Looking Back
Burma 1988

Fifteen years ago in 1988, Fulbright Scholar Ed Thomas was working with the Sports and Physical Education Department (SPED) of Burma to reshape its national vision for physical culture.  Thomas spent nine months in the Hermit Kingdom.  Civil unrest forced evacuation of all non-essential foreigners in September of 1988, and Thomas spent the last three months of his one-year odyssey in Bangkok working with the National Department of Physical Education of Thailand.  

Following the British model, Burma's physical education program is based heavily upon on sports.  At the time, SPED operated under the control of the Ministry of Health.  Burma's schools, which operated under the Ministry of Education, provided no instruction in physical education.  Rangoon University had a few physical education teachers, but they taught only sports skills and administration.

Thomas spent a cautious month acquainting himself with SPED and the Burmese culture in general.  During that time he made a few presentations to SPED officials and met with SPED Director General U Aung Din regularly to formulate an action plan.  Burma was in deep economic trouble when Thomas arrived.  Productivity was low, and government agencies like SPED were operating without sufficient financial and material resources.

Morale and motivation within SPED was low.  There was a quiet acquiescence on the surface but growing discontent in the hearts of the Burmese.  The public would learn of Burma’s internal problems in July and August as discontent escalated into widespread violence.  

By early March, Thomas completed a conceptual model upon which to build the new physical education program.  Beginning in June, he introduced his concepts through articles published under the pen name Aung in the Burmese English language newspaper, The Working People's Daily. Thomas employed many of the concepts he had defined in earlier projects and outlined in Paradigm 21.

With a basic direction in mind by the end of February, Thomas was asked to conduct a seven-week course for senior sports supervisors from throughout the country.  He and his team planned to select leaders from within the SPED system who could be trained as cadre for a proposed four-year institute of physical culture.  The seven-week training site was in an abandoned facility on the outskirts of Rangoon.  Course #1 spent most of its times cleaning and rebuilding the school. 

Thomas working Burmese soldiers to improve facility

Midway through the first course, several hundred Burmese soldiers took control of the classroom area.  They were called in from the frontier in response to growing unrest throughout the city.  The course reorganized its efforts to focus primarily to the barracks, using the lobby as a classroom.  The situation at the school was tense. The soldiers were Infantrymen trained primarily for jungle warfare.  July and August were particularly turbulent.  Blood was shed throughout Burma.  

Tensions grow

The Thomas School became a living and learning environment unique to Burma, Three graduates of Course Number One were selected to serve as leaders in Course Number Two which was held in late May through early July.  The efforts in the first course brought increased understanding of and respect for the program.  Students for Course Number Two were more carefully selected, and the tougher and more physical curriculum was approved without modification.

Course #2

The second course emphasized leadership.  Students were challenged to improve the facility even more, and like the first course, spent the first week cleaning, repairing, painting, and polishing the building.  The curriculum was physically and mentally challenging.  Students devoted six hours daily to vigorous physical exercise, and four hours a day to lecture and study.  At least four hours daily were spent improving the building.  They worked from 4:30 a.m. until 9:00 p.m.

Shortly after the beginning of Course #3, civil unrest made it impossible to continue, and Thomas left Burma.  He spent his last three months in Bangkok conducting training for Thai physical educators. 

Much of the Burma training was filmed, and a documentary titled Image in the Golden Mirror was produced in the early 1990s.  Email here to get more information concerning that documentary.

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