Quote:
Originally Posted by robitusson
If the system is such that white skin and being a "Farang" are more important than being a trained, professional teacher, then whatever baggage people bring to the classroom is only to be expected, and the responsibility rests with the school admin.
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Certainly, though at my school all staff required past experience, degrees, and training to qualify for employment. Unfortunately, the administration will not necessarily be able to pick up on a teachers
own "agenda" (if any) during preliminary observation. Once the teacher is on the payroll and term time begins, I imagine that it's too difficult for managers to fire staff. Come to think of it, it's quite possible that if the teacher is old enough to have gathered some soluble income, managers may not want to risk offending the teacher over a "sensitive subject" like their spiritual beliefs (lest they're left with a course and no teacher).
Rather depressingly, this puts the students in a position of extreme vulnerability as (one presumes) they cannot speak out against any infraction that's less obvious than child beating. Whilst I imagine that this is almost unavoidable in our profession, I think it might be sensible to include termly/yearly seminars in which ethical issues are raised and discussed. This might help teachers (myself included, of course) prevent mistakes that could eventually lead to an undesired impact upon the students we're responsible for.
At the risk of sounding stupid again, I'd like to forward another question: If one is aware that a child has suffered a punishment that far exceeded what he/she deserved at the time, should one not apoligise? If so, how does one go about doing so? People very frequently run into their past teachers a few years down the line; if I can, I'd rather like this child to remember that he was given due care and consideration.