Students will learn if they really want to

CM Phillips’ statement, “The only way to improve Thai education is to send the students to the West”, really upset me.

I had my American daughter educated in the Los Angeles school system and my two Thai kids are being educated in Thailand. Sorry, CM, but the Thai system wins hands down. If you can get past the fashion show, display of weapons, tattoos, gang colours and self-mutilation of the kids in American schools, you then have to deal with the “sex, drugs and rock and roll” mentality. Teachers are either indifferent or downright fearful. Parents believe Junior can do no wrong and school boards are hung up on being politically correct.

The transfer of inner-city kids to suburban schools also slowed the pace of education so that those who could barely read could keep up. I could go on with this, but I think you get my point. I would never again put one of my children in a Western school.

As for Thailand, one must consider that the schools are only as good as the students. Most are farm kids who just don’t understand the need to learn subjects that have nothing to do with planting rice. Those kids that do understand the need for a balanced education get one because they’re not intimidated by hooligans and gangs.

Teachers are teachers wherever you go, and have a tendency to respond to the interest of the kids they are teaching. They are not psychiatrists, truant officers or experts on the state of society as we know it. They are simply teachers, and you can reorganise until you’re blue in the face, but you are still going to have the same problems.

The bottom line here is that kids in Thailand who do want an education can get one because there is at least some form of discipline in the schools, and with uniforms there are few distractions. Any innovators being created in the West are kids who went to private schools, not public. Thus, the talent pool is coming from the moneyed families.

My wife and I understand the importance of a good education and have embedded that in our children’s minds. Consequently they will get a good education right here in Yasothon. That is not possible in a public school in the West. As for the children whose families have not yet learned the value of an education, reorganise to your heart’s content. Then stand back and watch the circus go on.

John Arnone

Yasothon