Response to Mr. Steve Schertzer

Dear Readers,

I am writing in response to a recently published online article by Mr. Steve Schertzer, an ESL teacher at an unnamed language center in Phnom Penh (although it is not difficult to guess), titled “Cambodia ESL: A culture of insouciance.” I cannot determine where the original article was posted, but it eventually appeared on several other websites; the one I came across was posted on camnews.org on Thursday, 29th March, 2012.

In his lengthy and considerate article, Mr. Schertzer expresses his strong desire to help alleviate poverty problems in Cambodia. The main crux of his article, however, is his understandable concern about the lack of critical thinking, and a “culture of insouciance,” among the majority of Cambodian students. Furthermore, he also touches on the structural problem and lack of enthusiastic support on a national level for quality education in Cambodia. I cannot do justice to his original article which contains inspiring quotes and a great sense of caring (which I do appreciate sincerely), by summarizing it in a few sentences here.

What catches my attention and bothers me a little as a reader, however, is Mr. Schertzer’s apparent disfavor for local teachers. Several times in his article, the author went on ranting about local teachers: the fact that many of the students are “spoiled, lazy, and are spoon-fed [(or “breast-fed”)] by their local teachers”; his complaint that: “Far too often, I have seen local teachers play games with the students, both children and adolescents. I have seen them show too many movies simply for entertainment value. I have heard one of them play his guitar and sing to them”; and “I have students who come into my writing class after years of studying English with local teachers and write sentences like ‘My house are big.’ etc.”

I am not in the best position to make any comments on the teaching quality or pedagogical methodology of the local teachers at the institution where Mr. Schertzer is teaching, given the fact that I do not teach there. To be fair, Mr. Schertzer is probably referring to local teachers at his institution only when he discusses their “inappropriate” pedagogical approaches or qualifications. Even so, it seems as if there is a flat generalization that ALL local teachers he has encountered are of low quality and should be solely and squarely held responsible for the lack of student’s progress in their ESL education. When reading his article, one gets a strong sense that the author makes a clear distinction of quality of teaching between local teachers and himself (and perhaps other foreign teachers as well).

For the sake of argument, let's ignore the fact that English and Khmer have different grammatical rules, that there are also quite smart students, and assume that whatever activities those local teachers did in their classroom have no educational values whatsoever. Still, Mr. Schertzer's black-and-white generalization, in my opinion, is simplistic and naïve, to say the least (not to mention the fact that it sounds racist!). If I am correct about my guess of the language center where Mr. Schertzer is teaching, I can say with confidence that I have been acquainted with qualified local instructors, as well as with foreign “teachers” who do not even have proper pedagogical background in their academic education, and yet they are hired to teach at the center. I strongly resent Mr. Schertzer’s simplistic and contemptuous generalization of local teachers’ quality, whether at his workplace or elsewhere, and his failure to notice also the low quality among some foreign teachers as well. I do not consider myself a nationalist, and very few (if any) of my friends in the social and academic circle would characterize me as such. Still, I feel the need to point out my displeasure at Mr. Schertzer’s opinion on local teachers, as if every single local teacher conducts himself in the way Mr. Schertzer describes in his article.

Recently, an article by Faine Greenwood titled “How to Make Cambodian Friends and Influence People: Expats Parallel Lives in Phnom Penh” notes: “It’s worth pointing out here that most expats who move to Cambodia aren’t stereotypical, unenlightened racist pigs. Aside from the ever-popular sexpat crowd, most permanent foreign residents of Cambodia are educated, intelligent, and exceptionally open to new experiences.” If Mr. Schertzer does not wish to be considered as one of those stereotypical “sexpats” in the eyes of Cambodian people, he should be also more discreet in his characterization of “local teachers” as a single group of low quality teachers not worth of attention, again, whether only at his workplace or elsewhere.

Last but not least, I do hope my response does not take away my respect for Mr. Steve Schertzer’s wish to see the improvement of education quality in Cambodia. And I strongly encourage the readers to visit his original article for a more informed viewpoint.

Deth Sok Udom