a year there, the returned to KL to head up the drive design team, and I saw him on one occasion and congratulated him on his progress (he was already making more than I) . He smiled and told me that working for WD was a stepping stone and next year he would apply to Thai Airways to train as a pilot, and that’s exactly what he did and 5 years down the road, he is now a vice Captain who flies Airbus 300s.

 

I witnessed something that every kid should do, he found his passion early on, then he worked out what he’d have to do to get that and he applied himself 100% to the task and achieved his goal in spectacular fashion.

 

If a teenager came to me today and asked for one piece of advice about life, I would tell them this,

“If you want a truly happy life, find your passion as soon as you can. It might be playing a musical instrument,  a sport or even a love of science, but whatever it is, be passionate about your learning, become really, really good at it, and then people will pay you a lot of money to do what you love!!!!”

 

The girl with the business in Vietnam also stood out, as she too, had a plan and she had a tough apprenticeship running sales for a container company for 4 years, then she made her move and started her own beauty products business.

 

A couple of the other kids in that class have done well, but the sad thing is, the majority saw it all from the wrong angle, their goal was to find a job that paid them enough money to live. Of course, they were successful, they all have jobs they don’t enjoy, but if they had only set the bar high like the boy and girl mentioned above, then they would all be much happier.

 

Schools do not teach kids how to fulfill their potential, it teaches them to conform and, in many ways, oppresses creativity and thinking outside the box, but, as we all know, that was no accident, as the elite did not want a nation of people who could think.

 

The human being has amazing powers and I can only imagine what kind of a world we would have if we nurtured kids to find their passion in life.

Quote

Schools do not teach kids how to fulfill their potential, it teaches them to conform and, in many ways, oppresses creativity and thinking outside the box, but, as we all know, that was no accident, as the elite did not want a nation of people who could think.

 

it's pointless, you can show everyone the "path", even make it easy for them to earn, but 99% will still hold their hand out and say give it to me.

 

trust me i've tried.

 

humans are lazy.

 

very very few make it happen

 

 

That was an interesting article...The reward for helping others succeed is a feeling that your life really matters to others in a positive way...congradulations!

2 hours ago, GeorgeCross said:

 

it's pointless, you can show everyone the "path", even make it easy for them to earn, but 99% will still hold their hand out and say give it to me.

 

trust me i've tried.

 

humans are lazy.

 

very very few make it happen

 

 

It's worth it for the 1% ....

23 minutes ago, geronimo said:

It's worth it for the 1% ....

 

to be told 'the secret'?!

 

you mean find something they like doing then work really hard at doing it?

 

the 1% don't need to be told that (or sold 'it' by some guru <deleted>) they do it already

 

 

 

 

1 minute ago, GeorgeCross said:

 

to be told 'the secret'?!

 

you mean find something they like doing then work really hard at doing it?

 

the 1% don't need to be told that (or sold 'it' by some guru <deleted>) they do it already

 

 

 

 

such a positive attitude to life! I applaud you!

Good story .... It reminds me of this quote :

 

What a miserable existence...looking for something negative to comment on in every post here...sicko!

I spent 25 years in education in Thailand.   That's long enough to have seen many of my students grow up and now have families of their own.   I am friends with quite a few on FaceBook.    What is truly amazing to me is that so many of them have turned out to be successful, happy and well adjusted adults.  

 

Some of those students were frustrating and lazy, but somewhere along the way, they straightened out.   They had learned what they needed to know.  

I think it great if at least some students have benefited from your teaching.

 

I remember once asking my students for occupations that required at least some English. Along with the more glamorous one, bar girl and tuk tuk driver came out.

 

I'd like to think that at least some student approached these jobs with passion, dedication and honesty, and that their English skills picked up in school helped them get a start.

We don't always get what we want, due to external circumstances. While I have had a very satisfying career in science, I still think pathology would have been a very strong suit for me. However, financially unachievable at the time.

Some people never develop a passion for any vocation, and just plod through life until they retire. Others are very good at what they do, but don't believe in it.

I have a friend who is quite wealthy as a result of being in senior management. He has said he envied my enjoyment of my chosen field.

 

 

1 hour ago, Lacessit said:

We don't always get what we want, due to external circumstances. While I have had a very satisfying career in science, I still think pathology would have been a very strong suit for me. However, financially unachievable at the time.

Some people never develop a passion for any vocation, and just plod through life until they retire. Others are very good at what they do, but don't believe in it.

I have a friend who is quite wealthy as a result of being in senior management. He has said he envied my enjoyment of my chosen field.

 

 

I think that is the secret, enjoy you job and you will never work again

 I love mine and am happy to keep working at 63.

I read not so long ago that a team of scientists worked out the problem with Lithium batteries catching fire and created a fix for it. The team leader was/ is 91 years old.

father .....  my passion is drinking p_iss all day because all my family and friends have gone

I hate the word 'passion' people used to have hobbies or interests, when did this passion thing start, don't remember it being used 20 years ago. Every CV these days seems to have 'passionate' about this that and the other. WHat's the other one, oh yeah every one has a talent, no they don't.

7 minutes ago, Orton Rd said:

I hate the word 'passion' people used to have hobbies or interests, when did this passion thing start, don't remember it being used 20 years ago. Every CV these days seems to have 'passionate' about this that and the other. WHat's the other one, oh yeah every one has a talent, no they don't.

Add ¨inspires¨.   

Troll post removed.

 

I wish many teachers would leave teaching and find their passion because teaching obviously isn't it. Seems half the teachers I work with spend more energy avoiding work than actually doing it.

 

On 2/7/2020 at 8:48 AM, geronimo said:

Schools do not teach kids how to fulfill their potential, it teaches them to conform and, in many ways, oppresses creativity and thinking outside the box, but, as we all know, that was no accident, as the elite did not want a nation of people who could think.

Hi G.Mo .    How have you been ?   I doubt you were thinking of Rumak when you wrote the above...... but George and I would often have fun discussing the human condition (ing).

I have to tone down my "outside the box"  thoughts often to fit the forum "rules" ????

For those who haven't seen it....here is George on the subject