Children's Day at Suaree School

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Today at school we celebrated Children's Day, which seemed like a lot of fun for the kids. They were allowed to come to school in their regular street clothes, and it was surprising to see them without their uniforms and also interesting to see what they wore. Like little girls all over the world, the girls wore a lot of pink (and some tiaras) and the boys wore a lot of superhero shirts, etc. Though when I was in school I was fiercely anti-uniform, I am beginning to see more and more of the benefits. I understand that it takes away some element of individualism, but it also takes away a lot of pressure to have the 'right' clothes and is, as I've found out with my teaching uniform, a big time-saver in the mornings!

It was a beautiful clear day, sunny, but not overly hot. We didn't teach any classes today, but rather the kids had a sort of field day all day long. They played a lot of the standard games, like musical chairs, balloon toss, three-legged race, dress-up relay race, etc. The Thai teachers also seemed to be getting into it and enoying themselves, as well, as they took turns emcee-ing on the microphone. Ice cream and candy was free-flowing and the special lunch, incidentally, was hot dogs and French fries.

It felt really nice to be outside all day with the kids. I've noticed that although the kids are able to play on the playground before and after school, they rarely seem to go out to play on it during the regular school day. Once a week when they have P.E. they go outside, but other than that they seem to spend their lunchtime recess in their classrooms. I haven't gotten to the bottom of whether this is by choice or by force, but it strikes me as rather odd and a little unhealthy. On the other hand, it may have something to do with the heat of the midday sun here, which up until a few weeks ago was pretty intense. However, things have cooled off quite a bit and the sun seems much more bearable these days. I enjoy spending time with students outside of teaching time because it gives me more of a chance to (try to) have conversations with them about everyday things and bond.

Sadly, and this is pretty telling, my foreign coworkers mostly hid out inside for the whole day, grumbling about having to come to school when we weren't even going to teach classes. They seemingly did not consider (or at least care for) the idea of voluntarily spending time with the children outside of teaching, having fun with them. I don't know if this means that they don't actually enjoy working with children, but unfortunately I suspect that to be the case in some instances. Why, then, do these people choose to teach, if they don't truly enjoy working with children?

In any case, it's a shame that they didn't spend the day playing alongside the kids because it ended up being a lot of fun. Their smiles are infectious and it made me really happy to see their simple glee. And though I know that adults do a lot for children, it can often be rather begrudgingly, I've noticed. Don't they truly deserve a day devoted entirely, lovingly to them for the special little humans that they are?

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Comments

[Courtney]

Aww I love your comments...yes, they are special little beings! Your coworkers kinda suck. haha