Coming to Thailand

Why Thailand- why now? As my friend, Mary Bolton stated in one preflight jitter, "Mac, someone will stuff drugs in your suitcase on the way to the airport, then you'll go to jail for the rest of your life." With such scary notions as drug stuffings, you too may wonder if going to Thailand is the best idea. For me, it absolutely was. Prior to coming to Thailand, I worked for five years as an educator in inner city schools within Los Angeles and Oakland, California. Bridging the educational gap existing in today's schools in the US between the rich and poor, was- and still is- an important component of my overall educational philosophy. But, make no bones about it, it is grueling work much of the time. Teachers all over the world are generally exceptionally hard workers, but those working within inncr-city schools have the added challenge of working with children who have fallen through the cracks in the school system, and know it. Many, though not all, are a minimum of two years behind grade level. To make matters worse, as a consequence of being allowed to fall through the cracks, most students develop a "fixed intelligence" mentality that can plague them for the rest of their remaining academic career. I sought out schools serving children of low income families that had track records of success- who taught children using a malleable intelligence model. Schools that were composed of networks of teachers committed to raising the bar for these students and propelling them onto a different track in life. This was a very rewarding experience. I learned so much from extremely competent teachers who not only thoroughly understood the plight of these children, but also refused to accept this as an excuse for low academic achievement. Over that five year period, I saw many examples of students that when given a structured classroom following a malleable intelligence framework for teaching, combined with an overall "Big Goal" make remarkable academic gains. While this was very rewarding to see overall, the path to get there every year was very draining. I was typically at school until at least 6 at night- many times 8 or 9 pm. There was just so much to do to prepare my students for my expectations for them. After five years, I wanted a break. I began researching teaching around the world. I saw loads of examples of English learning schools, but few where teachers were expected to make high academic gains with their students, or where teachers worked together in collaborative learning communities to bring change to their students. I finally hit the jackpot with Thailand. I am working at a relatively large school, in a small city in southern Thailand. I absolutely love it. My students are amazing. I have virtually zero classroom management issues. As a teacher in the states, I was prepared at the beginning of the year with interest inventories, various procedures outlined and ready to practice, and of course, community building activities. But none of it was needed. From day one, my students have been wonderful. Thai students virtually ooze community spirit in the classroom. The struggle for me is to get them to become more individualistic- the complete opposite from teaching in "the states." While my school is not perfect, having a break from the daily grind of teaching in an inner city school is a much needed relief..for the moment.