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Recently I stumbled across these job opportunities at Chitralada Palace School. They are only available to graduates of Baylor University.
The basic thrust is that:
…interviews for eleven positions, including two teaching the future king of Thailand, began Monday and will continue through Wednesday….two palace employment opportunities are offered to Baylor graduates who want to teach English to the pre-kindergarten class of the 3-year-old son of the future King of Thailand, Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkor at Chitralada Palace School beginning late May…Additionally, there are nine openings for graduates to teach English in three royal schools in Bangkok, Thailand starting in May: Chitralada Palace School, Wattana Presbyterian School, and Rajini Bon School.
It looks like the selection process for this year is already over.
I don’t get it. Chitrlada employs graduates from Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, Cambridge, the best universities in the world.
And yet “the future king of Thailand” gets a Texan freshly graduated from a 2nd rate Baptist college as his personal tutor?
No disrespect to any Baylor graduates, but you’d think that the palace would have higher standards than this.
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The son of the former King was a student at Baylor in the English Department, and mentored by a professor. She asked to bring a group of students to Thailand, and go the “royal treatment.” Then Baylor was very involved on an international levelin the transition of Hong Kong into being its own country. The King invited her to set up this English program, or she asked and he okayed or something. She is dead now, and the program was passed on to another Baylor professor, and continues.
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bizarre!
Could someone elucidate the Baylor connection? Seems incredibly strange that royal family teaching positions were only open to graduates of some happy clapper family school in Waco, Texas? I don’t know very much yet, but man I love Thai politics!
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“The opportunity for Baylor graduates to teach in Thailand is now entering its 15th year. “We remain the only university in the country that has this many positions reserved for our graduates at the most prestigious schools in all of Thailand,” Mueller said.”
Obviously someone thinks their graduates are doing a good job.
As for the sarcastic ‘happy clapper’ reference above… a bit of a look around the Baylor website should dispel the idea that this is some kind of Oral Roberts Bible College… it’s a real university – certainly better than any in Thailand (almost by default).
Best lose the notion of Texans all being ignorant mumblers or all Baptists being ditto. I am neither, but I suggest Thanaka go compare absolute GDPs for Kingdom of Thailand and just the state of Texas and go figure.
I’ve no doubt you won’t find the likes of Newman or Jowett in the Balliol common room at Baylor – but you’re dreaming if you think you’d find them at Harvard or Stanford these days either – you might, however manage to get some impressive Ivy League education graduate full of dodgy Chomskian pseudo-linguistic theories who could teach your child how NOT to be able to read properly by the age of 10 in the most approved manner.
As for precisely why Baylor – well that should be bleedingly obvious: Some present day Phuyai went to Baylor on some kind of government educational scholarship years back and having climbed up in the C-ranks and collected a swag of tin medals is doing what all Thais do automatically – favouring the institutions they attended in the past.
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Oral Roberts probably wouldn’t fit your sterotype of what Oral Roberts is either (ORU is in my home town and I know graduates from the place), but that doesn’t mean Baylor isn’t a 2nd rate Baptist college. OK, maybe it is a 1st rate one, but not too sure that would be the place I’d be looking for teacher for a future King. Maybe some Oxford bum not already engaged in teaching the rural poor might be a better choice. It is true that not all Texans are ignorant, but enough of them were to give us Dubya, so you’ve got to take that in to consideration. Besides, Baylor has a 2nd rate American football team. A future king at least deserves a Longhorn.
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“Chomskyan pseudo-linguistic”?
Quite a way to talk about one of the most influential schools of linguistics this century. It’s not quite my cup of tea, but it’s certainly not ‘pseudo-linguistic’.
Added to that, of course, is the fact that UG has very little to do with the teaching of language, being primarily concerned with how children acquire their first language. Quite why a Chomskyan linguist would be worse than, say, a physics graduate (or indeed any other subject which has essentially nothing to do with education or teaching), escapes me.
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Are you hoping for another Rasputin?
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There’s another extremely good reason why it makes sense to NOT hire an Ivy League graduate for this: they tend to blather and blog. You just can’t shut them up. Openness is not something the Palace thrives on.
I’m only surprised they didn’t just hire a few more Filipinas. When Phra Thep speaks in English, it’s patently obvious that she was taught by one or more of the same.
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May be Giles could submit his resume?
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Blather and blog? I see Fred blathering on this blog quite often… does this mean he went to an Ivy League university (the graduates of which, it should be pointed out, are not universally bright, talented, or even interesting).
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Let royal children attend ordinary schools like any ordinary Thais.
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The thing that got my attention in this report is the openly naming the crown prince as being the sucessor to the incumbent. Should it turn out he does suceed Rama IX, this will have more serious and long term implications than the academic background of who teaches the kid english.
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As a former Chitralada Teacher(not from Baylor, they also hire from another equally mediocre school in California), I can shed some light on this.
The connection to Chitralada is between a Sociology Professor and the former director of the Chitralada Palace School. The two became friends when they met upon the Professor’s first visit to Thailand.
As for the teaching positions themselves, it was a once in a lifetime experience, but MUCH less glamourous than the ad makes it sound. I will NEVER complain about my teacher’s salary or hours/workload in the U.S. after teaching at that school in Thailand.
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Erin, very insightful info. I wonder if the HRH the Crown Prince, whose name is being used in the advertisement, is aware of such a selection method?
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Erin when did you work there?
I mean in what year?
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