Old Lemon Face, and Trickle Down Education

One thirty-two in the afternoon and I’m sitting in my classroom watching a lemon faced Thai teacher not teach a class. Her back is turned to the students and she is clearly devoting at least ninety two percent of her concentration to her cell phone. The boys are clumped in the back, sitting on desks in a circle. One boy has a rubik's cube and is making a go at solving it at fast as he can. The rest of them have their heads together, plotting.

The girls are clumped together on the other side of the room copying each others work. It is trickle down education. The two clever girls have completed the assignment and now the rest of them are copying it. Copying is a big part of Thai education, but I don’t want to talk about that just yet, what I want to point out is the difference between the sexes.

The boys don’t give a toss. They don’t even care to pretend that they are doing the work. At the age of twelve they have identified and capitalized on the apathy inherent in the Thai education system and personified by old lemon.

The girls on the other hand, while not wanting to actually work, not particularly interested in learning, are perfectly happy to take part in the charade.

Old lemon face looks like she might once have been spry and attractive, that there may once have been a time she didn’t suck on a grapefruit right after brushing her teeth every morning. Aside from her puckered face, she has what can only be described as a drinkers stomach. It looks like she tosses back a whiskey with a beer chaser as a snack after school and goes on to have a bottle of wine or two for dinner. She is just waiting out the clock until this class, and her entire career is over.

Having spent two years in the school system here, I can't say that I blame her.