Who's The Loser

[McAttack]

My TW had to finish school when she was in grade 6.

She tells me that she was the second smartest kid in her class that year.

Lack of money in the family prevented her from progressing further at school because the family would have to pay for schooling from grade 7 onwards.

Since we have been together, she has gone to school again to learn English. For a 6 month period in Thailand and starting from late October last year at a school in Melbourne.

I'm very proud to say that she received her Certificate 2 in ESL and is on her way to getting certificate 3 and 4. Further study will be considered when she completes these certificates.

The reason behind this thread is to pose the question of how much intelligence is lost to the Thai nation by not funding schooling to a greater extent.

I'm trying not to be presumptuous in my comments because I don't assume to know the ins and outs of Thailand and the reasons certain decisions have been made by Thai Governments.

Maybe someone can enlighten me.

Its just that I see first hand how smart my wife is and am a little disapointed that she had to finish school so early. It seems such a waste

[Ijustwannateach]

Sadly, your evaluation is exactly on target. Societies like this one which demand an extreme hierarchy to enforce the existence of a peasant class can only exist through massive unnecessary waste of natural talent and happiness. It is not an exaggeration that in any feudal economy the aristocracy exists on a foundation slaked with the blood of the poor. The education of the people who provide that blood is really very low priority.

We can send a man to the moon, but we can't eliminate basic human cruelty or greed.

"Steven"

[santafeross]

I have observed the same with my Thai BF. His education terminated with the 6th grade because his family didn't have the, if I remember correctly, 600 Baht for him to continue his schooling. So, he became a rice farmer and eventually found his way to BKK. He goes to ESL classes from 7-11 and works from 13-22 PM. He could be a brain surgeon if he had had the opportunity to get an education.

Thailand is similar to many countries, including the USA, in that education is the key to solving many of the social and economic propblems. One only needs to look around the world to see the countries that place education as a priority and the results are obvious.

I am taking a TESOL course in July and together with my Juris Doctor degree hope to find a teaching position in Thailand. Each one of us who have contact with a Thai national similar to your Thai wife and my Thai boyfriend, make some small improvement by offering educational incentives and opportunities.

The only thing I feel I can to is to offer the opportunity for my BF and his family to seek to continue to take advantage of current opportunites and to provide the financial assistance needed for his nephews and nieces.

[PeaceBlondie]

My Thai boyfriend has been in the hotel business since about age 17, working his way up from 'room cleaner' to asst. general manager in about 20 years. He finished prathom and was sent to the wat for religious teaching, because the family was too poor. Even today, I think secondary education (technical or matayom) is optional and expensive.

My brightest student was apparently on a full scholarship. Due to non-enforcement of helmet laws, he died.

I wouldn't frame the argument in quite the Marxist-sounding terms that Steven used, but more in the abuse of State power, which gives the same results, when the State is controlled by the oligarchies.

I was in Venezuela in January 2002, during the general strikes. I told several rich and liberal Venezuelans, "This will be a great country after you really enforce a century of mandatory and totally free education for all the peasants, as Costa Rica has done."

Thailand cannot develop itself using uneducated peasants, or even by using middle class Thais who learned by rote, passed all the tests, and were never held back in school.

Thai education basically ignores the top two standard deviations above the mean, intellectually. Like the mine field inspector said, "A mine is a terrible thing to mind."

[mbkudu]

Sadly, your evaluation is exactly on target.  Societies like this one which demand an extreme hierarchy to enforce the existence of a peasant class can only exist through massive unnecessary waste of natural talent and happiness.  It is not an exaggeration that in any feudal economy the aristocracy exists on a foundation slaked with the blood of the poor.  The education of the people who provide that blood is really very low priority.

We can send a man to the moon, but we can't eliminate basic human cruelty or greed.

"Steven"

Sadly, this is one of the most accurate posts IJWT has made. I wish it wasn't true about Thailand, but it is.