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Nawty

Not only your thought...see in my above post somewhere that I said I would comment on some other thoughts later....I shall, just have to get around to writing it up. Might do it tonight after I read to my son for a bit.

When you say 'EP in this town' which town are you talking about ? My town or where you live and are those costs and comments you made re a school in your area ??

This is actually very interesting as it ties in with many other things and I will comment on them all when I write up my thoughts.

Nawty

There has been some discussion here previously about home schooling and the good, bad and evil.

Having received some bad reports about this school we are thinking to move our kids to, I started to think about this a lot the other night.

Now we are moving to this area for several reasons, the environment and fresh country air and all the possibilities of things to do for kids as they grow up. Because we have been living in Bkk for 6 years now, I am tired of its dirty environment also and a hopeful healthy change for all.

I am from a country background myself and I would like my kids to experience the adventures. I am also becoming more aware of what can, might and probably is put into a lot of foodstuffs in this country. So the opportunity to grow a lot of our own fresh fruits and veggies and even meats is encouraging for my whole families good health.

We have 8 rai and I want to buy another 5 to 10 somewhere else to establish the gardens and orchard etc. But on the 8 rai, we will have enough room for the possibility of a schoolhouse.

But there are many questions and reasons for and against. I believe if I decide to go this way, it has to be done right, not half arsed and then not carried through with the same enthusiasm over the next 10 years or more, or for however long we decide to live there.

Another thread mentioned about home schooling and paying one of his tefl students to teach his kids and wages of around 40k. Well if you multiply that by 12, then its still a significant amount, near 500k. Now I am of the belief that I do not want just some person who is unqualified to teach my kids. Then you run into the problems of work permits and visas etc and finding new teachers every so often. While some may stay on for a couple of years, none will stay for a long long time, simply the environment, career, financial concerns kicks in for them and they have to go seek other avenues.

So then the other figures of teachers that are qualified being a minimum of around 70k, that certainly brings the overall figure up and then you have to find someone that is committed to a long term teaching environment like this, make sure they are not running from the law and that they are capable of teaching every subject required across the board. Then on top of that, teach 2 different age groups and possibly 3 or 4 different age groups if you threw in a couple of outside kids.

Then there are all the other associated costs of running the classroom.

On top of that, the person has to have the drive and ability to organize all the teaching curriculum and books etc themselves and keep on top of it all. This is not an easy ask to find someone like this.

But on the positive side, it could be an awesome environment to go to school in and learn. With all that is available in nature on your doorstep, the views outside the classroom windows, the playground etc. Social shortcomings could be overcome by doing a deal with the local temple school and having one day a week where our kids join theirs and the English teacher teaches English that day to all. Sport in the morning and English in the afternoon. It really could be an outstanding way of doing it, but the commitment from someone with no real return from it other than a pay cheque…it’s a hard ask I think.

The other thing is that a good friend of mine has very close contacts with some well off people back home that were putting together a business plan for an international school and he himself is very interested in the learning environment.

I might add that I myself have absolutely no interest or patience for teaching, I could never do it.

Anyway, that’s my rant for now.

Camel Toe

Our Thai town is 180,000 inhabs and 600k South of BKK.

Camel Toe

I can't see it being so hard, Nawty.

For one, you could do a background check on your computer in an hour. That's something I doubt many Thai administrators ever bother with.

I don't know how far from town you are but you could provide housing for the teacher if it was too far to be commuter pragmatic. He/she could have a space there at the schoolhouse. His housing would be calculated into his salary.

As you say the teacher could take the kids on nature tours and do science studies, experiments and observations in the woods. Even take them to town and do kid's stuff with other local town folk children. And, as you say, other kids could go to your school for visits and special projects.

I'm sure there are many good teachers in BKK who'd commit to a year of breathable air. My guess is finding an old person without drinking and whoring habits. Kids very often love grandfathers types.

Living in the country, as you know, isn't for everybody. But no doubt there are a portion of Thai-based western school teachers who'd jump at the idea. Why not post a free ad on a teacher's website stating your tentative plan just to see what comes up?

re_fuse

As the class room teacher ( at a real school ) I would not let people into my class room if it prevented on task behaviour of the students.

Purely for that reason alone as I have had countless observations...

Lets be honest any visitor to the class room disturbs students learning

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jingjoke

Actually not usually true. I always have had two or three chairs placed near the doorway so that anyone can pop in unobtrusively to observe, parents and administrators alike. More schools should encourage this openness. It is usually not the school administrators who object as such; but the teachers themselves who are worried they may be shown up for what they are/are not.

Nawty

exacery.....

donald36

Ive looked at St Stevens we will live close and it would be perfect
--the bad news is its must be failing as it only has 90 pupils,Im told the teachers dont stay and the children are just like the comments of others on this thread---very reluctantly we are looking at boarding schools in Bangkok,saw Bromsgrove the other day and it looked very good --now having to wait for the credit crunch to work itself out before finally deciding