At some point in your childhood, you may have developed love-hate relationships with your schoolbooks. They may have fallen out of date or cited embarrassing examples that were no longer applicable to real-world situations—sometimes both at the same time. 

 

One Thai textbook, however, has taken this hypothetical example to a very real extreme by incorporating sympathy for dictatorship into a grammar lesson. 

 

A lesson in a book titled “Thai Grammar Usage for Mathayom 3” teaches students to write complex Thai sentences using the following example: 

 

“Somchai will choose democracy where politicians are corrupted, or Somchai will choose dictatorship where the leader holds great virtue in his heart.” 

 

“For anyone who has kids, this is the quality of education that awaits your children,” wrote Facebook user Tanadol Veerapattana, who posted a picture of the lesson online. 

 

The post had been shared 7,600 times at time of publication. 

 

Calls to Aksorn Education, the publisher of the book, went unanswered. 

 

Last week, education officials set up a team to examine a series of eight illustrated children’s books called Nitan Wad Wang, or “Dream Tales,” whose themes are deemed critical of the government and sympathetic with the pro-democracy movement. In explaining the need for such an examination, Education Ministry spokesperson Darunwan Charnpicharnchai said these illustrated books could contain information that misleads children without parental guidance.

 

It’s unclear if education officials plan to set up another team to examine “Thai Grammar Usage for Mathayom 3” as well.