Sole indiscretion: school acts over camp sketch gone wrong

By The Nation

 

 

A school apologised to parents and students on Tuesday after a monk caused a furore on social media by ordering senior students to carry 100 pairs of shoes in their mouths during a bizarre role-playing exercise at a Dhamma camp.

 

Prommanusorn School in the central province of Phetchaburi pledged to never again invite the same group of Dhamma camp speakers and would also review its camping activities and discuss activity ideas with the parents’ network before implementation, as to prevent such re-occurrence, the school said in its statement published via facebook.com/prommanusorn/.

 

The controversy came to attention via a Facebook page “Neelare Prathet Thai” (trans. This is Thailand) on facebook.com/neelare.Thailand - the post had received 14,000 reactions, 572 comments and been shared 13,000 times by Monday afternoon.

 

The camp was held for Prommanusorn’s Mathayom 4 students on Saturday and Sunday, as it has been every year over the past decade with the intention of creating students of good character and with the potential to become good-quality citizens, said the school.

 

As part of a psychological process to instil desirable values in the children, the monk devised a role-playing exercise, in which he had the senior students, who were acting as “nannies” for the Mathayom 4 pupils, taking a punishment on behalf of the younger kids, the school explained. It acknowledged, however, that the shoe-carrying-by-mouth episode was “difficult to understand” among both participants and observers, and that many parents viewed it as a human rights violation, so the school was acting to ensure it never happened again.

 

The “punishment” reportedly took place in front of the younger students, who felt so badly about it they wanted to help their seniors but were told to stand aside and were forced to watch it for 30 minutes.

 

The post carrying the school’s statement received 2,000 reactions, 12,000 comments and had been shared by 11,000 online users, as of Monday afternoon.

 

A Thai woman (whose name was withheld) said her daughter was among the “nannies” ordered to carry a Mathayom 4 students’ shoes in her mouth. 

 

“As the parent of an affected student, I feel terrible over such action,” she said. “There are many other ways to instil a sense of responsibility among kids. I’m glad the school took responsibility and expressed its willingness to change. Thank you.”

 

Another enraged mother (name also withheld) disagreed: “I won’t forgive you,” she insisted. “Do you know my daughter has become so stressed and has been crying in bed? 

 

“She was traumatised - who will be responsible for this?”

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30372079

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-07-01

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6 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

“She was traumatised - who will be responsible for this?”

 

Oh dear. If she found this traumatizing then the next 50 years in the real world are going to be really tough.

monk sounds like a freak with a foot fetish..

All about "control" 

Crazy!!

 

I would question the mentality of that so called individual of faith. He should be defrocked! His act of stupidity has nothing what so ever to do with so called humble religious beliefs...

 

He should be forced to put other peoples dirty flip flops/shoes into his own mouth!

 

Disgusting! Childish! Rude! Uncaring! Attention seeking!

 

T.I.T

They don't teach common sense in the schools here? How about being considerate of others? TIT 

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

“As the parent of an affected student, I feel terrible over such action,” she said. “There are many other ways to instil a sense of responsibility among kids. I’m glad the school took responsibility and expressed its willingness to change. Thank you.”

Yes, how grateful the parents must be, that when caught doing something so stupid with children, that the reaction is to make a change.

 

Funny how no one questions the thought process and lack of vetting that produced this result in the first place.  

 

What a joke.

17 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Another enraged mother (name also withheld) disagreed: “I won’t forgive you,” she insisted. “Do you know my daughter has become so stressed and has been crying in bed? 

 

“She was traumatised - who will be responsible for this?”

Wait until she goes through hazing at Uni, then you'll have something to complain about, Mum.

Then again, if this traumatized her, she won't make it to uni,

Just another idiotic form of indoctrinisation... Thai education is in a real mess.

They don't need camps they need to be taught real literacy and the ability to perform later in life when they join the workforce.

Give it another 20-30 years & Thailand will be a 3rd world country again, another wasted generation.

The rich will be sitting pretty on their investments but the companies will be going down the pan with no-one able to do the work, tourism on the slide a few thousand sex workers out of a job will cause social unrest.

Migrants from bordering countries will have gone back to Chinese owned companies, what will Thailand do apart from provide idiots incapable of doing anything.

On 7/1/2019 at 6:22 PM, snoop1130 said:

The camp was held ... with the intention of creating students of good character and with the potential to become good-quality citizens

It would help if the school ensured the so-say instructors were of good quality.

10 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Give it another 20-30 years & Thailand will be a 3rd world country again

What do you mean, again!?

10 hours ago, hotchilli said:

what will Thailand do apart from provide idiots incapable of doing anything.

You mean the idiots in government?