Thread: There's a Certain Greatness to Their Lateness

I think you have me confused with Starbuk Chuck. That's his quote.

See

Originally Posted by Thinkingofachange

One other thing--when I taught university, I never paid attention to tardiness; it wasn't my problem, since the students were the ones paying for the education. Of course, those who were late tended to do poorly--and learned to regret being late when they failed.

Do you think this approach would work in Thailand?

Well, if you'd like a students point of view on this.....

Coming late to class is usually either because the student is held up, lost track of time or is simply coming late on purpose. By "held up" it can mean anything from bathroom emergency, to another teacher wanting to talk to him/her. As for "lost track of time", I myself have been late to class with friends due to the fact that we didnt hear the bell. (Playing football gets distracting ) And lastly, we have those dumbasses who goes to school just to skip classes, or come late and simply don't want give a damn about their own future. They will be the ones walking "extra" slow, or taking that "long" way to class which goes all around school

With all that being said, I believe a teacher should at least ask the student why he/she/it was late. If they cant provide a believable excuse you can do your punishment which honestly, shouldn't be any of the ones mentioned above. Making them exercise? They already missed like 10min of class, helping them miss another 15min and probably wasting the rest of the class's time is not exactly the best way to go about it. Same can be said about making them stand around, its just wasting more of your teaching time. And locking them out? Sure, lets give the ones who dont want to come to class and excuse when people ask why they arent in class!

I believe the most effective method, is the just making them do copy work. Give them a 3 paragraph piece of paper and make em copy it like 10 times outside of class. That's what they do in my school to enforce we get our homework diaries signed by our parents, and it has done wonders. Speaking of my school, if someone comes late they marked "Late" and a certain number of "Late"'s means you get 1 day of absence in your overall attendance.

Bilbo, I have the curse of the toilet crew. Worse is their return. I can be in full flow on the causes of hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic* but they'll interrupt me with, "May I come in?" Sweet in a way but bloody infuriating. The thing is, I can't refuse a girl to go. Know what I mean?






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* The French. Just remember ' The French' for the exam, kids.

Originally Posted by Enclavean

With all that being said, I believe a teacher should at least ask the student why he/she/it was late. If they cant provide a believable excuse you can do your punishment which honestly, shouldn't be any of the ones mentioned above. Making them exercise? They already missed like 10min of class, helping them miss another 15min and probably wasting the rest of the class's time is not exactly the best way to go about it. Same can be said about making them stand around, its just wasting more of your teaching time. And locking them out? Sure, lets give the ones who dont want to come to class and excuse when people ask why they arent in class!

This is very different from America. We use push-ups as punishment. It doesn't take up class time because the other students are doing their activity. We lock the out so they have to go to the office to get a tardy slip and get sent to detention eventually. Their attendance has actually improved recently because of this stuff. I would still prefer late thai students though.

Originally Posted by WilliamBlake

Yeah, and that's cute. When you're a Newbie.

Actually, newbie uni teachers are the ones who care too much and are overly strict on punctuality. Each semester I get 600-1,000 new students. Each year thats about 1,500-2,500 new students. I really don't have the time and energy to babysit them all. Newbie teachers do, but after a while they stop caring too.

Originally Posted by WilliamBlake

When you know what you're doing, and they disrespect and disrupt your class by coming in late and dragging chairs, etc, it's time to put paid to their fantasy that all farang have a backpacker mentality to education. Where did they learn that from, hmmmm?

99% of the time they're not disrespecting you WB. If you're teaching at either a private uni or a regular government uni, then most of the times students are late coz they just don't care and coz its apart of Thai culture to be late. Think of those dinner parties you have with Thai families. Everyone is always late coz it's just the way Thai people operate. If you were overly strict on punctuality, however, students will hate you for it and deliberately disrespect you.

You want to know how to make your students come to class on time? Give class attendance a big percentage, e.g. 20%, and mark the roll the moment class starts. Anyone who comes after is marked late. Simple! No need for all those BS cutesy little games and exercises. Just mark the roll on time! I didn't want to offer you this advice before coz unless you work at a top end uni, this is not the way to go. But if you want to learn the hard way yourself, then go for it.

Originally Posted by MDJase

part of Thai culture to be late

The infamous "Thai Time"

It's not a Thai thing, it's a cultural thing throughout most of the world. Not everybody lets themselves be ruled by a clock.

The infamous "I don't want to be embarrassed by being the first dork to arrive at a party" time.

Thai students couldn't give a shit if you dock them marks for lateness. They know they're going to pass and the regular late comers are usually the ones who will get their manufactured pass anyway. My students are rarely late because their is a real consequence. I take their school bag and give them a piece of paper on which they have to write the numbers 1-500 going up in multiples of 3. They invariably get it wrong at least 3 times but I will, not give them their bag back until they finish. If they don't bring their bag to class, I walk into their next class and give them the same thing but 1-1000. Having their school bag means they can't do their homework and get in trouble with other teachers. the record bag loss so far is 2 weeks and I've never had a parent complain. If you have the balls to see through punishments, kids come on time. Late students screw your lessons over and make the job impossible. I only have to enforce the punishment about 5 times a term and usually only on new Matayom students who are trying it on.

What model of hickory stick do you have?

peelieorion, perhaps that's in primary and high school. But when you're teaching at a private or regular university, then it's a different story. And yes, students DO fail! In fact, I never go through a semester without failling at least a few students in most classes. If you tried that kind of punishment at a private uni, you'll get student complaints. The easy ones are the ones who complaint to your direct superior. The one that get you into a whole world of trouble are the ones that complain to your superior's superiors.