The conversations I have had with my PA and fellow teachers the past week has developed the thoughts I would like to share.
My PA told me last week that he and the rest of the teachers were thinking of taking September 1st and 2nd to go travel to an undecided place because the teachers want to travel with me before I leave. The 1st and 2nd are to be my last 2 days of teaching and I told them that I don’t want to miss out on those last special days with my kiddos. Then my PA asked what other days I have free time. I told him I’m not quite sure, seeing I only have a month left and have many plans already to travel with my Thai families and spend one last day here and there with friends both Thai and from WT I may not see for a while. I’m not about to pick a day in the middle of the week for him to close school just for the enjoyment of the teachers. Students who are eager to learn don’t disserve that.
Over the weekend and our WorldTeach End of Service meeting I digested the thought of taking 2 days and a night to travel with my teachers. As you may recall from previous blogs I don’t have the greatest relationship with many of my teachers (there are a few special ones) and often when I spend even an afternoon with them I am ready to escape the presence as their fast Thai talking and often giggles directed towards me especially when I mix words up in Thai is enough to make we want to sleep for the next 2 days. So the thought of traveling with them for 2 entire days and one night is exhausting in itself. Also it makes me frustrated that they waited until the last hour to try to make a plan to travel with me.
On Monday my PA and I discussed the idea of travel and he asked me again why it is that I don’t want to go on the 1st and 2nd. Mind you he also wanted to extend the trip to 3 day and 2 nights to go to Kanchanaburi, a place I visited with my parents, a place with rich history, and my teachers didn’t even know that’s why so many foreigners go there. I told him with the little Thai I know “I came to Thailand to teach the kids. These are my last two days to teach. I will miss my students.” I wish I had more of a vocabulary to tell him “Joining the WorldTeach program costs $5,000 and I didn’t have that money to come on my own. I went around my community asking friends and family to help me travel to the other side of the globe so that I may not only grow as a person but also so that I can help improve the life of a child (children) who haven’t been given the opportunity to learn English in a country that requires all students to learn the foreign language. With their support I have now been give the amazing opportunity to live in the poor, remote, rice farming village of Chok Amnuay. They would be disappointed to know that the teachers of the school canceled school for 2-3 days taking away valuable learning time from the students. I too would be disappointed and sad that you took away the last few hours I had to teach my students who are eager to learn and the reasons why I am in this country and village in the first place.
More importantly, this past month parents have felt more and more comfortable approaching me and telling me about their thoughts on the school environment at Chok Amnuay. Many parents in my village send their kids to school in the next town over but the kids I teach don’t have the money to go to the better school where the teachers are dedicated to teaching their students unlike the teachers of Chok Amnuay who care more about their fridge being stocked with Chang (the number one beer of Thailand). The students’ parents more or less beg me to stay another year because I am one of two teachers who actually teaches their students. You may remember me mentioning Krew Boo the 6th grade teacher is a great teacher. The parents of Baan Chok Amnuay know the teachers that don’t teach and they are frustrated and want a better learning atmosphere for their child but don’t have the money to change that.
Another point Mr. PA, your teachers often tell me which students are durr, naughty, and or can’t read or write. If they actually sat down for one minute and really got to know their students they would find out that the students they believe are the most naughty and unintelligent, they would find out they are, in turn, my greatest students and they can read and write (English that is). The students of Chok Amnuay crave to learn. Do you ever wonder why the students come running to me in the morning eager to greet me and give me a hug or why I can’t go anywhere without a student wanting to say Good Morning, Afternoon or Evening, How are you? and they never greet any of the other teachers this way! That’s because I believe in them and have given them the opportunity to learn. I have told them I am proud of them and set a high standard of learning onto them and if they don’t meet the goals and expectations I work harder with that child until they meet it. Thus the students have respect for me and excel in my classroom when your Thai teachers don’t believe in them.
So Mr. PA sir, I decline your and the teachers thoughtful offer to want to take me on a trip with teachers that at times could care less about me just so that they can delight in yet another day off from school. I will gladly send you and the staff on your way and keep the school open to all the students and have 2 last final days enjoying the smiles of my wonderful 147 students all to myself.”
To all of you who have supported me through this year and who made this year possible by helping me raise the entire $5,000 dollars, THANK YOU! In this year I have learned so much more about what it means to be a thoughtful and dedicated teacher. Your support has helped me get through my challenges when I was ready to give up and come home. And last but most importantly, just last week students came into my office during my free period and read a book in English to me all on their own. If it weren’t for you these children wouldn’t know how to read or write and wouldn’t have had a teacher that believed in them each and every day.
To the parents and families of Baan Chok Amnuay, I am sorry I must say good-bye and leave your salubrious children to the teachers of Rong Rian Chok Amnuay. Each and every one of them are smart and have their own talents. Continue to support them and encourage them to learn. I hope to one day come back to my home here and find many of my kiddos successful at whatever they do. Thank you for welcoming me into your village and lives and for taking such great care of me! You are jai dii (generous) people and the times we shared living life in Baan Chok Amnuay will forever be engrained in my memory. It is with great sadness that I will be leaving you, your children and families in a month from today. May this not be good-bye, rather a promise of “pop gaan mai” see you again. Rita Ja kittueng!
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