TACTics Journal

A Publication for and by TOC for Education Practitioners

April 16, 2004

In this week’s issue:

Connections

(1) Thailand: TOCFE for the Land of Smiles, Khaw Choon Ean

Editor’s Notes

(2) Kay Buckner-Seal

 

CONNECTIONS

(1) Thailand: TOCFE for the Land of Smiles

By Khaw Choon Ean, TOCFE Director for Asia

Sawasdeekaa! (Just a different way of greeting! And this is the female

version in Thai. It’s Sawasdeekrup!” for male.)

I had only a day’s break on Sunday 21 March after coming back from Korea

on 20 March. In the early hours of 22 March I was back at KLIA our

international airport ready to leave for Thailand.

Girls’ Brigade (GB) Thailand, arising from an initiative by Christina Cheng and

Vivien Lee at a Girls’ Brigade International meeting in Singapore late last

year, had issued an invitation for a workshop in Thailand for their teachers.

Girls’ Brigade is an international organization to mould girls into leaders and

comprises a network of about 60 countries.

Their goal was to “… encourage the development of each girl's individual

talents, while equipping them with social, physical, intellectual and spiritual

skills needed in life to become vital members of the community …”

This time I had had the pleasure of meeting the people involved last year in

Singapore, Ms. Vena Lung Wei Na (Extension Officer, The Girls' Brigade,

Thailand) and Ms Somkid Sthithawornchai (Executive Secretary, The Girls'

Brigade, Thailand). They themselves had attended the TOCFE course in

Singapore and could act as very able cucumbers at the course in Thailand.

Again the negotiations had included an air ticket to Bangkok provided by

Thailand and a 3-hour car-ride south to a place called Chaam sitting just

beside the Gulf of Thailand and comfortable though spartan accommodation

at the Haad Ruethai Catholic Retreat Centre, Chaam, Thailand and really nice

spicy Thai food.

This was my sixth time to Thailand over a period of several years but I

spoke no Thai except to greet and say “Paeng!” which means “Too expensive”

in Thai (useful for shopping!). However I was given a very capable translator

in Ms. Kamolthip Prapunpong (“Ying”) who was very good and a very intelligent

lady training to be a radio broadcaster and who now has set herself an

Ambitious Target to do a children’s TOC radio programme, inspired by YANI!

My target audience was 47 school and Sunday school lady teachers from 9

provinces in Thailand, together with Mrs. Sirion Kamolmatayakul, the Brigade

Commissioner the Girls' Brigade, Thailand and Ajan Sunian, Deputy Director

of Education based in the Thai Christian School in Bangkok and her board

members.

The workshop was really good although crammed into one night (22 March)

and one full day (23 March). We worked on an ambitious target of

“Introducing TOC to all GB schools in Thailand.” Vena and Somkid acted as

my cucumbers and it was fun getting the teachers to read their clouds and

branches in Thai amidst laughter, good-natured banter and ribbing. They

had a manual (in Thai of course) given earlier to be translated.

For the session on Ambitious Targets the teachers gave their obstacles and

IOs in animated Thai and I wrote them in English on the board. Language

did not appear to be a problem even though I knew no Thai and they knew no

English. The language of TOC is universal! As we worked with conflicts,

half-baked ideas and bad behaviour as well as goals, I am further enthralled

by how universal these are all over the world.

Even though I have never met most of these ladies before I arrived at

Chaam, I left two days later, greatly charmed by the living examples from

the Land of Smiles (Thailand’s nickname). I have made good friends and we

have all fostered a bond linked by our common goal to make a better world

for children.

Ajan Sunian and Ying escorted me on the 3-hour journey by road back to

Bangkok to catch a flight back to Malaysia. We talked about implementation

of TOCFE in the Thai Christian School and how a Teacher’s TOCFE Module

would help boost the teachers’ confidence in starting TOCFE in their

classrooms. At the course, the issue of how to start had already been

raised as well as teachers’ fears that they may not be doing the

implementation correctly.

There was an exciting (read “frightening”) finale in my Thai adventure. I

almost lost my laptop there after carelessly leaving it on a chair in a coffee

shop in a small town about one and a half hour’s by road from Bangkok where

we had stopped for lunch. I did not realize it until a good 20 minutes later.

It was my back-up hard-disk that I was most concerned about. Losing it

would mean hours of hard work to retrieve files that may even be lost

forever.

We had to drive back like the wind, feeling like the segment of the chase in

the James Bond movie “Tomorrow Never Dies” set in Thailand. Every traffic

light had to be red, of course. My heart was pumping like mad when we

stopped in front of the coffee shop. To our relief, it was waiting for us, as

thank goodness, the shop people had kept it for me. My fervent thanks go

to their honesty and civic-mindedness. And I learnt a good lesson about not

being careless in future.

So, good luck to Thailand. We will fly your flag at TOCFE but it’s up to you

now Ajan Sunian, Mrs. Sirion Kamolmatayakul, Vena and Tik. Thank you,

Christina and Vivien and Ms. Hee for starting the momentum in GB. We will

all remember the ancient Chinese proverb that reminds us a journey begins

with the first step and my favourite quotation from Socrates that says:

“To move the world we must first move ourselves.”

 

EDITOR’S NOTES

(2) Kay Buckner-Seal

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