BoumanBlog
"How vain is it to sit down and write when you have not stood up to live…" – Thoreau

For some time now I have felt a level of homesickness that I have never felt before. This is only natural because I have never experienced such an extended stay outside of the United States before. While I previously believed it was because of the three F’s (Family, Friends, Food) I realized that it is something much different and much more complicated. I have become so disenfranchised by the social flaws of this once peaceful, beautiful, and independent country that I yearn for America’s right winged lobbyists, unethical corporations, and gun wielding Middle America. As unfortunate as that sentence sounds, there is some truth to it. Thailand was once an untapped land of beauty that was self sufficient and peaceful. Now it is invaded with foreigners, not by military force, but rather it seems, individuals exiled from their home countries and looking for a fresh start. The land is inundated with other countries’s unwanted or most wanted. They come looking for jobs teaching English, saturating an already depleted teaching corps.

The Thai government school program is one of great tragedies. The schools are overcrowded and occupied by less than qualified educators. Foreigners are hired because of their fare skin and perceived competence with the English language. Sadly, many of these individuals working for the sole reason of a visa and work permit, so they can engage in promiscuous and unflattering activities with natives. Because of this fact, the international school industry in Thailand is booming. Within the past decade the industry has grown ten fold and shows little signs of leveling off. While these international schools are a vast improvement to the Thai government schools, they are still susceptible to the same problems. Lost in the mix of qualified professionals are degenerates who cloud the environments they work in. Many have a sense of entitlement from native workers and suffer from such a disillusioned state of reality that rational thought completely evades them. Their permanently extended stays in Thailand have left them devoid of the ability to re-immerse themselves in their native lands because of the erosion of acceptable, everyday behavior.

Case in point, a teacher at the school I work at has displayed incompetent abilities to teach students. However, he indicates a wealth of experience to match his grizzled age. His methods of child discipline can be describe as archaic (embarrassment tactic) and methods of teaching is so fundamentally perverse I wouldn’t hire him to teach a crayon. He rarely corrects given assignments, only credits the child as to having completed the work. On rare occasions this may be acceptable, but when a nine year old is learning English, it is imperative for them to understand their mistakes. The only reading students engage in is silent reading, inciting further questions about his ability to adequately educate students. His professional manner is absolutely atrocious and transcends global boundaries. It is nearly impossible to engage in civil conversation with him about his deficiencies because of the aforementioned disillusioned reality. Sadly, this individual is not a worst case scenario in Thailand, but rather an all too familiar one for anyone who has worked in an international school.

Perhaps I am just realizing the realities of the real world, having been sheltered by the protective bubble of UW-Madison for the past few years. I hope this image I painted isn’t the reality but just a micro-segment of society that saddens me. I await my re-immersion back into the United States and hope that the “real American world” does not exacerbate my dim perspective on humanity created by my time in Thailand.