exam prep

i find out today that the time has come to start preparing exams for my class of 3-year-olds. yes, EXAMS. there’s not even a slight attempt to euphemize the fact that these poor little tikes, already severely deprived of playtime and overloaded with homework after a full 8-4 day of english, thai, chinese, and either extra tutoring or more perfect child building activities like ballet, meditation, thai dance, or taekwondo, are now facing the prospect of a formal written exam, to make sure they properly curl their q’s, know the difference between purple and green, and can recognize that mary’s little white-as-snow-fleeced pet was, in fact, a lamb, not a cow.



i fight hard, really hard, admirably hard, i might say in my favor, to not roll my eyes every other second during this debriefing meeting about the upcoming exam schedule. as the four o’clock meeting drags on and on, and such atrocities are discussed as what workbooks should be chosen next, i tackle the dilemma of whether i should accept this education austerity as a cultural difference, or whether i should really use my knowledge of developmental psychology to fight in favor of the right to play, as the advocate for these desperate kiddies. after all, in the unique pattaya situation of most fathers being westerners and most mothers being thai, it’s not exactly a thai cultural idiosyncrasy. throw in the chinese owner of the school, and the teachers from all over the world, and it’s hard to attribute this educational approach to any one culture in particular. back home, though it is far from my own hippy montessori preschool upbringing, i know there exist a good number of schools forcing workbooks on bouncy little 2 and 3-year-old bodies, as parents recognize the increasing competition for acceptance into good colleges, and even high schools and elementary schools, and simply try to do what’s best for their child.