Young children suffering due to being pushed too hard in school: psychiatrist

[otherstuff1957]

My school has flip flopped between using English language Science books that follow the Thai curriculum and using Singaporean Science books.  The Thai books were much more difficult than the Singaporean books, but Thai students' test scores are very low and Singaporean students' scores are among the highest in Asia!

 

Overwhelming the students with a flood of random facts is not the same as teaching them.  Students need to learn at the appropriate level and at an appropriate pace.

 

Thai students spend so much time trying to pass the next exam that they don't have a chance to really learn the subject being taught.  The Thai curriculum needs to be tossed out the window and a simpler curriculum with realistic standards and expectations needs to be implemented.

[nbuff]

The issue the doctor is referring to is the structure of school for children as young 4. These students literally have midterm and finals for each subject which may be as many as 6. The idea that 5 year old son should be taking tests of any sort is insane let alone full term tests.

And then they have big books for each subject to complete. it's a ludacris amount of work for essentially babies.

 

The issue of what they are being taught and the methods used is another problem. This problem becomes a bigger issue as they move up through school. But the issue the doctor has with the system is the comical amount of work and structure being given to 6 an unders.

 

Of course it stems from a distorted view of accomplishment,  selfish parents who want to build face, administration that cares about appearance more than results. That's why 5 year oldso are preparing for their 20 question math mid term.

[jacko45k]

5 hours ago, alex8912 said:

I think this article is about Japanese or Chinese students. 

And perhaps Korean too.

[Grubster]

I feel that the teachers here don't try to first gain the friendship and respect of thier students. Power and control is all that matters with many it seems.

[cumgranosalum]

2 hours ago, performance said:

Funny good try. I have many falang friends with kids. The standard is terrible. Learn about the HISO  PEOPLE 

QED

[Caveat Emptor]

6 hours ago, NongKhaiKid said:

Just what are they pushed too hard to learn as they never seem to benefit much as can be seen as they progress through the so called educational system ?

I'm sure the school syllabus will now be amended to include subjects linked to the current mood in Thailand but which will not be of much benefit in later life.

New passages to be committed to memory and recited every morning at 0800 ?

[cumgranosalum]

3 minutes ago, Grubster said:

I feel that the teachers here don't try to first gain the friendship and respect of thier students. Power and control is all that matters with many it seems.

..and what has that got to do with "pushing" them too hard?

[irwinfc]

where a culture of "being ahead of others is good" is present, issues like these lie just on the tip of the iceberg.

[cumgranosalum]

37 minutes ago, Docno said:

Finland is top by some measures (well, the Pearson/BBC one), while Singapore comes in top in others. And Singapore has a brutally competitive, hard-driving educational system: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-06/best-education-system-putting-stress-on-singaporean-children/6831964.

 

Just 3 days ago, a coroner's report found that a 11-year boy had committed suicide because he'd not done well on exams: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/11-year-old-boy-s-suicide-due-to-exam-and-parental-stress-state/3225314.html 

you've hit the nail on the head - Singapore like so many Asian education systems pushes too hard.....even in countries like Singapore and Korea where results are high, they are in reality churning out remarkaly limited students who apart from value to large corporations as little more than drones have very little functional;ity as human beings - this is of course then reflected in the characteristics of their national society

[kiwikeith]

6 hours ago, seahorse said:

“ The ability to play is one of the principal criteria of mental health .”

I put my son into pre-school here at  4 years old, the school has hardly any grass a few play things outside and the kids are in tile floored rooms siting on the floor most of the day where they are chanted the alphabet  and sometimes make a few paper things and a little drawing.

The teachers a very nice people.

The school loves to feed the kids sugar drinks and sweet things.

 

I took him home to NZ for 4 months and put him into Crysallis Kindy a brand new facility that won the highest awards this year, spotless pristine and wonderfully equipped with a wide open play ground with natural earth and bark and heaps of scooters , bikes and slides , jungle jims.

Wonderfully staffed where the kids sing and paint and play lots of games.

I am back now and he does not want to go back to Thai school next month.

[Baerboxer]

7 hours ago, NongKhaiKid said:

Just what are they pushed too hard to learn as they never seem to benefit much as can be seen as they progress through the so called educational system ?

I'm sure the school syllabus will now be amended to include subjects linked to the current mood in Thailand but which will not be of much benefit in later life.

 

I see many parents push their children into "extras" - homework club, outside school tutors, extra classes, extra outside school subjects.

 

Parents, or most of the ones I know here, are very competitive about their children learning and school test and exam results and feel the need to push them to study extra in the evening and at weekend. This may include learning music, playing an instrument, sport as well as the usual curriculum subjects.

 

Schools are money making enterprises and so encourage the attendance at extra classes and activities which require extra payment.  Most teachers I know are happy to work the extra hours and also offer outside tuition as their pay is poor. 

 

And therein lies the problems. A very real demand and no proper way to meet it.

[puukao]

Kids suffer as teachers are too hard!!!

Adults are fat because they don't suffer enough!!

Kids are poor because companies need big profits!!!

Adults drink a lot because they don't want to think!!!!

Kids get lost because parents are lost!!!

 

First blame yourself.........then forgive yourself.  now move on!!!  

[Krataiboy]

5 hours ago, maewang99 said:

it's getting more and more difficult to do the 'stupid stuff'... as Chomsky refers to it... some of the same stupid stuff we had to do in the west... but only from time to time..... but now, here, has always been overwhelming and now even more so as the 'students' (which in Thailand means people of a certain age in uniforms because otherwise you would not be able to convince yourself "yeah... it's a 'school' and they are 'students'") have smartphones... example Tesla self driving cars.... example a SpaceX colony on Mars.....  to get glimpses of another world where copying and converting phonetic transcriptions into sounds no one else understands.... won't 'cut it'.... just won't cut it... it's not just disheartening to 'farlang' standing outside of it in horror....   example, actually reading a novel and thinking and asking questions... with the answers being not really important at all... not at all... that gives you a power packed cognitive experience of another person's perspectives (reading books) ..... which the globalized world rewards increasingly so because of AI and the net etc... and where human dexterity will no longer be so valuable... only the language 'gift' will be (reading lots and lots of books and periodicals and journals... endlessly...... just to survive).

 

 

Blimey! Did you read a lot of Joyce?

[Scott]

30 minutes ago, puukao said:

Kids suffer as teachers are too hard!!!

Adults are fat because they don't suffer enough!!

Kids are poor because companies need big profits!!!

Adults drink a lot because they don't want to think!!!!

Kids get lost because parents are lost!!!

 

First blame yourself.........then forgive yourself.  now move on!!!  

If your child is having a problem, the above may apply.   If a particular group of kids at some schools are having trouble, the above may apply.  

 

If a nation is having a problem, the above probably doesn't apply....at least not directly.  

[Ceruhe]

Pushed too hard....physically at best, mentally not even nudged.

[spidermike007]

6 hours ago, alex8912 said:

I think this article is about Japanese or Chinese students. 

If anything they are not being pushed hard enough. In contrast with overachieving societies like Taiwan, China, Malaysia and several other cultures, many of the Thai kids are not pushed nearly enough. Especially the boys. This shrink is out of touch and barely has a clue. He needs to do some traveling. With their inferior educational system the Thai kids need as much prodding and discipline as possible. No amount of discipline is too much here.  

[elgordo38]

When is it to early to start the building blocks of life? Korea seems to be in overdrive on the this. Is it really an overload factor or the fact that kids just want to get back to their mobiles and computers because of the fixation there of. Maybe its time to marry the two together and make it more interesting more palatable. Kids today need to be challenged more not hum drumed to death. Its a long journey from the end of ones education to where I am now and I am happy to be here after observing what is happening around me. I loved the challenge of education but then I did not have all the outside distractions that exist today my world was much simpler and school was fun. We live in a thither and yon world where the importance of a good education is not stressed enough. Children just do not seem to want to rise to the challenge anymore. Then also it has become a gimme world for children unlike my youth where I shoveled shit all day long Saturday for a farmer for $2 a day plus 2 square meals. As I got older I graduated into a paper route. Maybe this taught me more than school

[kannot]

2  years  old IS the  perfect  time to start,  they  soak  up  information like  a  sponge, by 9-10 its  all downhill..............catch em  young  just  like all the brainwashing religions.

[NCC1701A]

Welcome world globalization.
It has been like this in Japan and the USA for decades. I know parents with kids who study around the clock. No more room or jobs for average grades. We had a receptionist with a master degree. Good luck Thailand. Your culture is not ready for economic warfare with the rest of SEA or USA.
But I do see some very sharp Thais in Bangkok. But just doing the same same business.

[tonray]

Today's english Lesson kids: What is it ?

 

 

H O__ S E  __O L D           D ____  B T

[realenglish1]

The level of education in Thailand when you compare  it to western education is very poor. And in the west there are not these problems by and large

So you need to look at the system and how antiquated it is  Teaching is poor

[Laughing Gravy]

Lots of valid points on this thread. Parents are to blame with the more is best attitude.

 

It always amazes me how when parents go to the doctor they never question them, as they trust their expertise. It would seem every parent is an expert in education because they went to school, often ignoring good, trained teachers advice.

 

Forget giving them time to play, reflect. They have 7 days a week 14 hours a day and they will learn more attitude. Can't see things changing much in the near future.

[how241]

Start the real teaching at 6.

[Gainsbourg]

Thai. Educational. System. 

Looooooooooool!

 

Back under my stone now ???

[Gainsbourg]

1 hour ago, realenglish1 said:

The level of education in Thailand when you compare  it to western education is very poor. And in the west there are not these problems by and large

So you need to look at the system and how antiquated it is  Teaching is poor

You. No. Understand. Lack. Of. Sodium. Is. Problem. Not. Our. Fault. Nature. To. Blame. Nature. No. Goooood!

[realenglish1]

6 minutes ago, Gainsbourg said:

You. No. Understand. Lack. Of. Sodium. Is. Problem. Not. Our. Fault. Nature. To. Blame. Nature. No. Goooood!

What is lack of Sodium half to do with school kids and their teachers

[Gainsbourg]

40 minutes ago, realenglish1 said:

What is lack of Sodium half to do with school kids and their teachers

IODIUM ... my phone autocorrected it it seems. Sorry...

[Puwa]

In other words, tthere' a direct correlation between the number of hours children spend on homework and the number of hours ThaiVisa members spend posting comments about bad Thai schools.

 

[DSJPC]

this article is total bullcrap!...Thai educational system is totally <deleted> up...my wife's 12 y/o daughter "learned" mathematics by copying her entire math textbook!...apparently teachers think if u copy everything, u learn it!!!...what total stupidity!!!

Edited October 24, 2016 by metisdead
Please discontinue your efforts to post in a profane manner.

[Docno]

4 hours ago, cumgranosalum said:

you've hit the nail on the head - Singapore like so many Asian education systems pushes too hard.....even in countries like Singapore and Korea where results are high, they are in reality churning out remarkaly limited students who apart from value to large corporations as little more than drones have very little functional;ity as human beings - this is of course then reflected in the characteristics of their national society

Interestingly, they're not a lost cause.... they can adjust. I used to teach at a Singaporean university, and some classes had as many as one third westerners  (usually Americans, Canadians, or Europeans on year-long exchanges). I always noticed that the Singaporean students took a few classes to settle in... they would initially be much quieter than the foreign students, but after a couple of weeks there was no difference. They could also be just as creative in their presentations, and often more so. My suspicion was that they had to figure out what kind of prof you are -- the 'old school' type that insists he has all the answers and focuses on rote learning, or the type that accepts challenge and alternative viewpoints and teaches through discussion. Corresponding to this, certain older Singaporean faculty insisted that students call them "Prof X" or "sir/ma'am", while younger ones and westerners weren't hung up on how they were addressed. That was 15 years ago... I'm sure things have evolved further since then.