The Most Pathetic People in the World

I am reading an interesting book: Linguistic Imperialism. It documents how the Brits and Americans colluded to make English the world’s dominant language. I think the French are pretty pissed off about that. Here is a quotation from a British policy maker in 1917:

To transform the primitive people in our colonies, to render them as devoted as
possible to our cause and useful to our commerce . . . the safest method is to
take the native in childhood, bring him into assiduous contact with us and
subject him to our intellectual and moral habits for many years in succession,
in a word to open schools for him where his mind can be shaped at our will.

Not much has changed in 91 years, except that now the colonial power is corporate capitalism and consumerism. International schools are agents of that power.

On Friday, we had our Summer School field trip. We teachers debated where to go. IO remained quiet. The teachers decided to take the students to the aquarium at Bangkok’s premier shopping mall: Siam Paragon. My math students are a little bit old for the aquarium, so they asked: since we're going to the mall, can we go bowling and watch a movie instead? Permission was granted; the school paid for the bowling.

We got to the mall about 9:45 but the mall opened at 10:00. The little kids were allowed direct access to the aquarium but my math students and I had to wait. I looked at all the people, mostly teenagers, lining up on the steps. I told my students, “those are the most pathetic people in the world, who line up on the steps of a shopping mall at 9:45, because they are so desperate to go shopping.”

The students asked sincerely, “doesn’t that mean we’re the most pathetic people in the world?”

I answered them directly: “Yes.”

I felt a white board marker in my pocket and whipped it out. “Hey, students! How about an impromptu lecture on functions?” They just laughed at me. Pathetic.

Naturally, the mall was full of students from our school. It’s their summer holiday so they go shopping. Some of them were there for Chinese classes. Yes, in the mall. This is Thailand.

We went bowling and watched Get Smart. I must admit: it was fun.

Another tough day’s work at summer school.