The kids are alright

re: "Students, not angels" (BP, PostBag, September 18, 2020)

Dear editor,

In "Students, not angels" (PostBag, Sept. 18), Attentive Reader helpfully points out two serious failures besetting traditional Thai schools that my letter, "Students in the right" (PostBag, Sept 17), had overlooked: bullying and cancel culture. A closer analysis shows that here, too, the protesting students are deserving only of praise.

First, Attentive Reader speaks of all Thai students, not the subset of protesting students that I had discussed. That some statistic is true of a larger group does not logically entail that it holds for any subset of that group; from the fact that 70% of adult Thais are married, it does not follow that 70% of the demographic subset of publicly out  gays and lesbians of Thailand are also married.
 
Certainly, the evils of bullying and cancel culture remain, as Attentive Reader's reported statistics show, all too common in Thai schools in general. However, their explicit welcoming of all groups, including, for example LGBT students, shows that the students protesting for a better Thai nation have consciously chosen respectful inclusivity over bullying. If that were not enough, the student leaders manifest traits that might well earn them the status of "nerds": they are, in short, more likely to be bullied than to bully. Nor have their actions shown them inclined to repressive cancel culture that seeks to silence those with whom it disagrees, unlike some opponents of the students who demand that they shut up and not speak, however politely or rationally, on issues some deem provocative. Indeed, the students have welcomed the Minister of Education to sit down and speak with them. They have shown in their respectful hearing of dissentient voices the same excellent virtues demonstrated in their inclusive welcoming of all students.

What Attentive Reader should have concluded is that we must hope that all Thai students will also follow the excellent lead set by the student protestors to end traditional bullying and cancel culture.

 Felix Qui

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The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on September 20, 2020, under the title "The kids are alright" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1988451/history-repeats-itself