A Thai Tradition: Paying Respect to Teachers

Abstract

In these times, in this country, one reads almost daily of disrespect toward established authority, disruption of accepted educational practice, and disbelief in traditional values. Teachers are asked to balance the loss of order, efficiency, and decorum in their classrooms with gains in creativity and personal freedom and responsibility. Sometimes the achievement is worth the risk, as the preceding pages have shown. This report, in contrast, comes from the ancient kingdom of Thailand, where teachers and students have never heard of a game like Drum Ball.—Ed.