Yooneeforms

All Thai students at my school follow a strict dress code of different kinds of uniforms depending on the activities they will do that day.  Most of the time it calls for a dark blue medium length skirt for girls and shorts for boys, and a light blue shirt.  On days they have P.E. class they get to wear loose, comfortable sport pants and a T-shirt, dark blue with two small yellow stripes down the side.  Today is the first time I have seen them wear their boyscout and girlscout uniforms.  The massive student body is a clean-cut mix of brown clad boys, girls in either blue or green uniforms, P.E. kids, and those in regular uniform.  We had our first ever gate duty, which requires us to stand at the front gate of the school beginning an hour before the first class, and wai (palms together at the chest) as the never-ending line of single file students pass and pass and pass.  I was able to recognize some familiar faces, but of course the names escape me.  Later this week I am going to take pictures of my students and study their names and faces. 

All in all, I have somewhere around 120 students total, ranging in age from 12-18.  They are a smart bunch of kids, with varying commands of the English language.  Some are well behaved and determined to learn, others are more rowdy and could give two shits about whatever it is I’m supposed to teach them.  It’s high school all over again.  Thai kids, and culture in general, has a few idiosyncrasies I’m not quite sure what to make of.  They are very playful and loving, although often times that lovingness is expressed in violent smacks to the head, arms, sides, or whatever body part happens to be within smacking vicinity.  At the same time, they might hold hands or link arms on their way to the next class.  Boys and girls do not generally touch each other.  In the younger classes, they seem to be split 50/50, with boys on one side of the class and girls on the other.  Maybe it’s a coodies thing.  The only exception to this are the up and coming gays or ladyboys, and yes, there are more than you might think.  They often will sit with the girls and giggle or put on powder.  Unlike in the States, they are accepted for who they are, even by the "manliest" of boys.

If someone is not accepted, however, the kids can be quite brutal.  One of the girls in my 13 year old class sits in the back alone, never smiles, all the kids tease her in Thai, and nobody ever wants to be her partner for anything.  I don’t know why.  As far as I can tell, she is just like every other Thai teenager, but perhaps going through that general angry, quiet high school phase of pretty much hating everything and everybody around you.  I don’t enjoy it, but I kind of let her do her own thing.  I just don’t know what else to do… any suggestions would be highly welcome.