My Take on Confucius

A Reflection on the Seminar on Confucius (1 April 2011)
By Kalyakorn Naksompop
Written on 1 April 2011

Yesterday, if you talked to me about Confucius or Master Kong (Kong Zi), I would have seriously rolled my eyes thinking you’re “one of those people” – you know, the people who like to say that every woman is supposed to stay home and respect their husband or that children have to submissively listen to their parents regardless of what’s right and what’s wrong because it’s their “duty”. Thanks to A. Korsak Dhammacharoenkij and K. Nopporn Thepsitthar, who spoke at a seminar on Confucianism held by Executive Go Club, I now understand that those people are just self-claimed Master Kong’s worshipers who have actually twisted the real teaching of this Chinese noble to protect their role as “the man” of the society. Yes, I’m talking about the belief that men are more important than women, which has deepened in Chinese culture for long. Evidence? Remember how One-Child-Policy had impact the imbalance of male and female population in China? And people said that a big part of this belief is Confucianism. I must confess that even I once blamed it on Master Kong but now I know I was wrong.

One of the fundamental principles Kong laid in his philosophy is the balance in the society, also known as social harmony. This harmony can only be maintained if everybody in the society knows their duty and is committed to their duty with respect to one another. This includes the duty of men and women, parents and children, and leaders and their people as expressed in his words, “There is government, when the prince is prince, and the minister is minister; when the father is father, and the son is son" (Analects XII, 11, trans. Legge). The bottom line is everybody has to be happy and the only way everybody can be happy is to maintain this harmony.

“How?” one may ask. Kong proposed that social harmony begins with the understanding of ethics. It is when you know your role in the society and perform your duty with the best of your ability in the right manner – not to step over other people’s foot and neither to under do nor overdo your job. What happens when one knows his/her role but doesn’t do his/her job? Take what’s happening in Libya as example. Gaddafi knows he’s the leader of the country. He has authorities in his hands. What he does can and does affect his country and its people. In other words, he knows he has power but has he been using it rightly? I would say no. Did he fail to perform his duty as the leader of the country? I say yes. My guess is Gaddafi has completely forgotten that he can only be a leader when there are followers. Once he forgets his duty, people are not happy, they don’t feel the need to perform their duty, the harmony then disappears, and many other problems are to follow.

Comes with ethics is morality. In fact, morality is a very big word in Confucianism that stresses on how one should act towards others. Kong’s philosophy circles around humans and their relationship with one another. To make the relationship “work”, one must recognize that everybody is equal. Since everybody is equal, everybody deserves equal respect and that everybody should be treated with respect – as much respect as you want to be treated from others. Hence, the Golden Rule: "do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you."

If Confucius believed in equality, it’s not possible for him to teach men to value only men or mothers to value only sons. Nevertheless, new questions arose: what went wrong? Why is the view on gender of Chinese, whose culture was built around Kong Zi’s teaching, so….. controversial?

When One-Child-Policy was much more strictly enforced, it was common to see dead female bodies on random streets. What can this tell us? Daughters are not as much appreciated as sons? Because women are not seen as important as men? This is definitely not equality.

Again, what went wrong?

Looking back at Master Kong’s teaching, I’ve realized one thing. Confucianism accentuates the duty of every individual: leader as leader, worker as worker, father as father, and wife as wife. Depending on how you look at it, his teaching can be interpreted in many ways. One is that women are supposed to stay at home. If women are to stay at home, men are to work and to financially support the family. Men are then automatically viewed as providers while women are supporters. If this is the case, to the eyes of the society, who do you think are more important: provider or supporter?

As a woman who strongly believes in equality and with respectful consideration that Master Kong also strongly believes in this very same principal, I admit that I too see this as a kind of discrimination. If everybody is truly equal, why are women limited to stay home and why only men are entitled to work outside?


However, Confucius lived thousands of years ago. In his time when it was much tougher, men were the priority of the society since their physicality more fitted to be the provider. Though to him, women are not just supporters as he saw that the duty at home was as equally important as the duty out of home, many might fail to recognize this fact and chose to interpret his teaching the way it benefits them best.


But even with this argument, my question remains: isn’t separating duties by gender a kind of discrimination?


Then, I remember. One of Kong’s teaching was about how different people have different talents and are good at different things. Keep in mind that in his time, people with fighting skills, literacy, or any other skills necessary to serve the emperor were being valued more. However, Kongzi were able to overlook that social norm and recognized that individuals should be encouraged to pursue in what they are good at. Therefore, if there are women who are good at something other than house work and are willing to step outside to work like men, I believe that Master Kong, as liberal as he was, would have opened to their ability than their gender. The man spent years teaching people about equality. There is no way that being man or woman matters as long as one performs their duty with dignity and in the best of their ability.


So, the problem with Confucianism is definitely not Master Kong’s actual philosophy. In fact, I’ve learned that it is rather treasure for many later generations what he left in his teaching. Then, what went wrong? Hint: we have to look at who twisted his teaching, in what context, and how that benefits them.

How Do You Know What You Want To Be

By Kalyakorn Naksompop
Regarding the speech given to students from British Columbia International School
at Stamford International University, Thailand
November 7, 2010


I was asked to give an "inspiring" speech to a group of high school students from British Columbia International School, who visited our campus last week. I was very nervous because there are plenty of things I can say but I don't know if it's going to be any inspiring at all. I tried to think back about my years in high school. What was it like? How did I feel? What were other problems in life besides the stories of puppy love and stupid break ups? Then, I remember...

I remember how a lot of my friends and I struggled. We did not struggle in high school, but we struggled during the time we were in high school thinking about our future: what we wanted to be and what we wanted to do. I thought I had the passion for one thing then found out it was not real. Then, I tried so many other things until I found my love for art. I fought with my dad since he wanted me to be an economist or a lawyer. I remember when my dad asked if I wanted to be an artist and I told him "I don't know" simply because I honestly still did not know what to do with art. All I knew was I love art and that it was the only thing I wanted to do.

After high school, I took a year off just to study for the Thai entrance exam although I was already accepted by a very famous art college in Pasadena. I wanted to get into Thai government university because I wanted to learn more about Thai society since I never had that chance growing up in an international school. I finally got accepted into the university I wanted.

4 years passed by, I graduated with an art degree.. still not knowing what I wanted to do. I tried hosting TV and radio shows. I tried producing TV shows. It was fun and all, but I knew something was missing. I became a journalist because my dad wanted me to. I hated the job. It dragged me to the dark sides of the world that I don't want to see ..at least, not all the time. Then, I opened a company with my sister selling sculptures of our original designs. It was very fun. But still, something was missing.

One day, one of my best friends asked me, "Earn, why don't you be a teacher? You'll be a great one." That's when it just CLICKED! That's how I decided to start my master in education and became an educator. And I love my job! I love teaching and I love being a teacher. I've found my passion.

So, that's what I told them because I know some of these high school students are struggling to find what they want to be or what they want to study. I told them that it's okay if they're lost because it's normal. It's just a phase in life. I mean for those already have set a goal, awesome. Go for it. For the rest who are still confused, they can just stop thinking about the future and focus on what they like or what they want now.

The funny thing is that most high school students are only about 15-18 years old. They are very young, yet they are pressured by their parents and the society to have to think about "what career they want to have" when they've been introduced to only a few profession, such as doctor, journalist, businessman, teacher, scientist, artist, lawyer, or something along those lines. How can they make any decisions when some of them don't even know there are jobs like commercial diver, logistic planner, fixer, etc. Most of all, some of them may still be confused about what they want to be because the job they will end up doing in the next ten years probably does not even exist today.

Fifteen years ago, who would imagine that creating social network websites like Facebook or Twitter can be a career. Ten years ago, no one ever heard of iPhone. Today, a friend of mine is opening a company to create applications just for iPhone and iPad.

So, I said, "Try different things. Ask yourself if you like math, science, art, or any other stuff outside school. Once you find what you like, just focus on that because most of the times things that you do better are things that you love to do."

I told them they still have plenty of time. The future is yet come and they still have such a long way to go. I want them to take their time to dream and to explore.

In the end, I said, "People define happiness differently. What's your definition? You have to find what makes YOU happy. That's how you can find your passion."

The World's Goals for Future with Education

By Kalyakorn Naksompop
Written on August 26, 2010
Last edited on September 20, 2010


Many times, when people talk about education, they relate it to the matter of politics and economy, but mostly and most importantly to humanity. This is because education is the “most fundamental building blocks of human development” (The World Bank, 2010). It is a formative process of passing on the knowledge, skills, and values from one generation to the next. An impact of education is greatly. When given the opportunity to learn, people tend to contribute to the development of their lives. Once their lives are improved, people can then contribute to their communities and their countries, which finally affects in the betterment of this world. Therefore, it is essential to look at this matter on a global context because “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,” Nelson Mandela (GCE, 2010).

Realizing that education is about the future, international groups who have been working on issues relating to humanities, such as UNESCO and Campaign for Global Education, seem to target at campaigning for improvement in education. They believe that education can be used as an instrument to end poverty and to improve human’s well being and that “every human being should have the opportunity to make a better life for themselves” (UN, 2010).

Because education is about improving lives, the number one goal right at this moment is to end hunger, which links to another most recognized goal in education that I found very exciting, the global primary education. This goal targets at ensuring that everyone will be able to complete the basic education of primary school. One of the biggest concerns when it comes to an issue of humanity is the literacy. When one can read, one has more choices in life. This means that it opens more doors for the poor to break out of their poverty. Another concern is about the well being. Schooling doesn’t only mean the opportunity to learn how to read and write, but also to learn about how to improve own life because it “helps children develop the skills they need to make themselves heard in the world and to make positive changes in their lives” (Oxfam, 2010). For example, children who have completed primary school are less than half to likely contract HIV as those who have not (UN, 2010).

Though the world recognizes the significance of education, the reality is not that simple. Logically, every single person in this world should have accessibility to schooling. However, 771 million adults worldwide are illiterate while 72 million children in the world’s poorest countries are still out of school (Oxfam, 2010). Clearly, this is why global primary education is one of the most targeted goals for many international NGO's.

Another problem that has been ongoing since we could probably remember is gender equality. Yes, even in education is no exception. Hence, women around the world, especially those in poorer countries, tend to have less power, money, and access to education and they are “more likely to live in poverty, simply because they are women” (ActionAid, 2010). It is true that the gaps between girls’ and boys’ enrollment have been closing, yet the issue of discrimination against women is still obvious (UNFPA, 2003).

Comparing to men, nearly twice as many women over age of 15 in least developed countries are illiterate while two-thirds of children who are out of school are girls (UN, 2010). The real challenge is probably to change the perception that women do not need education, simply because they do. Every human being, despite their race, gender and belief, deserves equal rights. Thus, this problem is still there. This is why it has been recognized and has become another goal for future with education, which is to reduce gender disparity and to empower women.

Another interesting Millennium Development Goal directly deals with the environmental problems. The topic of environmental sustainability has been widely discussed in recent years, probably due to the uncommon natural disasters that have occurred more frequently lately. This has raised serious awareness among people around the world as more people are being hurt and damages are being seen as the result of decades of exploitation of natural resources. Often, the people who get affected the most are those who are already vulnerable, which are the ones who depend on natural resources for their livelihood (UN, 2010).

Though this issue seems to be less related to humanity, as the others are directly about reaching out with education and health care, the issue of sustainable practice is actually about improvement and development of what we have, which eventually ties up the issue of well-being of the entire humans. Therefore, this problem is undeniably also about humanity, which is why it is recognized as one of the Millennium Development Goals. Hence, because “reducing poverty and achieving sustained development must be done in conjunction with a healthy planet” (UN, 2010), it is crucial that the future education integrates the principles of environmental sustainability into country policies and programs and reverse the loss of environmental resources.

The interesting part is that all of these goals, including the rest in the Eight Millennium Development Goals, are set to be achieved within 2015 and this is already 2010! We only have 5 years left. Will we be able to accomplish?

Personally, I don't really care about what year these goals will accomplish as long as they do. However, the significance is how many countries agreed with these Millennium Goals, which means that the world (well, at least the authorities anyways) have promised to do something, and we are not even half way there. The question is do we really care about education? Do we really care about the future? Do we really care about other people? We know that we cannot leave this matter only to the authorities because we have and no progress has really been seen. So, maybe it's time that we should really step forward and take some actions?


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REFERENCES

ActionAid (2010). What we do: Ending Poverty. In ActionAid website. Retrieved on August 23, 2010 from http://www.actionaid.org.uk/100004/what_we_do.html

GCE: Global Campaign for Education (2010). In GCE Retrieved. Retrieved on August 23, 2010 from http://www.campaignforeducation.org/

Oxfam (2010). Education. In Oxfam International. Retrieved on August 23, 2010 from http://www.oxfam.org/en/campaigns/health-education/education

The World Bank (2010). Education. In The World Bank education. Retrieved on August 23, 2010 from http://bit.ly/d5O5rq

UN: United Nations (2010). In End Poverty 2015 Millennium Campaign, the UN Millennium Campaign. Retrieved on August 23, 2010 from http://www.endpoverty2015.org/

UNFPA: United Nations Population Funds (2003). State of World Population 2003. In UNFPA, United Nations Population Funds. Retrieved on August 23, 2010 from http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2003/swpmain.htm

Wikipedia (2010). Millennium Development Goals. In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved on August 23, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Development_Goals

Culture and Education

By Kalyakorn Naksompop
Written on February 12, 2010
Last edit on September 7, 2010

It’s undeniable that culture heavily affects the design of curriculum, which affects the education as a whole. In fact, a curriculum always emerges as a reflection of a culture. But when we say “culture” here, it doesn’t necessary refer to only culture of “Thailand” or “America”. The culture that affects a curriculum can be referred to culture of today, whether it’s culture of the school itself, the culture of that particular community that the school is located in, or the regional culture, in combination with the future culture that the community and the country want. Therefore, when looking at a curriculum, you can learn about the characters of people within that culture as well as how they think about themselves now and how they want the next generation to be like.

When talking about curriculum design, one thing needed to be brought up is the impact that a government has on its country's education. I must admit that I used to only think about education as in students, teachers, textbooks, and parents; and that is as far as I would go. However, as I get to know more and more about education, I cannot overlook the power of the authorities and how it greatly affects education of each country. This makes me somehow wonder what the true meaning of education is.

We always talk about how we educators are so important that we are the people who significantly affect the future of this world. We also talk about various educational philosophies – saying that what we believe will change the face of the world. But from history, we know for a fact that the curriculum is designed by the government. Somehow, the government, in a way, literally uses education as a tool for propagandization to pass on the belief in which government wants people to believe to the next generation. For example, even with scientific proof that Columbus was not the first to discover America, yet American teachers are still teaching that he was because they have to. That is how it's written in the textbook.

Another example, which I found truly interesting, probably because it's close to my background, is the history of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar. When I was in primary school, I learned the history written by Thai, which refers to Laos as our sister or brother while Myanmar is our enemy because they burned down our old capital, Ayutthaya. When I visited Laos, it was the first time in my life to learn about the other side of the history, where Laos calls us the devil who burnt down their capital, Vientiene. Likewise, Myanmar chose to skip its some of its history, particularly on the part when they attacked Thailand and burned Ayutthaya down. So, it seems that each country has its own version of history depending on how they want the later generations to perceive the history. This is where the authorities play the biggest role in education.

With that being said, it is probably even more critical to rethink about our role as educators. Don’t get me wrong. I still believe that we do carry a big responsibility. What we do will eventually affect our world one way or another. However, in the system, we are one of the smallest bodies in education, yet we are the ones to directly practice the curriculum on our students. But even when we are the smaller bodies, is it possible for us to do something so that our students do not have to become the victim of propagandization? Are there any ways to hint students that there is another side of the truth? That I can’t really tell you but maybe Columbus did not discover America? That maybe Laotians don't love us as much as we thought they do?

I would say yes.

This is why we have also been talking about the new kind of education, where critical thinking is emphasized and where students are encouraged to become learning persons. For this very reason, we need to really pay attention in our instruction whether it helps students or not and in what way. It is exactly why teaching students how to think by and for themselves is even more essential than ever.

Our Oridinary Power

I'm just ordinary, and so are you! But we can do so much with this ordinary power of ours. We could create wars and distorted society, didn't we? So, why can't we use this power for the betterment of this world?

We can start with our most fundamental ability of LOVE!

You know how to do that, don't you?

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