In the past, I always thought that being a teacher was an easy job. But I changed my mind when I became a part-time teacher for the first time at Sriwittayapaknam School. It isn’t that easy like I had first thought. There is more to it than just standing in front of the classroom and teaching from a book. You won’t understand how difficult it is to be a teacher if you haven’t done it yourself. After that first time teaching, I have never said that it is easy to be a teacher anymore.

I became a teacher for the first time about four years ago while I was in Mattayom one. Now I am going to tell you how I became a teacher, how it changed me and what is hard or easy to be a teacher.

One day, after my secondary school had finished for the day, I went to my primary school to work on my Thailand Life web site as usual. After I had been working for a while, Richard came up to the computer room to see me. He had just finished teaching English. He asked me if I could help teach his students how to make a web site about themselves in English. The lesson would be once a week after school had finished. I agreed to do it because computer is what I do good and I didn’t think that teaching computer to Prathom six students would be that hard. He said I didn’t have to do anything much, just walk around and help the students that had a problem. There are about 45 students in his class so he couldn’t really walk around and help them alone.

When the day came, I went up to the computer room and saw Richard getting ready for the lesson. He asked me to turn on all the computers and check that every computer was working. I did it and by the time I had nearly finished Richard’s students arrived and he took them to the front of the class. He called me and asked me to go to the front. While I was walking to the front, some students looked at me and gave me their smiles. I felt very nervous to go to the front to stand there and let Richard introduce me to the students. After he had finished that, he started to teach them while I went to sit down at the back of those students. After that, Richard told them to go to sit at their computer and start doing their web site. I was walking around and helped some of the students that didn’t understand and couldn’t really do it. It was very tiring just doing that. There were only two of us at that time teaching all 45 students. We couldn’t really help all of them at the same time as different students had different problems.

I was only an assistant and not a real teacher at that time. My job was easy compared to Richard’s job. He has to prepare the lesson and also he has to explain to all the students and make sure they understand. Only to think about what to teach is hard enough but to make sure that all the students understand everything is even harder. Also, you have to help the students when they do something wrong or can’t do something. The teacher has to be responsible for the students unlike an assistant who only does what the teacher tells them to do. At least Richard has an assistant to help so it might make his job a bit easier and a bit less tiring!

During that first lesson, I tried my best to be friends with the students by being kind and teasing them sometimes but in the end I knew that it didn’t really work. It’s all because they didn’t know about timing. They tried to play with me all the time even when they were learning. I don’t mind if they play or fool around with me after the lesson because I wasn’t teaching. But when they do it during the lesson, I wouldn’t be able to teach them. They wouldn’t listen to what I taught them. So I changed. I stopped playing with them and became more strict and it worked more than before.

I know that every student loves kind teachers but now I also know that teachers love good students that know about timing. Know when it is time to learn and time to play. If the teacher is too kind or too friendly with the students then they won’t listen or respect the teacher. So, most teachers choose to be strict and let students be scared of them even though that will make some students not like them. But it’s easier for the teachers to teach when it is like this.

The teacher’s job isn’t that easy. They have to control all of the students in the class alone. Also, they have to make sure that every student understands what they have been taught. But some teachers are not like that. They just teach until the bell rings and then they leave. They never care whether the students understand what they taught or not. They are not good teachers. I don’t want to be like that.

My experience of being a part-time teacher has helped me understand teachers more. Also it has made me be a better student because I now understand how teachers feel. Sometimes, when I am teaching Richard’s class, some of the students chat with their friends while I am explaining how to use a computer programme. It annoys me as these students are the ones that later can’t do the task that I give them. This means I have to teach them again.

At first I just got angry with them but Richard taught me to stop and think why they were doing this. He said that if he is teaching a lesson and the students are not listening then he is angry with himself for not making the lesson clear or interesting for them. I told him that I understood that but still I didn’t like it when the students chatted while I was trying to teach. He then asked me if I had ever done that. That made me stop. Of course I had!

If any of my past teachers are reading this I want to say sorry if I sometimes played around in the class while you were teaching. I didn’t think how that would make you feel. I won’t be acting like that again. I promise I will do my best to be a good student in the future. I also ask you to please try and remember what it was like when you were a student. Please help us when we don’t understand and most importantly don’t be quick to be angry when we fail. None of us are perfect but with your help we can be successful.

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This is the uncut version of Panrit's article that first appeared in his Gor's World column in the Bangkok Post when he was 16 years old. We will be posting his full versions every Sunday for him while he is still in prison. Read more about Gor at his website www.ThailandLife.com.