The Thai Mind

Warning: Bodily injury result from misuse of this Computer. 

I told the class to clear everything off their desks and passed out a test and an answer sheet.  I made a lap and had to tell each individual row of students to clear off their desks.  As I lapped back, I had to tell each row of students to write their names on the test.  In each class, one or two were ahead of the game and asked if they should start writing answers to the test questions on their answer sheets. 

After I fill the board with notes--which is to say, one sentence--I have to order the class to copy it.  Which is to say, "take out your notebooks!" *hold up an example*  Then, "Open your notebooks.  Copy.  Copy!"  Every day.  And when we go through that sentence or simple dialogue, and I erase it to put up another, it's the same deal--"Copy!  Notebooks are out, copy!"  Every single class.  Every. Single. Time.

It builds a lot of dead time into class--take the average lesson plan and cut it in half because it takes so damn long to get out notebooks, draw in margins, the date, and copy the board.  But it makes lesson planning that much easier, even if each sentence must carry that much more weight.  And it also helps with the lack of technology: writing long and legible sentences takes quite a bit of time I'd been accustomed to circumventing via projector/computer/copier technologies, but when the students have been habituated to sitting and doing absolutely nothing, it's easier to make the time go by.  In fact, the students are so accustomed to such a process that it makes my life extremely difficult to try to keep them moving through an entire class.  In the end, if I push them through an entire, full lesson plan, it takes days off the end of my life--not to mention what it does to my voice--and they don't absorb any more than they do when I take the easy route and teach as they're accustomed to learning. 

Here's the thing: it's a dynastic bureaucracy.  Those who have any power and influence inherited it and will bequeath it to their progeny, which makes it very easy to hold power and influence.  In fact, the most dangerous thing is a motivated and intelligent underling.  That must be avoided at all costs.  So of course Thai kids are trained not to think or act independently. 
And life would be much, much easier if I could just get used to it.