Wondering why my kids get more stupid by going to school

[Bangkok Barry]

16 hours ago, lucjoker said:

If you speak only 3 languages.....you can have the best job you can dream of.

I question that. I have a relative in the UK who speaks French and German as well as English but has difficulty finding a job. I queried why that is, when she has those languages, and she explained that companies prefer to employ native speakers. That makes perfect sense to me. 

[jossthaifarang]

18 hours ago, davidst01 said:

just what I thought. Why don't you put down the bottle at night time and spend some time educating them yourself. Its not that hard. 

Took the words right out of my mouth mate, try paying more attention to the homework they are given and you will already have a much better idea what the school education is lacking.

 

You can educate your children in just a half hour every week night, and stop sending them to Thai school, international school is a must and will at least get them 80-90% of the way. The rest is up to you to teach them mate.

 

Just my opinion, do with it what you like.

[jossthaifarang]

12 hours ago, 1SteveC said:

 

Seriously? You are complaining about someone else's English!

 

Kettle calling the pot black springs to mind.

Agreed! I could poke so many holes in that, learned, teached, starting a sentence with And/But. I could go on, but this is just embarrassing. 

[canuckamuck]

My daughter and I have quite a laugh over her English homework. It is generally nonsensical and contains many errors. I suppose it is good for her because she can learn by pointing out the teachers errors. To me of course, not to the teacher. 

The teacher on the other hand seems to relish the opportunity to point out to my daughter where she made a mistake. Even though the mistake is in the ridiculous question, not the answer. It really is an absurd situation. The woman can't speak English at all. But my daughter has yet to get top marks in English, despite being fluent and getting top marks everywhere else. To get top marks in English, your memorization of incorrect English needs to be flawless. And my daughter has trouble remembering both the correct and the incorrect way to speak.

Edited June 26, 2017 by canuckamuck

[nasanews]

22 hours ago, Wiggy said:

I think it's because the government don't want people to be educated. Keep them from thinking, keep them in the dark, don't teach critical thinking skills. Then you have a population that's easy to control and manipulate for your own gain. (Thai) Buddhism doesn't help either. 

All dictatorial regimes do, and if some of these regimes have good educational system it is all like stuffing food, e.g we might see good graduates but clueless in main aspects of life such as critical thinking and creativity then unfortunately we end up with societies become sheep farms.

[The Dark Lord]

21 hours ago, possum1931 said:

Nice to see your son has two piano lessons per week. As an ex professional musician I am very interested in this.

 

Did your son show an interest in music? Did you notice that he had an ear for music which prompted you to send him for piano lessons.

 

I learned to play piano, bass guitar by ear, never had any music lessons, and although I know a lot about music, I cannot read it.

 

But I sure made a good living from it. I watched live bands in Pattaya, and was quite impressed by some of the musicians, although not so much the singers, and I never seemed to hear any of the singers sing in harmony with each other.

 

But good luck to your son, he could easily have a good enough education to work a normal job when he is older and play part time in the evenings, that's how I started.

Ahh a breath of fresh air to a struggling amateur musician. I also am self taught and play (bass and rhythm) by ear not being sufficiently clever to read music ( though I do know the basics) 

 

shame we are so so far apart ( geographically) as I would love to find someone to play with ( if you pardon the terminology) 

 

 

[The Dark Lord]

3 hours ago, canuckamuck said:

My daughter and I have quite a laugh over her English homework. It is generally nonsensical and contains many errors. I suppose it is good for her because she can learn by pointing out the teachers errors. To me of course, not to the teacher. 

The teacher on the other hand seems to relish the opportunity to point out to my daughter where she made a mistake. Even though the mistake is in the ridiculous question, not the answer. It really is an absurd situation. The woman can't speak English at all. But my daughter has yet to get top marks in English, despite being fluent and getting top marks everywhere else. To get top marks in English, your memorization of incorrect English needs to be flawless. And my daughter has trouble remembering both the correct and the incorrect way to speak.

Bit of a sad story, today I met for the first time at a social occasion a teacher of grade three (?) kids. She speaks excellent, and I mean excellent English and I said to her that in my opinion as she already has the skills and patience to teach ( it happens she is quite well known in the social group in which we met) she should teach English. For a brief second a look of horror crossed her face and sadly we were interrupted so I could not presume further but I hope to catch up with her again tomorrow to progress this.

 

I t just crossed my mind though that perhaps her soft approach to discipline might not be exactly what is needed to set foot in the classroom of older pupils.

 

what an utter shame and loss to thailand which so desperately needs to up its foreign language skills. I am aware though that learning Chinese is all the rage now in some schools locally

 

i wonder why?

[mrwebb8825]

Why fill your head with all that crap when you have a smartphone that knows all the answers? 

[smotherb]

I bit the bullet and went back to the States for 10 years, so my son could graduate secondary school. After he was admitted to university, my wife and I came back and he visited every Christmas, spring  break and summer. Some of his childhood friends, who remained here for school, cannot even speak English well and are not gainfully employed. 

 

Fortunately, there are good online schools available now which can indeed be supplemented by home-schooling. 

[1SteveC]

7 hours ago, The Dark Lord said:

what an utter shame and loss to thailand which so desperately needs to up its foreign language skills. I am aware though that learning Chinese is all the rage now in some schools locally

 

 

All the rage now in some schools locally

 

Hardly a countrywide trend then?

[The Dark Lord]

On 26/06/2017 at 7:18 PM, 1SteveC said:

 

All the rage now in some schools locally

 

Hardly a countrywide trend then?

Did I say it was? 

[gwynt]

On 6/26/2017 at 11:44 AM, The Dark Lord said:

Ahh a breath of fresh air to a struggling amateur musician. I also am self taught and play (bass and rhythm) by ear not being sufficiently clever to read music ( though I do know the basics) 

 

shame we are so so far apart ( geographically) as I would love to find someone to play with ( if you pardon the terminology) 

 

 

We have a good Thai friend who is a professional drummer with one of the top hotels in Pattaya, my step son in UK is also semi pro drummer, been on tour with Adam Ant and a few other lesser bands, who loves coming here and would one day like to settle here. Our Thai friend has advised him that falang can get work permit through one of the big hotels, Hard Rock, etc. So may be worth your while making inquiries, if you are thinking of making a small living here.  

[The Dark Lord]

20 minutes ago, gwynt said:

We have a good Thai friend who is a professional drummer with one of the top hotels in Pattaya, my step son in UK is also semi pro drummer, been on tour with Adam Ant and a few other lesser bands, who loves coming here and would one day like to settle here. Our Thai friend has advised him that falang can get work permit through one of the big hotels, Hard Rock, etc. So may be worth your while making inquiries, if you are thinking of making a small living here.  

I wish I had as free a schedule to allow me to do so but this retirement business is quite time consuming!

 

being serious for a minute though, thanks very much for the heads up, I would dearly love to play in such venues as HRC Brit in Patts or Bkk or wherever. Not sure how the hordes of admiring young ladies would react to a strikingly handsome but grey haired and slightly paunchy bass player being in the band!

 

used to be a real buzz doing "gigs" when I was younger ( much much younger)  but being realistic I think it best I reserve my note perfect (?) renditions of Pink Floyd for the ears of my dear wife and neighbours..... 

[HooHaa]

i dint have this issue because i chose to send my kids to an international school. To the contrary, she advanced a grade upon enrollment to a school in the us and was recruited to attend an academics centric charter school,  and is currently rated in the 98th percentile for her age group statewide.

you can complain or you can do something about it. As you said, you feel guilty for leaving it so long. you should have done better.

[ben2talk]

On 6/25/2017 at 0:09 PM, Borzandy said:

How stupid are farangs who send their kids to a Thai school.

Do you think that possibly they're not stupid but might not be able to afford extortionate fees for private education?

[ben2talk]

On 6/25/2017 at 2:42 PM, lucjoker said:

If you think you are wiser than the teachers......as i think i am......teach your children yourself.......as i do.

You dont speak,read nor write Thai?

As i did........learn it........as i did.

Actually this is something the can pick up in Kindergarten - but problems are the 'rote' aspects. 

 

Homework comes with instructions written in Thai. Yet the real requirement is not described by the instructions, the children are simply expected to repeat by rote what they did during the daytime.

 

I discovered this during the last few months when math homework came back marked wrong because I answered as follows:

 

32+12=44 Ans=44

 

The reason being that the Thai teacher tells the kids that the final answer must be written using Thai numerals, not Arabic. The instruction simply says 'Find the answers'.

The homework came back erased. When I questioned his mother, she got quite angry and criticised me saying it should be obvious to anyone who went to school!

 

Thus you see the problem. Reason is stamped out of their minds.

[1SteveC]

3 hours ago, gwynt said:

We have a good Thai friend who is a professional drummer with one of the top hotels in Pattaya, my step son in UK is also semi pro drummer, been on tour with Adam Ant and a few other lesser bands, who loves coming here and would one day like to settle here. Our Thai friend has advised him that falang can get work permit through one of the big hotels, Hard Rock, etc. So may be worth your while making inquiries, if you are thinking of making a small living here.  

 

"So may be worth your while making inquiries, if you are thinking of making a small living here.  " - have to be good to make the 50k minimum salary for an extension of stay.

[bangkokairportlink]

Haven't you noticed exactly the same thing with Thai girlfriends ? After spending some times with their Thai friends, they come back totally retarded. But after few days at home, they start using their brain again (at least some).

 

 

[bangkokairportlink]

7 hours ago, ben2talk said:

Do you think that possibly they're not stupid but might not be able to afford extortionate fees for private education?

 

So they should now have kids or stop being lazy or stupid assss not being able to make money.

[Gulfsailor]

8 hours ago, ben2talk said:

Do you think that possibly they're not stupid but might not be able to afford extortionate fees for private education?

If a person decides to start a new family in Thailand after retirement, it may be hard to properly educate kids in Thailand on a state pension.  That said, maybe they should have thought about that before committing to kids.

Younger foreigners in Thailand should make / have at least enough money to pay for a decent education, should one decide to start a family. Otherwise just do like the OP is planning, and move back to your home country to have the kids educated there. 

That all said, even with a modest income, one can offer their kids a good education. In my case I choose to send my kid to a top international school, even though it costs us a third of our income. I'd rather spend it on that then on drinking, punting or showing of a new car every other year. It's all about ones priorities. 

Edited June 28, 2017 by Gulfsailor

[ben2talk]

8 hours ago, Gulfsailor said:

If a person decides to start a new family in Thailand after retirement, it may be hard to properly educate kids in Thailand on a state pension.  That said, maybe they should have thought about that before committing to kids.

Younger foreigners in Thailand should make / have at least enough money to pay for a decent education, should one decide to start a family. Otherwise just do like the OP is planning, and move back to your home country to have the kids educated there. 

That all said, even with a modest income, one can offer their kids a good education. In my case I choose to send my kid to a top international school, even though it costs us a third of our income. I'd rather spend it on that then on drinking, punting or showing of a new car every other year. It's all about ones priorities. 

Bully for you - but that is not a 'moderate' income. If your ID is anything to go by, then you should have a pretty high income if you were a merchant seaman working in the gulf...

 

You consider 5000 baht a 'moderate price' for breakfast, and manage your 'budget' by cutting back to replacing your Camry only once every two years. As for 'punting' - I can't imagine what you're talking about, but I never saw any punts here.

 

That's you. Not many folks are so well off - and many don't have retirement incomes. I have three married friends, none have cars newer than 3 years old in the family and - get this - they are white folks that do not drink.

 

So get off your high horse and don't just assume that all farang that don't have 'moderate incomes' are beer swilling idiots.

 

Edited June 29, 2017 by ben2talk

[ben2talk]

8 hours ago, bangkokairportlink said:

 

So they should now have kids or stop being lazy or stupid assss not being able to make money.

Are you saying that people who can't afford International School fees are stupid?

Are you saying that all people who can't make enough money to pay very high school fees are lazy?

[Scott]

Please get back on the topic.   Continued off-topic posting will result in suspensions.   It's not about how much people make, how many children they should have, international schools or the other things that might cross someone's mind.  

 

 

[Gulfsailor]

6 hours ago, ben2talk said:

Bully for you - but that is not a 'moderate' income. If your ID is anything to go by, then you should have a pretty high income if you were a merchant seaman working in the gulf...

 

You consider 5000 baht a 'moderate price' for breakfast, and manage your 'budget' by cutting back to replacing your Camry only once every two years. As for 'punting' - I can't imagine what you're talking about, but I never saw any punts here.

 

That's you. Not many folks are so well off - and many don't have retirement incomes. I have three married friends, none have cars newer than 3 years old in the family and - get this - they are white folks that do not drink.

 

So get off your high horse and don't just assume that all farang that don't have 'moderate incomes' are beer swilling idiots.

 

You make a lot of assumptions about my income based on my username. I'm not a merchant sailor and we own a single 12 year old car.

Most international schools offer scholarships if the kid is exceptional in academics or sport, or if parents have a modest income. 

Although I'm sure our income is higher than most Thai families, I'm also sure that the majority of foreign / mixed families in Thailand have an income higher than ours. But they don't see their child's education as a first priority and send their kids to Thai school or English program schools. It's about ones priorities.  

[1SteveC]

3 hours ago, Gulfsailor said:

You make a lot of assumptions about my income based on my username. I'm not a merchant sailor and we own a single 12 year old car.

Most international schools offer scholarships if the kid is exceptional in academics or sport, or if parents have a modest income. 

Although I'm sure our income is higher than most Thai families, I'm also sure that the majority of foreign / mixed families in Thailand have an income higher than ours. But they don't see their child's education as a first priority and send their kids to Thai school or English program schools. It's about ones priorities.  

 

"You make a lot of assumptions" as do you "But they don't see their child's education as a first priority"

[ben2talk]

17 minutes ago, 1SteveC said:

 

"You make a lot of assumptions" as do you "But they don't see their child's education as a first priority"

A valid point to make here is that all education is limiting. British education has the hidden agenda to produce a certain kind of person to fit in with the educators ideal citizen - as does US education. They will tolerate rather more latitude than Thai education, but still cannot help but brainwash students to some degree.

 

I find that my son picks up some slightly bad habits from his Thai teachers, but these sit alongside other habits he picks up elsewhere. A bit like a police trained UK advanced driver driving in Bangkok - if the person is intelligent then they will assimilate.

 

Thus, whatever education is available, it's certainly very important that children get a much larger input outside the schools if they are to avoid being squashed into the mould. This would apply more to a simple Thai school, because their idea of 'education' is simply 'remember what the teacher did today'.

 

The question about whether 'child's education is a first priority' is rather inadequate. What is 'A first priority'. are we allowed multiple 'first priorities'?

 

I would expect a teacher to be rather more clear than this. There are also a great deal more aspects to the education of a child than the education offered by schools. Schools primarily offer a socialising environment, which is often the most difficult aspect of home parenting for many.

Edited June 29, 2017 by ben2talk

[tonray]

Having taught in the Thai school system I think we often overlook something. Yes, I have seen poor Thai teaching methods of speak and copy but in the past few years I have also seen many young and dynamic teachers, most notably in the sciences (this is high school BTW). I have been impressed by the dynamic nature of their style of teaching and their obvious mastery of materials. But I think we often blame the schools and teaching methods for the lack of critical thinking and analytical skills too quickly. I think a large part of the deficiency in learning is not the way things are taught in schools but in the way culturally Thais approach individualism. Thailand really is a collective culture as we have seen evidence of in many aspects of life here. Stressing educational goals and individual achievement is as foreign to Thais culturally as Pla Ra is to most of us. They are trained from infants not to think for themselves but to hold the Triumvirate of the Monarchy, Buddhism, and the Military as the guideposts for behavior and life in general. They cannot think outside of the box because to them there is nothing outside of the box (or triangle as it were).

 

There are exceptions of course and many of my students who were of Chinese/Thai descent were usually pushed harder from parents and grandparents for achievement but even in them it was hard to get across that they could have a different opinion than the kid next to them.

 

I think the schools while not being perfect are not the crux of the problem, it's culture and there is little to be done about that. 

[Rhys]

Of course, one factor is the heavy reliance of ROTE learning, used as a teaching approach for class control rather than for educational purposes...

[DavisH]

On 6/25/2017 at 1:58 PM, possum1931 said:

Nice to see your son has two piano lessons per week. As an ex professional musician I am very interested in this.

 

Did your son show an interest in music? Did you notice that he had an ear for music which prompted you to send him for piano lessons.

 

I learned to play piano, bass guitar by ear, never had any music lessons, and although I know a lot about music, I cannot read it.

 

But I sure made a good living from it. I watched live bands in Pattaya, and was quite impressed by some of the musicians, although not so much the singers, and I never seemed to hear any of the singers sing in harmony with each other.

 

But good luck to your son, he could easily have a good enough education to work a normal job when he is older and play part time in the evenings, that's how I started.

Good Thai guitarist...

 

 

[Ace of Pop]

When it comes to learning English fro Ferang Teachers here they got no chance.In 27 years I've only met 2 Real Teachers and didn't they shine out.Met many Irish Batmen , African Scammers, every smooth talkin con artists , and back all the crafty dropouts going But real professionals rarely stay for the Peanuts paid here.Show me Don't tell me works best.?


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