Boys Hitting Girls

[mark45y]

I taught 4th, 5th and 6th grade in government schools in 4 different cities over a period of three years. The boys were allowed to hit the girls. In the West I was used to seeing boys hit boys and wrestling and such but not hit the girls. In Thailand the teachers allowed the boys to hit the girls. I found this odd. Am I alone in noticing this behaviour?

[Scott]

I can assure you that where I work, the boys would not be allowed to touch the girls or vice versa. They are seldom allowed to even sit together and any touching is suspect. Hitting would not be tolerated and would earn the student a holiday.

[a99az]

Girls and boys sit next to each other in the government school I work at. I do however ask them not to hold hands, and yes I also ask the gays to do like wise.

[NanLaew]

I can assure you that where I work, the boys would not be allowed to touch the girls or vice versa. They are seldom allowed to even sit together and any touching is suspect. Hitting would not be tolerated and would earn the student a holiday.

What type of school are you at Scott? The OP opines it's prevalent in several government schools he has worked in.

[mark45y]

I can assure you that where I work, the boys would not be allowed to touch the girls or vice versa. They are seldom allowed to even sit together and any touching is suspect. Hitting would not be tolerated and would earn the student a holiday.

I am going to be shocked if you tell me you work at a government school. I assume you work at a private school.

[Scott]

Private, but I am still quite surprised. Thai Culture really doesn't openly permit much contact between males and females.

[mark45y]

Private, but I am still quite surprised. Thai Culture really doesn't openly permit much contact between males and females.

I was surprised also. I was surprised and angry. I tutored children in the evening who went to private schools in the daytime and did not get the same attitude from those kids. I don't know if it was the private school or the attitudes of the parents who were able to afford the private schools. I think a bit of both.

I don't know about private school classroom management but in government schools the teacher is able to design the class seating plan.

You can tell a lot about a teacher by how the children are arranged. Some teachers arranged the desks to form groups some arranged them in rows. Some teachers put the better students in the front some in the back. Some teachers allowed the students to move freely around the room during class some did not. Some teachers were kinder to boys and some to girls. I found many variables at work. Some separated the boys from the girls but that was rare. The gay boys played with the girls at recess and mostly sat with them during class. They gay boys also never hit the girls or if they did it was obviously only playing.

I could tell it was a shock to the class when I reacted negatively to the teachers pet (a boy) hitting girls at will. The young man was seriously taken aback when I yelled at him. He was apologetic and went out of his way to try and make amends.

In three years in government schools I found one teacher who prevented gender violence in the classroom. She also was very strict about the girls dress code. But she was the only one out of 100 or so Thai government teachers that I interacted with at a 4th, 5th and 6th grade level.

I would be interested in observations from others who have taught at government schools. I have no experience teaching in Bangkok or Chiang Mai or farming communities. I taught in industrial towns on the East Coast.

As for contact between males and females, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade pretty much separate themselves. 5th and 6th grade there was a lot of contact. The notion of boyfriends and girlfriends was quite pronounced. When I had students write on the board, which was almost every day I asked them to pick the next person to write. I told the boys to give the marker to a girl and the girls to give the marker to a boy and so on. This exercise made it obvious who liked who. I had a couple of gay boys who asked me if they could give the marker to a boy instead of a girl. I wondered what I should do about this but eventually said OK. The male recipient of the marker was not offended nor chided by the other males in the class.

For the reverse teams of boys and girls trying to solve a puzzle brings out the gender rivalry. When I asked the students to form teams themselves to solve a puzzle or play Scrabble at that age level they always picked mixed gender teams.

Also when cheating you could tell the couples as the girl did the work for her boyfriend. Rarely the reverse. Using my computer to solve the cheating problem I would make 40 unique tests so a simple looking over the shoulder cheat was not possible. The girl would do her test first and then trade papers with her boyfriend.

Edited January 24, 2011 by mark45y