My first taste of teaching was at a juvenile correctional facility in a town north of Chiang Mai. It was also one of the best things I'd ever done in my life. The young boys that I met there were the most well-behaved students I'd ever met, albeit they had the same English language skills as a six-year-old. They were respectful and listened with intent, and each of them had a story behind their eyes.
I realised as I was standing there, identifying classroom objects in English, that the majority of these boys had come from a dysfunctional family, riddled with either alcoholism, violence, drugs, abuse, and a myriad of other problems. Some of them might be there because they stole a bicycle, three years ago, and there is nowhere else for them to go (this was really the case with one boy that I heard about).
What I learnt from this place was far more valuable than what I had managed to teach them. In fact, teaching them random vocabulary like "ruler" and "duster" seemed trivial. I knew that these children and young adults needed far more than vocabulary or modelling and drilling - they needed love, acceptance, and care.
NOTE: This was a teaching practice I did, along with a bunch of other TEFL students, with SEE TEFL. I'm pretty sure everyone else had an array of profound, funny, interesting, or heart-warming experiences that day too.
I realised as I was standing there, identifying classroom objects in English, that the majority of these boys had come from a dysfunctional family, riddled with either alcoholism, violence, drugs, abuse, and a myriad of other problems. Some of them might be there because they stole a bicycle, three years ago, and there is nowhere else for them to go (this was really the case with one boy that I heard about).
What I learnt from this place was far more valuable than what I had managed to teach them. In fact, teaching them random vocabulary like "ruler" and "duster" seemed trivial. I knew that these children and young adults needed far more than vocabulary or modelling and drilling - they needed love, acceptance, and care.
NOTE: This was a teaching practice I did, along with a bunch of other TEFL students, with SEE TEFL. I'm pretty sure everyone else had an array of profound, funny, interesting, or heart-warming experiences that day too.
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| Gentlemen. |
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| Some lovely TEFL teachers. |
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| Another trainee teacher doing her thing. |
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| The sort of characters on my TEFL course. |
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| On the way back to class, after teaching all our classes. |
Most people would not like teaching at a juvenile teaching correctional facility yet you gained from the experience walking away having learnt from them as you say. I can only commend you on this enrichment but I feel sad for these young men.
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