Published on August 31, 2010

As other countries progress, our teachers remain disillusioned and our students lag behind their peers

US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has been touring several American states to raise public awareness about the importance of education. He has said on multiple occasions that education is a civil rights issue. His goal is to ensure that every American child is provided with the opportunity to obtain a quality education. He also notes that the quality of teachers is one of the most significant factors in this goal.

One of the challenges facing US public schools is how to attract qualified graduates to teaching, given the current low remunerative return compared to other professions. Good teachers are unsung heroes in any country, and unless the problems they face are not resolved, the education system will continue to suffer.

The statements by Duncan, a former chief executive officer of Chicago public schools, are true indeed, and should be noted here. Thai education ministers tend to focus on grand projects in their efforts to reform Thai education, with emphasis on infrastructure and procurement of equipment. However, they should really be concentrating on the quality of teachers and ensuring that good teachers are properly rewarded.

There are always good teachers who want to make a difference, but eventually they tend to be discouraged by a system where the majority – who resist change – accuse them of trying to rock the boat. Traditionally, the education departments in most colleges tend to require the lowest examination scores. The result is that students in most of our public schools are stuck in big classrooms with deadwood teachers who hardly receive any training to improve their teaching methods.

The lack of incentive for people to become teachers starts with the failure to instil a sense of desirability to enter the profession. Duncan rightly points out that good teachers should receive praise and commensurate compensation for their work. But this is not the case. Good teachers are barely even recognised.

Due to the low pay for teaching, suitable candidates tend to choose other areas of study such as finance. Those that do end up in schools cannot put all their effort into teaching students in class because they have to earn extra income from tutoring the same students in cram schools.

In fact, the Thai Education Ministry has a massive annual budget, but it is never spent wisely. The large class sizes in public schools are never reduced, and the quality of teachers hardly improves. Not many Thai schools have an effective system to evaluate teachers, and the government is failing to address the issue of making the system more attractive for the best graduates.

While well-off parents can send their children to expensive international schools that offer international-standard curricula, the public schools are still forcing rote learning on students. In short, we are denying our children equitable access to good education.

It’s time the government understood that quality education is the most important factor in driving a country forward. A recent Newsweek survey to find the “Best Country in the World” ranked South Korea as the world’s second best nation for education after Finland. Singapore ranked fourth after Canada, while Japan came fifth. The magazine said South Korea had made an amazing leap from the 1960s when its national wealth was on a par with Afghanistan. “Today, it’s one of the world’s richest nations, in large part thanks to its focus on education,” the magazine reported.

Unfortunately, the Thai government has so far taken no leadership role in reforming our education system. While US Secretary Duncan gladly took his portfolio because of his passion for improving education standards for American children, the Thai Education Ministry is seen as a third-rate consolation job for politicians. No education minister has demonstrated any significant initiative or determination to prepare the younger generation for a changing world. Our children are not simply lagging behind in terms of academic achievement, but also in social awareness and responsibility. What we have seen so far is the education budget consumed by programmes for building infrastructure and information technology without addressing the issue of how these facilities can teach our children.

It’s time for a sea change in the way we educate our children, otherwise this country will never reach its true potential.

Mother’s Day is a special day to Thai people. On August 12 in Thailand is the Queen is considered as the mother of all people. It was being to the Mother’s Day celebration. Mother’s Day is celebrated all mothers that express gratitude for the hardships. They hold in bringing up a child. In this celebration, you will have three important things that should to do to your mother.

Before beginning Mother’s Day, you should be preparing something to use in the Mother’s Day. First, must buy a garland when you buy it, you could be selecting a beautiful bunch of jasmine. Jasmine is symbolic of the selfless virtue of a mother who gives to her children. But if you have a time, you should be made a card with yourself by using your own idea. It will make you proud in your success more than a card that you buy. In the card you can write anything that you would like to tell to your mother. If you don’t like write a normal, you can write it in the poem.

On  Mother’s Day, we must have an activity in family. At the morning we usually go to make offering to monks with our family, you can offer by food, fruits or dessert. Next, we go out together at the special place, it makes mother to relax and happiness time for her. Such as, go to beauty salon, shopping, massage and spa. After that, we join to cook a special menu. So, we have dinner together.

On Mother’s Day, we will have a celebration to do in this day too. Most of children usually give a jasmine’s garland and they will give a special gift to their mother. In this day we have obeisance to mother. While we pay obeisance to our mother, we will tell apologize in every thing that we done with her. Maybe you will be tell or confess something that you make wrong with her. The last thing is mother will give a blessing for us. And then we tell to love our mother.

I think Mother’s Day is  special for everyone. We use this day to honor our mothers all ever the world. It is the one way that we can require an obligation to her. Especially, this day is a day that we can commemorate to the important of our Queen and our mothers, too. The most important thing of the Mother’s Day is the children can be showing respect to mother.

Nowadays, fast food is becoming to a part of a culture eating style for everybody in the world. Because of fast food is a kind of food that convenient and comfortable. There are a lot of service shops of fast food such as a big city and a big department store. In face, many people don’t think about a good and bad thing from eating fast food. I believe that fast food is a bad thing because it is less nutritious and destroy an environment.

In my opinion, fast food is less of nutrition. Because fast food is full of chemical substance for example, a chemical in some meat that make some meat fresh all the time and Borax make some meat and fruits are crispy. The most ingredients in fast food have some nutrition that unnecessary for self and a lot of fat, carbohydrate and salt. Fast food often cooks with some meat by deep-fried, roast and grill. Whoever eating a lot of fast food especially children if they eat a lot, they will be abnormal and the brain not develop. For adult who love fast food you will get a problem or risk to be seriously ill such as heart attack, cancer and obesity.

Plastic and foam are come together with fast food is the important thing that make an environment to decline. Fast food is the fast Manu then a lot of seller and producer must be use plastic and foam for convenient. Such as dish, spoons, forks and glass that made from plastic and foam. So, when customer take at home and go to picnic in public place a lot of plastic and foam are scatter around and difficult to disband. Some people burning many plastic and foam until going to a big pollution. Some shops are throwing oil that fried into the river. That is an effect from fast food that makes a problem to the world. Especially, in today the earth is come to many problems such as flood, earthquake and season change.

Fast food is convenient and very fast for who that hurry and can not wait for a long time especially who live in the big city and race against time. I understand their point of view. However, fast food it not good for health and the consumers will get a problem. For Thai people it is not good rule and manners for eating. It can make Thai people forget an original eating Thai style. So, Thai food is a famous in the world and has nutrition for customers. Some Thai food that has only vegetable by the way, it can make customer healthy more than fast food that have meat and bread.

In conclusion, I think that people take care yourself and health, eating a lot of fruits and vegetable. Not copy an eating culture from anywhere, consider well before you choose and reduce using plastic and foam. When we finished eating and cooking should be known about how to methodize. Then we will get a better life, healthy and an environment is become to rich forever.

http://www.projectbritain.com/americanbritish.html

People must work to get money. They have to work hard in a different way in order to acquire a different thing. Some people work harder to earn a lot of money and to be a rich people. Some people expect to get respect highly from other people in a social of materialism.

They are brain-washed by the attitude about money is God. Money allows us to acquire everything we need so they work harder all times to achieve a goal. Moreover, people pay more attention to an image than mind; as a result, people working harder and longer to be except from social and felling of self-worth. However, working harder and longer can be harm to your life.

Working harder and longer can be bad for health. People are working longer without a break. Sometimes they forget to watch a clock until a boss tells them it’s time to go home. To comeback home late and go to bed late can cause insomnia. It is time to sleep but you can’t close your eyes; as a result you go to work without freshness. Sometimes work can’t be done on time because it’s a hard work. To spend more energy to work without a break may cause a stress. The stress can cause a headache; you will suffer from the pain that run through you your head. Furthermore, working long hour can cause a stomachache. To forget to eat on time because you just working and working. I remember, last summer I was working longer and didn’t eat on time so it was caused my stomachache. Working harder and longer can not only make stress but also link to other health problems such as, backache, dry eyes and fatigue.

Working harder and longer destroying your leisure time. Leisure time is a time for people to do anything they like. They have no longer to worry about the works. To take care of family is important, it’s impossible to spend more time with family if you work harder and longer. You don’t forget to go to work but forget to buy medicines for your mother, its show that you addicted to work. You may cancel to go to your friend’s birthday or wedding day because you tied up with work; as a result, the relationship will be break. You are planning to travel on vocation but you may cancel your trip that you have been waiting for too long. Working harder and longer can disturb the bedtime. To sleep is the best way to rest, you don’t have a time to sleep and you have to stay up all night to work. Furthermore, to forget to take care yourself is cause by working harder and longer. To forget to wear pants, cut fingernails, shape off your beard and take a shower.

Some people say they have to work harder and longer to increase the family income. They also work harder in order to acquire other needs such as, images, social acceptable and felling of self-worth. I understand their needs. However, they have to realize about the bad impacts of working harder and longer. The disorder daily life, lose of social relationships and unhealthy, working harder and longer is caused. Not only physical problem but also mental problem will occur if you still addicted to work. To take a rest by give yourself a special time to travel, to relax and to be free to do anything you want is needed. To release yourself from work, to be yourself and realize that people can’t work all times, we have to take a break because we are human not machines.

I think that people should be realized the impacts of working harder and longer trying to work less and have more leisure time. Working harder and longer destroying leisure time and caused health problems. It also disturbs daily life and break social relationships. If we are still working harder and longer, we will lose our beautiful life.

http://www.historycentral.com/

After we studied many academic subjects throughout our time at the university, we must be trained the job in companies or agencies in the last semester to make profits for our work in the future. The job training program is very important for all of students. However, most students agree that the job training program can make more skills and more experiences.

First, the job training program can increase skills and helps you to develop skills that are still defective. The skill gets from the job training to be useful because it can take to use with the real work. Most training often practices skills in the administration and management of working within organizations such as the airline company, we must use computer skills for selling the ticket online or checking in and out. These skills are not in books or knowledge which we learned in the class. Although we studied the information or content of good operation skill from our professors completely, it is not enough to use in the real work and might not use those information that learned in the class. If you participate in the job training, you will get useful skills for your job in the future. It is one of the best things that will help you to prepare the aptness for moving to the world of real work.

Of course, the job training also creates valuable experiences in operation and social work. In the operation, you will know management systems in agencies or companies, and you must do the actual operation. You can try to do everything that you may use for your work in the future. Moreover, the work experience which you have from the job training program will help you in application because employers might consider to be the special case. It is a part of the decision to accept staffs to start work. In the social work, you need to work with others, so you should qualify yourselves in order to socialize and can work as a team with colleagues for working out well. The work experience helps us see our flaw and make us learn to improve it. In addition, it is the good chance to search what branch appropriates with us. It makes we know what we like or not and we should choose the job that suits with our attention and desire.

Most students think that the job training program has more benefits than studying in the class while some students think that it wastes time. Because they can take other knowledge or skills which they can study in the class or study by themselves to reward the job training. Furthermore, some students might not be trained the job practically because the trainer of company who must take care and coach to trainee has a few people. Therefore, the trainer has not enough time to give information and train the job seriously. However, most students, including myself, agree that we should be trained the job in the last semester. We feel that if we only learn the content of books and academic subjects in the class, we will not know how the real work is. Moreover, we must start to learn all new information in managements of our work. It may make we step behind other people who have ever been trained the job.

In conclusion, I believe that the job training program has benefits to our real work in the future. It makes us learn new knowledge to help increasing more skills. It also gives more experiences in both the operation and the social work. If we select the company where we go to be trained the job well and join in the job training, we will see that we really get many useful things.

With Hispanic enrollment surging in schools, many Spanish-speaking parents are having trouble helping their children with homework or communicating with U.S. teachers as English-immersion classes proliferate in K-12.

An Associated Press-Univision poll highlights the language and cultural obstacles for the nation’s Latinos, who lag behind others when it comes to graduating from high school.

MISMATCH: 87% of Hispanics value higher education, 13% have college degree

The findings also raise questions about whether English-immersion does more to assimilate or isolate — a heated debate that has divided states, academics and even the U.S. Supreme Court. Arizona recently ordered its schools to remove teachers with heavy foreign accents from English-language instruction, while the Obama administration is seeking to push more multilingual teaching in K-12 classrooms.

“The language barrier is still a serious risk factor for Hispanics,” said Michael Kirst, a Stanford University professor emeritus of education who helped analyze the survey. Even with many schools replacing Spanish with English in classrooms, for a student evaluated as learning English, “the odds of completing high school, and particularly college, significantly drops.”

The nationwide poll, also sponsored by The Nielsen Company and Stanford University, found the vast majority of Hispanics — 78% — had children enrolled in K-12 classes that were taught mostly in English, compared with 3% in Spanish.

Just 20% of mainly Spanish-speaking parents say they were able to communicate “extremely well” with their child’s school, compared with 35% of Hispanics who speak English fluently.

About 42% of the Spanish speakers said it was easy for them to help with their children’s schoolwork, compared with 59% of the Hispanics who speak English well.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-08-08-poll-spanish_N.htm?csp=34news&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+usatoday-NewsTopStories+%28News+-+Top+Stories%29

Here is a satirical cartoon clip comparing the first group of English settlers in New England, the Pilgrims, to ‘illegal’ immigrants from Mexico and Latin America today. I don’t always like the fact that my students like to read and watch cartoons so much; however, sometimes a little humor can help to understand a problem better.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhEl6HdfqWM