Teacher Respect Day - Amanda

Today we had no classes, but we're still expected to be at school because it is "Teacher Respect Day." In Thai culture, teachers are rated 4th on a scale of most respected people/careers. That's interesting when they pay us horribly.

Anyway, we didn't really have any idea what today was really about or what to expect. Over the past few days we've seen students preparing these intricately decorated sculptures. They are placed on top of a dish, it reminds me of a cake plate. The range of work, creativity, and size is astounding. See picture below of a class that made a dragon out of banana leaves. These are apparently called krathongs.

Krathong is a Thai term which refers to a piece of banana trunk decorated with flowers, banana leaves, candle and incense sticks. 

Around 10:40 we were led to the hall where this ceremony was going to take place. We were directed to set up on the stage behind the directors of the school. Genie and I looked at each other and were like "Why??" We both would rather have observed from a corner in the back, heck I wanted to sit with the techie in the booth. 

After a few minutes the ceremony began, I have no idea what was going on because it was all in Thai. The students formed fairly straight lines in the hall; marching band flashbacks. Some MC guy talked, some student talked, and then the school's director got up and prayed. This I understood. Another student sang a song, I assume it was religious because all of the Thai people had their hands together in prayer. The director sat down and another song was sung, some of the students sang along. There was then this group of older students who came up to the stage, the first two with two big, ornate flowers, the rest with a small flower piece. The first two presented theirs to the director and then the rest of the student walked on their knees to the various directors and English teachers on the stage. They knelt in front of us, bowed to us, and then handed us one of these smaller flowers. 

The students left the stage and then the mass of students turned to face their Thai teachers and offered them their krathongs. Then the ceremony was over. We took some photos with our students and that was it. (Way too many photos today in my opinion) The whole ceremony took about 20 minutes. We came to school for a 20 minute thing...that's it. This was one of several ceremonies today because are school is huge, it would be impossible to have every class go at once.

If you want to respect me as a teacher let me sleep in and stay home in my pajamas. At the very least bring me a mimosa or a bubble tea. Don't get me wrong, it was a new experience and I'm glad I experienced it. I'm sure my face turned bring red when this student kneeled in front of me though, I felt so embarrassed and on the spot. I didn't like it one bit. 

I still feel like I have no idea what was really going on with this ceremony. Part of me wants to know the whole history of it and another part of me is ok never knowing.