McLoud Ganj

The Tibetan people have come together here and are working hard to preserve their culture. One main way that they are doing this is through the schools.I had the privilege to visit and volunteer at Yongling Creche and Kindergarten. This school has been around for the last 25 years and is for children one and a half to six years old. At the school, the children learn English, Tibetan and math.
When I helped out in the classroom, the students were practicing their printing, both of English letters and numbers. While their I realized again, that teaching is what I want to do with my life. I was working with this little girl on writing the letter "b". At first she was having problems, but I helped her and she started getting it. I left her to go and help some of the other children. Then she grabbed my attention to show me her latest "b". It was beautiful. I was so happy for her. Those moments are what I want to spend the rest of my life working for. Another amazing thing for me to think about, is how much you can communicate with someone, even though you speak two different languages.
At the school, they end the day by singing Tibetan songs. This is one of the ways that they keep their culture alive. The teacher sang a line of the song, and then the children sang the line back to her. Even though I didn't understand it, I joined in with the children.
After the children graduate from the Yonglin Creche and Kindergarten, most go on to the TCV (Tibetan Children's Villages) school. There they have grades one through five, after which they move on to the upper TCV school. Sadly I didn't get to spend much time at the TCV school, but I did find that they are keeping their culture alive by teaching in Tibetan, except for English class, and have song spirit once a week where they learn Tibetan songs. The students also have art once a week, but the students are too young to do traditional Tibetan art. However at the upper TCV where they have older students, they teach traditional Tibetan art.

Sarnath

Sadly in Sarnath I got some sort of bug badly for the first few days. I didn't even have the energy to walk the little bit down the street to Dr. Jain's guest house for meals. Unfortunately those first few days were the ones where they visited the village schools and interacted with the children. I was able to see the main school in town and a performance done by the students, but I was unable to interact with them. Fortunately I was able to talk to Dr. Jain and learn a lot from him.
Dr. Jain set up these school to help the people in these small communities that have a poor literacy rate because many can not go to school. Even though there is a public school here, it would be far too far for them to travel to every day. Also the public schools here are not very good so many people who would want to send their children to schools would want to send them to private ones. But his are free. It is also a less jarring experience for the children to go to school in the same environment that they live in. They are not going far away with people that they do not know.
At his schools the children learn Hindi and math as well as English. They even have cultural activities like dancing and music. They do not have them as much as he would like and if he were to have more money available to him he would like to give more extra activities like art, sports, etc.
One very important thing that Dr. Jain has in place is at night there are older students and teachers to help the younger children with their homework. This is very important in areas where the parents are illiterate and unable to help their children. Without this, a lot of time would need to be spent the next day in class helping the children with the material they did not understand, which would cut down on the new material the teacher could teach.
Here even though the children are poor and do not have the same opportunities as the richer children, Dr. Jain is still helping them to learn skills for them to move forward in life.

Varanasi

In India I see children everywhere begging for food or money or selling goods; but even though many have never gone to school, they all know at least some English. Some of them have even been privileged enough to have gone to school for at least some time to learn enough enough English to hold a conversation with you.
One boy we met named Raju is now 18 years old. He started going to school when he was 6. After school he would sell postcards to help his family and then at night he would study by candle light. But then at age 9, his father died and he stopped school so that he could work more to support his family. When his father died, he learned many things, like how when you have a problems you might struggle but you keep on going. This is such an important life lesson to learn.
After stopping school he learned many trades to help support himself: like how to weave silk by hand, how to drive a tuk tuk and boat, and how to be a local guide. As a local guide he learned many things about other countries, like how they live, culture, and languages. He speaks many languages including Spanish, French, Italian, English and Bengali.
As part of his weaving job he traveled all around India to places like Delhi, Mumbi, Kolkata, Pashmina, Kashmir, and even out of India to Nepal.Growing up he had never thought about travel, but he is glad to have had the opportunity and he learns alot in every place he travels to.
He says that he has learned about 80% of his knowledge outside of school, but that the 20% that he did learn in school allowed him to learn that other 80% a lot easier. Looking at the knowledge that he does know, and for only being 18, it is a lot more that I can say I know and I'm about his same age and have been in school for 14 years. I wonder what I would have learned if I hadn't been in school for the last 5 or 10 years. Would I have got out into the world and learned nearly as much as Raju has? Looking at just what I have learned from this trip, everything for my project excluded, it has been so much and in only three months. What more will I learn from life once I finish my schooling and how will it compare with what I learn while in school?
I talked to Raju briefly about the public versus private schools here, he said that when you pay, the teachers care. Otherwise they just sit at their desks mostly letting the kids learn what they want. But I think that it is probably like America here where the quality of the public school varies from city to city, because while moving about India, I have seen some public schools that looked new and clean and probably had money for good teachers, while others looked very run down and like they didn't have much money.

We met one girl who walked along the Ghats selling post cards, bindis and glitter stamps, named Moni. She had been in school for 6 years. There she learned English, Math, Sanskrit and Hindi. She was able to go to school because a Spanish man paid for her schooling, but last year he did not come back so she didn't have money to continue to go to school. Even while she went to school she still walked the Ghats selling post cards after school, cutting back the time she could study. But since she lived in the city she was able to use the city lights to study by since she has no electricity at her home. She is only 12 now and she stopped going to school when she was 11. Since stopping her education she has learned more English and some Spanish. Since she is still young it is hard to know how her life will turn out. From the little time I spent with her, she seems like a bright young girl and I hope that she will continue to learn even though she is not in school.

E Wi Jo Village

Sadly at the village I was not able to observe a class in session or talk to a teacher. I tried, but there was too much going on with the micro hydro project to get time. But I was able to look at the classrooms and see some of their books that they used in class, as well as observe some of the children in their everyday life.
In the class I saw charts with the ABCs as well as the Thai alphabet. They only had three classrooms but that is hopefully enough for the students. They also had blackboards for teaching, and in the children's desks there were some text books, some with some English in them.
Some interesting things that I did observe that I found interesting, is what information the children have learned outside of the classroom, which got me thinking about the learning that takes place in and out of the classroom and the value of each. Near the village there was a river. One of the days I walked down to the river with two of the village boys. Along the way they showed me different plants that I could eat and how to eat them. Even at home in the northwest I do not know many of the plants well enough to know if they are edible. Once we got there, there were two rock near each other. One of the boys was on one and was making like he wanted to jump to the other. A few of us westerners that were nearby tried to stop him. We grew up constantly being told not to do things because they are dangerous and we could hurt ourselves, but these children are free for a lot of the day to run around and play by themselves. They do not have parents telling them what not to do. The boy didn't listen to us and jumped anyways. He was perfectly fine. He knew his body well enough to know that he could make the jump. That is one large difference I have noticed here in Thailand, the children have more freedom to move about their surroundings and know their body and limitations better.
Even though I didn't get the chance to observe a classroom or get to talk to a teacher, I still got to observe the children and learn from them.

Chaing Mai

Before leaving Chaing Mai, I had the opportunity to visit Chaing Mai University. I went there looking for their Education Department, but before I could find it I found a Demonstation School on campus that is for students in grades seven to twelve. There I was able to talk to one of the English teachers and learn a lot about the education system here in Thailand.
Here there is the Thai Ministry of Education who create the National Educational Policy. But because the CMU Demonstration School is a part of the University, they have more freedom when it comes to the rules in the National Educational Policy and following them word for word. This school has a very good reputation as being an excellent school and has a connection to the university so many parents hope that because of that connection it will be easier for them to get into Chaing Mai University. Every year there is a large test for the students hoping to attend, and the 200 hundred students that have the best scores are allowed in. About 3,000 take the test to try and get in each year.
I also learned that one of the reasons many of the schools I have seen are similar to education in the states is because many people who are in charge went to America to study and brought it back. According to the teacher I talked to, it doesn't always work well though because the cultures and the way people think are different. Some other issues in the schooling are that there is a lot of reform but it often goes in a circle and the people in charge see that it is not working as well as it could be so make changes and then that doesn't work very well either so they make more changes and then it continues on like that. They are also in offices and not in the schools to see how their changes are affecting the students. One example of a change that was made is that they didn't like the name for a certain class so they decided to change the name which didn't impact the children very much, but the staff had to change a lot of paper work which was a headache.
While I didn't get to observe the classes, I did learn a lot about the education system in Thailand.

Baan Mitratorn and Princess Ubolrat School in Chaing Doa

Baan Mitratorn is a Catholic Aids/HIV orphanage in Chaing Doa, that takes in children with Aids/HIV or who have been affected by it. In the little I saw of the orphanage and from reading some of the stories about the kids, it seems that they are well taken care of and given every chance to succeed. They all receive anti-viral medication and is provided free of charge by the Thai government for all Thai citizens with Aids/HIV. When they are young the people running the orphanage only teach the children that they are sick, like how everyone gets sick, and that they need to try and keep their body healthy by taking the medication and taking precautions to keep themselves healthy. As they get older and can comprehend more, they are taught more about their illness until they can fully understand it and accept that it is a part of their life. They are also given an education at a nearby school called Princess Ubolrat School and treated like everyone else and are not discriminated against because of their illness. Some of the classes at the school are in place so that if they do not excel in studying and do not plan on going to a university they still have options. Some of those classes are crafts and agriculture as well as English, which can help with any job that has contact with tourists.



The school is a Catholic school so I expected much of it to be based on Western Education, but was pleasantly surprised with some of the ways it was run. For example the teaching of other subjects besides the traditional ones, like crafts and agriculture. They were teaching the students about life skills that they would need if they didn't go on to university. In the states many of the schools I have seen or talked to people about, do not always offer other options. I think this is partially because we put so much emphasis on standardized testing, that there is not enough room in the curriculum for practical skills. When talking to the English teacher I found out that while there is a standardized test here in Thailand that focuses on Math, Science, English, Thai, and Social, at the school they do not worry about the test results as much because they are working with students that are not as privileged as other children in Thailand. Also because it is a Catholic school they focus a lot on how to live their lives with moral and self sufficiency. When I get home I plan on talking to some friends who attend Catholic school in the states to see how it might compare to this Catholic school in Thailand. Like how they start their day with all of the students and reciting a Catholic prayer, the focus on morals and living your life by them, and the inclusiveness of everyone.


Another wonderful thing about this school is the inclusive feeling it gives. None of the children who have HIV/Aids or who are affected by it are discriminated against and the people from the hill tribes are welcomed and show their pride by wearing their traditional clothing every Friday. It will be interesting to see how other schools act toward their hill tribe population and how the hill tribe schooling differs from the city schooling. There is even a room at the school filled with clothing from the different hill tribes and artifacts from them as well as a few paragraphs about them.

Like many schools I have seen and heard about in the states money can be problem, especially since many of the students at the school are from the orphanage and do not have money for schooling. In the library most of the books there are donated from Bangkok and are school books. While they did not have a ton of books, the school still looked to be in pretty good shape, with white boards and computers, although the computers did not have Internet which is something I expected in the smaller towns. One thing the school did have though, was good teachers, at least the one that I was able to observe. He taught agriculture and while I can not speak Thai to be able to understand him, he seemed to be doing a good job. First off the students were outside and physically looking at and touching a tree and soil, what they were learning about. They were not inside learning about it from a book in a stuffy classroom. When looking at the students they seemed engaged, at least as much as can be expected when there are two white students present. This was one of the many times that I wished that I spoke Thai, I am interested in how he presented the topic and how he kept them captivated about what he was saying.

I'm excited to see how the other schools I see in Thailand compare to this one, especially the one in the Karen village. The Karen people are one of the hill tribes and one of our next locations, and I am interested to see how much it differs from the city and village schools.

Erawan Nation Park Area

When we were near Erawan National Park, staying with a lovely lady named Won Pen I was able to talk to her about her three grandchildren as well as observe them in their daily life. On the last morning I was there I got the chance to visit the nearby school that they went to.

Talking to Won Pen I learned that while they do own a T.V., the children are only allowed to watch it after all their homework and studying is completed and even then only for a short period of time. While there the only time I saw them not running around being active was when they were doing homework, eating, or sitting with us and drawing. On one of the days we went out to explore the village and they all came with us. They led us all around showing us the town. At one point we were at the edge of pond and their was a fisherman setting up his poles, they went right up to him, and while I don't speak Thai, it looked like he was telling them and teaching them how it all worked. They are still naturally inquisitive children, learning from all around them.

When talking to Won Pen I learned that both her and her husband, Mr. Hay, teach the children everything they know. This includes cooking, farming, and about Buddhism, as well as many more everyday skills. In my observations of my cousins and their children as well as my childhood in America, the parents do teach a good bit to the children, but not nearly as extensively. It is mostly only what the child wants to learn and not everything that their parents could teach them. For example I was never very interested in cooking as a child, and am only now learning how to cook now that I am living on my own at college. But observing the grandchildren, they were learning how and observing their grandparents cook most days. If I had been as inquisitive, or if my parents had pushed me to learn, then this year would have been filled with much less pasta. But that was part of the privileged lifestyle I grew up in and I am catching up with my learning now.
As well as teaching the children, another way Won Pen and Mr. Hay help the children, is by earning enough money for them to stay in school. Since many families do not make enough money, those children stop school early to work. Won Pen has hopes for all her grandchildren to finish secondary school and then complete high school.

Most of the days that we were there, the nearby school was gone on a field trip, luckily though they were in session on my last morning there and I was able to talk to an English teacher at the school. I learned that while Thailand was never ruled by a western empire, their education system is similar to western education, or at least in that area of Thailand. They study eight subjects: English, Culture, Math, Art, Computer, P.E., Thai, and Social Studies. But they only have six classes a day. Grades 1-3 primary stay in the same class room all day long and primary 4- 3 medium move from class to class. The school day is a little longer here than at the schools I attend in Washington State. Here they start and 9am and end at 4pm, while at home I went from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm for elementary. Sadly I did not have time to observe a class, but when walking around the school I noticed that all classrooms had white boards and most had nice desks and chairs that did no look too worn, some had wooden stools and desks that looked like they had seen better days but were still usable.

Even though I didn't get to observe a classroom here, it was still useful to see a school campus, talk to a teacher as well as a grandparent and observe some of the children in their everyday life.