Best way to spend a few weeks or months in Thailand?

My point was that there's not a single school in Thailand that doesn't have people working in it without degrees. Whether you and I like it or not, that's just the way it is. There are simply not enough foreigners wanting to teach in those schools for it to work with the requirements. Every few years they go around and do their little raids on a few schools to make a point, but they know if they go through them all they'll have a crisis and a major shortage in teachers. They put up these requirements, fully knowing what the real situation is and that's just how it is. Now you're quoting those requirements, which makes you naive to the reality of what's going on, although you're trying to make it into a moral issue and put yourself on a moral pedestal.

" Are you encouraging people who aren't qualified to teach to come and influence children's lives, just so they can have an extended holiday?"
No, I clearly told him he shouldn't teach if he is trying to have fun. Teaching would ruin any holiday. I'm concerned about his holiday, not about the kids (gasp!) lol. I say that because you're trying to corner me into a moral predicament where I don't feel it's a moral issue at all and I'll explain why below. But knowing you (and I do know you well) you'll completely ignore the humorous context that I just said that in and you'll focus on the "not about the kids" line and take that completely out of context. Try to spin that into another moral issue.

I live in the states now, but I worked in schools in Asia for over a decade. I have a Bachelor's in Education from the state of Georgia, TESOL, TEFL, and a certificate in teaching young learners. Do you know what I learned from all of this? Public speaking. That's it. I learned how to get up in front of other students in my college class and put on PowerPoint presentations. I consider myself to be a great teacher, but I didn't pick that up from college. I picked that up through experience and not the 20-hour internship I had to do in college. Real experience. I've known so many teachers that have various degrees, whether in education or other focuses, who simply don't have the gusto, energy, and creativity to be good teachers. On the flip side, I've known many with no degrees that are some of the greatest teachers I've ever known. What we learn in college is things such as the difference between semantics and syntax, acquisition vs. learning, innate learning, Chomsky's theories, Montessori vs. traditional, etc.
I have never once needed to use these things when teaching children at the high school level or younger. If someone is going to become a university lecturer or professor, then yes, they will need to know these things so that they can teach them to people who will never use them. Look, I'm just as shocked as you are. To learn that the system is set up this way where we pretend like that degree suddenly makes someone a great teacher and that much of it is not applicable in the classroom.

If you're not meant to be a teacher, the laws of business will dictate that, not a degree. The school will not hire you or will fire you, as all schools in Asia require teaching demonstrations and constantly monitor teachers to assess them periodically.

/r/ThailandTourism Thread Parent