School Ways

School Ways

In a previous post (“School Work”), I talked about how students help take care of our school.  This one is about daily routines that are part of the school culture here. I’m co-teaching 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th grade English classes and have had a lot to learn, to put it mildly – starting with the wai greeting (palms together, slight bow of the head). Teachers exchange the wai only once daily, upon first meeting of the day. Students wai us often– however, we aren’t supposed to return a student’s wai, but simply acknowledge it with a nod or other gesture.

Our students remain in their homeroom most of the day; we go from room to room. When the teacher enters, the student who has been appointed leader says:  “Stand up, please.” All students stand and intone, in a sing-song cadence: “Good Morning, Teacher! How are you?”  We answer: “Fine, thanks. How are you?” and the students respond in chorus: “I’m fine, thank you.” – then wait for permission to sit down. My co-teacher and I often take a few minutes to greet students individually and encourage them to answer more authentically, e.g., by saying “I’m okay.”  “I’m good!” or “I’m happy.” At the end of class, the leader prompts the others to stand again and say: “Thank you, Teacher. Good-bye!”  These rituals are symbolic of Thai respect for teachers. The mechanically recited greeting, however, is just that – students don’t necessarily think about what the words mean, with the amusing result that they occasionally say “Good morning, Teacher” to each other.

Gestures of politeness and deference are also obligatory when papers are passed out or returned. I soon learned not to hand worksheets to students one by one, because they cannot take it before doing a wai, complete with head bow. Best to let a student hand the papers out! When given time in class to work on their vocabulary notebooks, students bring them for us to review and kneel at our desk while waiting – something that made me uncomfortable at first. They are delighted if we draw a smiley face or star to signal “good job” – much as students may dislike homework, they love being rewarded in these small ways.  

Hanging out with students between classes.

Of course, our 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th graders are normal children with many behaviors that every teacher will recognize. A request to take out their notebook or get a pen sends them into a little flurry of rooting around in backpacks, poking each other, giggling, discovering that the notebook or pen can’t be found, and other delaying tactics. We also contend with expectations from other classes, notably the dreaded correction pen, or Wite-Out. In English class, students inevitably make many mistakes, not least because of the different alphabets – my own struggles learning to read and write Thai have given me compassion for what our students are going through! We discourage the correction of errors with Wite-Out because it’s too time-consuming; however, correction pens are required in other classes and students persist in using them.  A favorite stalling tactic, after having eventually found their notebook, pen, correction pen, and ruler, is to draw a line along the side of the notebook page – then decide it’s crooked, white it out, and draw another one, which is usually crooked too. This can generally be counted on to use up the time until the bell rings.

Another influence from other classes is chanting memorized material such as math times tables, history facts, chants from religion class, poems from Thai class, and so on. I often hear students reciting in unison, in a quick rhythm that must require full concentration to keep up. It strikes me that they enjoy chanting – they are all doing it together, propelled along by the rhythm and camaraderie; they get satisfaction from doing it correctly over and over again, and they can feel they are doing something they are supposed to. – English class, by contrast, has many activities that require students, after practicing in the group, to speak in English on their own. This is very stressful for them, even in the familiar double-circle activity where students face one another for a brief exchange (e.g., introducing themselves to each other), then change partners until they are all the way around the circle. Although everyone is talking at once, so no one notices if you make a mistake, this is still a far cry from reciting a known text in the comfort and security of the group.

During our Peace Corps pre-service training we were reminded many times that Thailand has a collectivist culture, not individualistic as in the US. I think you can see the collectivist aspect in these examples. In another post, I will write about challenges specific to teaching English to Thai students.