on life

Yesterday morning, in class with a large chunk of year 6, I witnessed some truly inspirational teaching.

The biggest problem with teaching in this school is, as I have mentioned a few times, the apparent lack of any motivation in the kids themselves. Sure, they work hard, most work harder than I or my friends did at school, but they work hard without any apparent enthusiasm or interest in any subject. A lack which continually shocks and appalls me.

In this lesson then, the kids (around 40 of them, I suspect) were seated on the ground and asked to join in a simple song. Now, I don't recall many lessons from my early years where we were given the opportunity to sing in this manner, but feel sure that I and most of my contemporaries would have jumped at the chance. There is an attitude of 'coolness' in the UK, where showing enthusiasm is seen as 'sad'. This doesn't exist over here, or at least, only exists in the most westernised groups of children. That said, the way in which over 90% of that class had their lips firmly closed was quite horrifying.

It was after this attempt, and a couple of other slow starts, the teacher in charge began to speak something along the following lines. Note that I have simply carried the spirit of what he said across, changing a few of the images and adding a few embellishments. When you read it, try and imagine the children listening. This speech made an effect on me, and I hope it made a greater one on them:

Would you like to have a life? or would you prefer to sit all day and watch television, until it fades into static, or switches off entirely. You can treat life like a television, simply allowing it to go on in front and around you, not interacting with it, not engaging with it, not exploring it with all the enthusiasm you can. Treat life like this - gaze at it with a glazed expression, loose limbs and an attitude of deference or complete disinterest - and life will, like the television, switch off.

Unlike the television, once this happens, it is very hard to turn it on again.



Dom.

Note that once this idea was suggested, a good many of the children suddenly became as lively as we knew they could be. There was also an interesting example of the Thai culture of deference; when it was suggested that Thai women should stay at home and watch the TV while their husbands became rich and enjoyed themselves, the boys would shout "Yes!", and the girls would stay silent. We got them shouting in the end, but it was a tough uphill battle.