Thread: The loss of basic skills in school

If you Americans are afraid that you may be being left behind by the super smart Asian kids, you have nothing to worry about. Here in Thailand we are working hard to make sure that no student graduates from high school with the ability to concentrate for more than five seconds. We have achieved this by putting an iPhone or Black Berry in the hand of each student. Many students have an iPhone in the left hand and a Black Berry in the right hand. The government also has plans to stop children learning by giving each student a tablet computer that can do nothing but play Angry Birds.

On top of that, just in case any student gets the idea in to his or her head to learn something, we have a no fail policy. Even the stupidest student with the mental incompetence to be considered mentally disabled gets a passing mark.

The testing however, is not standardized. I write my own tests based on what I have taught. The Thai teachers teach write their own tests, which are just copied from locally produced text books, mistakes and all.

As for the quality of the teachers, it is well known that it is almost impossible to be fired from a public school in Thailand. Physical beatings causing lasting harm are not enough to do it. Nor is it enough that the teacher in question wasn't actually qualified to be a teacher.

So don't worry, your nuff nuffs are still going to be smarter than our average students.

The only answer that I see is to let the technology take care of itself. If the American Educators are dead set going to use nothing but mind numbing devices' to educate our children then the only way to do the right thing is to make up the rest at HOME!
Thats right, teach them what's right and what's wrong, moraly and other wise.
Do the basics with your kids right from BL**dy jump street, Number, shapes, ARITHMATIC, colors and social studies world studies and why things like bullying and stealing and the rest are just PLain wrong!! They will teach what they will at school, the rest is up the the parent and guardians of our chilren and the futures.

Forgive my most pompast tirade, hit a sore point with me that's all.

From the desk of an irate citizen, tinkersd

Originally Posted by tinkersd

The only answer that I see is to let the technology take care of itself. If the American Educators are dead set going to use nothing but mind numbing devices' to educate our children then the only way to do the right thing is to make up the rest at HOME!
Thats right, teach them what's right and what's wrong, moraly and other wise.
Do the basics with your kids right from BL**dy jump street, Number, shapes, ARITHMATIC, colors and social studies world studies and why things like bullying and stealing and the rest are just PLain wrong!! They will teach what they will at school, the rest is up the the parent and guardians of our chilren and the futures.

Forgive my most pompast tirade, hit a sore point with me that's all.

From the desk of an irate citizen, tinkersd

You're asking an awful lot from the parents. My mother teaches high school in an inner city public school, and aside from everything else she has to teach, they have now added teaching about abuse in relationships. Why? A couple years ago high school sweethearts (at the time college age) had been abusing each other, then one day the boyfriend killed the girlfriend and then himself. Since their relationship started in high school it has now fallen on the teachers to teach kids about this.

I worked for the Govt and before I retired all the clerical people we hired, mostly 20 something types with High School education really couldn't do their jobs. Ask them to write correspondence of any kind and you got one big paragraph with one continuous sentence full of spelling errors and grammatical errors and just about every type of error you could imagine. The product was basically unreadable. You would have to sit with them at the computer and tell them what to write word by word.

Originally Posted by tinkersd

The only answer that I see is to let the technology take care of itself. If the American Educators are dead set going to use nothing but mind numbing devices' to educate our children then the only way to do the right thing is to make up the rest at HOME!
Thats right, teach them what's right and what's wrong, moraly and other wise.
Do the basics with your kids right from BL**dy jump street, Number, shapes, ARITHMATIC, colors and social studies world studies and why things like bullying and stealing and the rest are just PLain wrong!! They will teach what they will at school, the rest is up the the parent and guardians of our chilren and the futures.

Forgive my most pompast tirade, hit a sore point with me that's all.

From the desk of an irate citizen, tinkersd

Your points on the basics and teaching right from wrong are correct. However, some families expect the schools/teachers to teach their children those basics as well as discerning what is right and what is wrong. Some parents get caught up with their communication devices and do not focus or even spend time with their children.

My wife and I were not the perfect parents, however, we made ourselves available to our son.

What mistakes I made in raising my son? Judging his friends, meddled, his mother and I were over protective, and sometimes we were too lenient on some things.

Originally Posted by ndw76

If you Americans are afraid that you may be being left behind by the super smart Asian kids, you have nothing to worry about. Here in Thailand we are working hard to make sure that no student graduates from high school with the ability to concentrate for more than five seconds. We have achieved this by putting an iPhone or Black Berry in the hand of each student. Many students have an iPhone in the left hand and a Black Berry in the right hand. The government also has plans to stop children learning by giving each student a tablet computer that can do nothing but play Angry Birds.

On top of that, just in case any student gets the idea in to his or her head to learn something, we have a no fail policy. Even the stupidest student with the mental incompetence to be considered mentally disabled gets a passing mark.

The testing however, is not standardized. I write my own tests based on what I have taught. The Thai teachers teach write their own tests, which are just copied from locally produced text books, mistakes and all.

As for the quality of the teachers, it is well known that it is almost impossible to be fired from a public school in Thailand. Physical beatings causing lasting harm are not enough to do it. Nor is it enough that the teacher in question wasn't actually qualified to be a teacher.

So don't worry, your nuff nuffs are still going to be smarter than our average students.

I am quite surprise to have read your post because I always felt that Asian students had more self discipline and desire to learn. Are you speaking only about the students in Thailand or Asian students in general?

Originally Posted by pmburk

I am quite surprise to have read your post because I always felt that Asian students had more self discipline and desire to learn. Are you speaking only about the students in Thailand or Asian students in general?

The only Asian I have taught are Thais. The Thai education system is seriously screwed up. The Thai students do work hard, but most of what they are being taught is crap. Most Thai students will start school at 8am and keep going until 4pm. Then they will go to evening classes until 8pm. Then on Saturday many students will have a three hour English class and maybe an hour or two on other classes.
The sad thing is that the teachers who are paid to teach during the week deliberately do a bad job because they can charge to teach the same stuff after school and on weekends.

I can imagine that the Asian students who are studying in Australia and America study very hard because they can see how hard their parents have had to work. They can easily recognize the value of a good education.

I'm going to take this thread in a related direction and discuss the issue of why the basics or even our over-all educational system has suffered.

To me it is no circumstance our educational system is in the state it is in. Things happen for a reason. If the powers that be wanted the educational system to be top notch the money would be there the same as it is for our defense budget. I have always maintained the reason things have gone down hill at an ever increasing pace is because the powers that be want it that way. After-all if you were a captain of industry and a super rich dude you want to be able to control the political process and have your people running things in Govt. Would you want a highly educated electorate, people who can analyze facts, consider history make valid conclusions about who to vote for? Maybe you want stupid folks who will believe what they are told be it true or not. Folks who will decide who to vote for on one issue and who can be easily manipulated and directed.

There will always be the privileged who will get the education to do the technical things and be trained to take over the future but for the masses out there...well...

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I'm going to take this thread in a related direction and discuss the issue of why the basics or even our over-all educational system has suffered.

To me it is no circumstance our educational system is in the state it is in. Things happen for a reason. If the powers that be wanted the educational system to be top notch the money would be there the same as it is for our defense budget. I have always maintained the reason things have gone down hill at an ever increasing pace is because the powers that be want it that way. After-all if you were a captain of industry and a super rich dude you want to be able to control the political process and have your people running things in Govt. Would you want a highly educated electorate, people who can analyze facts, consider history make valid conclusions about who to vote for? Maybe you want stupid folks who will believe what they are told be it true or not. Folks who will decide who to vote for on one issue and who can be easily manipulated and directed.

There will always be the privileged who will get the education to do the technical things and be trained to take over the future but for the masses out there...well...

Ahh, I remember some of my sociology from college, what you are describing is "social oppression" which is a way to control a group of people or an entire society by denying goods, services, and economics. It is another way of preying on the weak and ignorant. It is another form of discrimination.

Originally Posted by ndw76

The only Asian I have taught are Thais. The Thai education system is seriously screwed up. The Thai students do work hard, but most of what they are being taught is crap. Most Thai students will start school at 8am and keep going until 4pm. Then they will go to evening classes until 8pm. Then on Saturday many students will have a three hour English class and maybe an hour or two on other classes.
The sad thing is that the teachers who are paid to teach during the week deliberately do a bad job because they can charge to teach the same stuff after school and on weekends.

I can imagine that the Asian students who are studying in Australia and America study very hard because they can see how hard their parents have had to work. They can easily recognize the value of a good education.

Those students will be the ones who will succeed. Perhaps those students will become the better teachers of the future.