A few weeks ago we blogged about a big push in Thailand to develop young people’s English language skills, as it will be the lingua franca when the ASEAN single market opens in 2015.
Some reports at the time were contemptuous of the “learning by rote” system that is commonly used in Thai schools, as it doesn’t help the student to improvise, to think laterally or to grasp the true meaning of whatever is being communicated.
Now it seems the debate is widening. A Bangkok newspaper reported last weekend that Thai educators were meeting to discuss abandoning the rote system altogether.
True, it has been widely criticized and ditched in many other nations. But at the same time, it is part of a more traditional, perhaps even totalitarian teaching system which some countries – the UK being a prime example – are in a mad dash to return to.
Throughout the 1980s and 90s, thousands of British schools stopped insisting on uniforms. Now, alarmed by spiralling, anarchic delinquency, inner city education authorities are bringing them back with a vengeance. Kids are being given the most rigid specifications for everything they wear, from shoes and socks to ties and blazers, with dire consequences if they choose to deviate.
Not only that, many of the re-introduced school blazers are in positively lurid colours, with wildly clashing pipings around the lapels and cuffs. This is so that if a youth is seen misbehaving outside, people will know exactly what school they are from.
Many schools are also telling the teachers, who used to turn up in jeans and trainers, that it’s time to polish up their act and set an example with clean, pressed clothes and polished shoes.
There are sound arguments in favor of uniforms. It means that inequalities between the children can be ironed out, with no possibility of the boy in two hundred dollar trainers poking fun at the boy in hand-me-downs. And like rote learning, it is all about discipline.
But also like rote learning, it is somewhat at odds with inspiration, creativity and individuality.
What do you think? Should schools stick with rote learning and uniforms, or should they be more free and easy?
