Dipangkorn students

Here you see the standard look of morning assembly; students like any others, gathering to chat, laugh, poke each other, generally goof around. Then on a signal from a teacher (via loudspeaker), students all form even ranks (arm's length distance between rows).

Students stand for the playing of a song for the flag-raising, a prayer to the Buddha shrine, a song for Thailand and a song for Dipangkorn, all sung by the whole student body, accompanied by the school military band.

Then on another signal, all sit for the duration of the assembly--the longest for me so far is an hour and a half. The students are cross-legged on the concrete; luckily for me I'm old and a teacher, so I get to sit on the steps. On the day it rained (see the wet pavement above), the students were not asked to sit, so stood for the entire (shorter than usual) assembly.

Note the uniforms, also the uniform hair length of the girls. Some variation of the hair length among the upper classwomen, but the uniform dress remains standard throughout. Boys all have short hair; it's called a "student haircut". On Wednesdays many students wear a boy scout or girl scout uniform, also very clean and neat, shorts for boys and knee-or-longer skirts for girls. Standard shoes for girls are slip-on Mary Janes; for boys black sneakers. Always easy to slip on and off, which they do for every class. Shoes also come off outside every temple, also for the internet cafe. In restaurants people generally wear their shoes.

You may wonder what it is to "wai". You see an example in the upper right, students in reverent attention during a reading. Throughout the day students greet each other and the teachers using the same motion: hands together in prayer-pose, thumbs and fingers extended, head bowed and thumbs brought to chin, lips, nose or forehead depending on the amount of reverence shown. Friends greet each other with a brief chin-high wai; monks are honored with thumbs to forehead; in between is an infinite spectrum based on age and position of the one doing the honoring and the one acknowledging it. To me it's reminiscent of the tip of a hat in America's olden days--think Jimmy Stewart or Cary Grant being gallant.

The wai is used all over Thailand, not just in school. You'll see it in restaurants, out on the street; even the sports announcers on TV wai to their viewing public.

People have asked me to compare Thai high school students to their American counterparts: "Surely American students are not as naughty as our students!" Impossible to answer with any clarity. Thai students can be boisterous, noisy, energetic--is that naughty? I have not witnessed any malicious teasing, spiteful looks or direct disobedience.

One thing that is surprising for me is the out-loud cooperation of the class as a whole. If a student doesn't understand a question or doesn't know the answer, fellow classmates become a vocal peanut gallery, shouting out the answer or helpful hints. That seems to be expected, tolerated behavior--as is rote, unison response when everyone knows the answer. It's then a gleeful shout, with louder volume indicating greater understanding.

So far I've noticed rapt focus in my English classes, even in those classes where I was warned: this class is very bad in English. They seem eager to understand this strange phenomenon of a person who doesn't know Thai but talks anyway.

I have substituted in American schools; not fair to compare my honored status here, protected by the other teachers and a novelty to the students. In general so far, it's far easier to teach the Thai students. I feel as if they have learned something they wanted to know in every class, and are eager to continue the process.