Little 'Rakers Walked Home From School Today

[Kilgore Trout]

Thats what you get for sending your kid to a sub-par (probably) Thai school.

The Int. schools have web portals, weekly newsletters, and 7 year olds are certainly not allowed to leave the school grounds with out their parents or approved guardian (who must present a valid ID at the gate). If a child was not picked up, the school should have kept her in the office until a parent was contacted.

Send your kid to a proper school or stop complaining.

What about if the parents can't afford to send their kids to a proper (probably) Farang school? Can they continue to complain?

Well then they wouldn't; at least not on TV. If the OP is well read enough to write as he does as well as work in a foreign country then I'm sure he has the resources to find a job somewhere with a quality school.

And if he doesn't work here; retired or what not; thats even less of an excuse.

Edited September 28, 2011 by Kilgore Trout

[Moonrakers]

Its terrifying isn't it... your poor daughter had to walk home alone.

Poor mite - I hope she gets over the horror of it soon.

?

Is that sarcasm?

I would imagine so. A poor attempt at that.

I'm still unsure.

I'll be genuinely surprised to find that anybody thinks it's OK for a 7 year old to be walking the streets alone.

[Kilgore Trout]

Thats what you get for sending your kid to a sub-par (probably) Thai school.

The Int. schools have web portals, weekly newsletters, and 7 year olds are certainly not allowed to leave the school grounds with out their parents or approved guardian (who must present a valid ID at the gate). If a child was not picked up, the school should have kept her in the office until a parent was contacted.

Send your kid to a proper school or stop complaining.

What about if the parents can't afford to send their kids to a proper (probably) Farang school? Can they continue to complain?

Should I uproot my family and move 400 km to Bangkok or Chiang Mai where there is a farang school?

If you truly care about your child's education then, unequivically....YES

[andrewbkk]

Thats what you get for sending your kid to a sub-par (probably) Thai school.

The Int. schools have web portals, weekly newsletters, and 7 year olds are certainly not allowed to leave the school grounds with out their parents or approved guardian (who must present a valid ID at the gate). If a child was not picked up, the school should have kept her in the office until a parent was contacted.

Send your kid to a proper school or stop complaining.

Plus one!

[Moonrakers]

Thats what you get for sending your kid to a sub-par (probably) Thai school.

The Int. schools have web portals, weekly newsletters, and 7 year olds are certainly not allowed to leave the school grounds with out their parents or approved guardian (who must present a valid ID at the gate). If a child was not picked up, the school should have kept her in the office until a parent was contacted.

Send your kid to a proper school or stop complaining.

What about if the parents can't afford to send their kids to a proper (probably) Farang school? Can they continue to complain?

Well then they wouldn't; at least not on TV. If the OP is well read enough to write as he does as well as work in a foreign country then I'm sure he has the resources to find a job somewhere with a quality school.

Look

The school she is in now is a demonstration school. It's a state sponsored school for the smart kids and you can't buy a place in there, I know because some have tried. She was in a better school beforehand only the current place was sold to us as the better option for our daughter. It turns out however that the current place is nowhere near as good as it was meant to be and, as I have already said in this thread, we have already arranged for and paid for a better school for her.

You really shouldn't be so quick to judge

Besides, many people just cannot genuinely pay for a decent place and might find themselves with no choice.

[hands22]

It's definitely NOT ok for a child to walk a long way home alone. They also say it's ok because it's not their child.

[Kilgore Trout]

Thats what you get for sending your kid to a sub-par (probably) Thai school.

The Int. schools have web portals, weekly newsletters, and 7 year olds are certainly not allowed to leave the school grounds with out their parents or approved guardian (who must present a valid ID at the gate). If a child was not picked up, the school should have kept her in the office until a parent was contacted.

Send your kid to a proper school or stop complaining.

What about if the parents can't afford to send their kids to a proper (probably) Farang school? Can they continue to complain?

Well then they wouldn't; at least not on TV. If the OP is well read enough to write as he does as well as work in a foreign country then I'm sure he has the resources to find a job somewhere with a quality school.

Look

The school she is in now is a demonstration school. It's a state sponsored school for the smart kids and you can't buy a place in there, I know because some have tried. She was in a better school beforehand only the current place was sold to us as the better option for our daughter. It turns out however that the current place is nowhere near as good as it was meant to be and, as I have already said in this thread, we have already arranged for and paid for a better school for her.

You really shouldn't be so quick to judge

Besides, many people just cannot genuinely pay for a decent place and might find themselves with no choice.

Granted Moonraker, I know nothing about your personal situation.

I am of the opinion though, that many people (perhaps not you) put living in Thailand ahead of what is best for their child. If you know Thailand then you know what to expect from a Thai school, even one of the better ones (its like comparing stool samples, one may look better than the other but they are both pieces of $hi#).

I know kids who have well off foreign parents, yet the kids cannot speak a lick of English, because of moms influence speak low class Thai and have absolutely no understanding of the importance of an education.

I truly feel sorry for these kids as it is not their fault. They have bleak futures. Shame on the parents though.

[travelmann]

Scary stuff. I hope she's OK.

Yes, she is just fine thankfully. Quite proud of her little expedition in fact. Of course she has since been told she should wait but there's no way she's at fault.

Glad your daughter is okay. This happens quite a lot to us with the village school, but fortunately our daughter rides a school bus (truck) every day and THEY always know. Every now and then she comes home from school with the news that there is no school for x amount of days...never any advance notice from school.

Gets a little frustrating, but no idea how to change it...we just accept it.

Now besides getting her a Fino, consider a telephone as well. All 7 year olds need both.

I dunno whats worse the kid walking home or letting your kid get on a THAI school bus????

[Tailschao]

When I was 10 school closed early one day and I walked home 6 miles down a dual carriageway in the UK, parents were pretty freaked out...but these kind of things happen the world over, not just in Thailand.

From the age of 11 years I rode a bicycle to school along the main London-Brighton road, 4 miles there, and believe it or not, the same distance back. When about 13 years old 'our gang' decided to go down the road to Brighton - only about 55 miles away. The only preparation for the trip that I made was to nip indoors, tell my Mother what me and the lads were going to do, tucked my new long trousers into my socks and off we went. We were a tougher breed in those far off days.

Back in my day we gargled razor blades, slept on beds of asbestos and seasoned our food with arsenic.

Bloody kids nowadays.

[Jebhead]

Kids need cell phones for this reason.

Absolutely, all children should be equipped with them and taught how to use them. Speed dial is so easy to set up for a 6-7 year old. and .... cells are so cheap for a base model no reason for a kid not to have one.

They should be down the mines by 6 or 7.......

JH

[nocturn]

Its terrifying isn't it... your poor daughter had to walk home alone.

Poor mite - I hope she gets over the horror of it soon.

you seem bitter, are you, perchance, barren?

[Kananga]

Kids need cell phones for this reason.

Absolutely, all children should be equipped with them and taught how to use them. Speed dial is so easy to set up for a 6-7 year old. and .... cells are so cheap for a base model no reason for a kid not to have one.

They should be down the mines by 6 or 7.......

JH

And if they can't afford a farang school education (whatever that is) have them out selling flowers on Sukhumvit at 3 in the morning till they can pay for it themselves.

[StreetCowboy]

Kids need cell phones for this reason.

Absolutely, all children should be equipped with them and taught how to use them. Speed dial is so easy to set up for a 6-7 year old. and .... cells are so cheap for a base model no reason for a kid not to have one.

They should be down the mines by 6 or 7.......

JH

Are you saying there's no GSM coverage down your pit?

SC

[Jebhead]

It's definitely NOT ok for a child to walk a long way home alone. They also say it's ok because it's not their child.

It may not be ok ( in your opinion ) but it's reality, it's done all over the world buddy....

JH

[thequietman]

Thats what you get for sending your kid to a sub-par (probably) Thai school.

The Int. schools have web portals, weekly newsletters, and 7 year olds are certainly not allowed to leave the school grounds with out their parents or approved guardian (who must present a valid ID at the gate). If a child was not picked up, the school should have kept her in the office until a parent was contacted.

Send your kid to a proper school or stop complaining.

Its not as simple as that kilgore. we live in the sticks so the only school available is the local school. failing that my 10 year old would have to rise at 5 a.m. get a bus to the nearest town school 50 km away and then have to go through the return trip. i have seen kids arrive home at 6:30 pm.

what needs to be done is for the schools to have some foresight and thought process when they want or need to close early. the same happens in my kids school. they cancel lessons to attend retirement parties or for school trips. 30 students go on the trips and so do ALL of the teachers. its a free jaunt, so why not. the other 600 students are told not to come to school. its wrong and affects the students' education but hey! mai pen rai.

[Jebhead]

Thats what you get for sending your kid to a sub-par (probably) Thai school.

The Int. schools have web portals, weekly newsletters, and 7 year olds are certainly not allowed to leave the school grounds with out their parents or approved guardian (who must present a valid ID at the gate). If a child was not picked up, the school should have kept her in the office until a parent was contacted.

Send your kid to a proper school or stop complaining.

Its not as simple as that kilgore. we live in the sticks so the only school available is the local school. failing that my 10 year old would have to rise at 5 a.m. get a bus to the nearest town school 50 km away and then have to go through the return trip. i have seen kids arrive home at 6:30 pm.

what needs to be done is for the schools to have some foresight and thought process when they want or need to close early. the same happens in my kids school. they cancel lessons to attend retirement parties or for school trips. 30 students go on the trips and so do ALL of the teachers. its a free jaunt, so why not. the other 600 students are told not to come to school. its wrong and affects the students' education but hey! mai pen rai.

As mentioned you get what you pay for. Perhaps you should have put some more thought into where you decided to live based on your childs education needs.

JH

[Moonrakers]

When I was 10 school closed early one day and I walked home 6 miles down a dual carriageway in the UK, parents were pretty freaked out...but these kind of things happen the world over, not just in Thailand.

From the age of 11 years I rode a bicycle to school along the main London-Brighton road, 4 miles there, and believe it or not, the same distance back. When about 13 years old 'our gang' decided to go down the road to Brighton - only about 55 miles away. The only preparation for the trip that I made was to nip indoors, tell my Mother what me and the lads were going to do, tucked my new long trousers into my socks and off we went. We were a tougher breed in those far off days.

Back in my day we gargled razor blades, slept on beds of asbestos and seasoned our food with arsenic.

Bloody kids nowadays.

Seasoned your food with arsenic?

Back in my day there was no food, only arsenic. We had to season our arsenic with more arsenic, and that's when we were lucky enough to have any arsenic at all.

Bloody kids nowadays.

[Richard4849]

Thats what you get for sending your kid to a sub-par (probably) Thai school.

The Int. schools have web portals, weekly newsletters, and 7 year olds are certainly not allowed to leave the school grounds with out their parents or approved guardian (who must present a valid ID at the gate). If a child was not picked up, the school should have kept her in the office until a parent was contacted.

Send your kid to a proper school or stop complaining.

Its not as simple as that kilgore. we live in the sticks so the only school available is the local school. failing that my 10 year old would have to rise at 5 a.m. get a bus to the nearest town school 50 km away and then have to go through the return trip. i have seen kids arrive home at 6:30 pm.

what needs to be done is for the schools to have some foresight and thought process when they want or need to close early. the same happens in my kids school. they cancel lessons to attend retirement parties or for school trips. 30 students go on the trips and so do ALL of the teachers. its a free jaunt, so why not. the other 600 students are told not to come to school. its wrong and affects the students' education but hey! mai pen rai.

Is there a compelling reason that you're living in the sticks? IE., one that trumps the educational needs of your kids?

[thequietman]

Thats what you get for sending your kid to a sub-par (probably) Thai school.

The Int. schools have web portals, weekly newsletters, and 7 year olds are certainly not allowed to leave the school grounds with out their parents or approved guardian (who must present a valid ID at the gate). If a child was not picked up, the school should have kept her in the office until a parent was contacted.

Send your kid to a proper school or stop complaining.

Its not as simple as that kilgore. we live in the sticks so the only school available is the local school. failing that my 10 year old would have to rise at 5 a.m. get a bus to the nearest town school 50 km away and then have to go through the return trip. i have seen kids arrive home at 6:30 pm.

what needs to be done is for the schools to have some foresight and thought process when they want or need to close early. the same happens in my kids school. they cancel lessons to attend retirement parties or for school trips. 30 students go on the trips and so do ALL of the teachers. its a free jaunt, so why not. the other 600 students are told not to come to school. its wrong and affects the students' education but hey! mai pen rai.

As mentioned you get what you pay for. Perhaps you should have put some more thought into where you decided to live based on your childs education needs.

JH

This is where my wife lives. also my kids' aunts,uncles,cousins,grandfather,grand mother,best friends. this is where my wifes job is. this is where we built our home. to suggest moving to an international school in a different town just doesnt make sense. International schools here are on a similar par to normal schools in any town in the uk and we know how crap they are. the closest international school is 4 hours drive away and does not have a good reputation. the farrang teachers that teach there come and go on regular intervals. when they get a good teacher, he is then thought of as too old or not handsome anymore and doesnt get his contract renewed. yes they do insist on a minimum degree qualification but what kind of teacher does that get you. a back packer or a bar hawk just waiting for his next pay check.

i have thought this out, checked the options available and have come to the same conclusion. all thai schools international or not are all crap. the high school diplomas or degrees the kids get may as well be toilet paper. I will let him go to the school that is best for him and us, with the limited local choices i have. when he gets to 18, if he so chooses he can go to a uni outside thailand.

hope this meets with your approval.

[paulian]

I notice one post said to just accept it. I don't have any small children in the country. However, if I did, I certainly would not accept it. Something should at least be mentioned to the school authorities. For some reason in this country, it appears officials don't recognize the most basic logic in life. I think many times it is not that they do not care but just do not realize the ramifications of their actions. Getting a few parents together and making a trip to the principles office can do nothing but help in a situation like this. This is not a country to let children roam around unsupervised even for a few blocks. .

If you will re-read my post I didn't say everyone has to just accept it, but rather that we accept it because we cannot change it. Truly, this is the way it is in the villages of Thailand, and I welcome you and your group of a few parents to make your trip to the principal's office. Let me know how that works out, because if you think we just accept it without expressing our feelings to the "powers that be", you are not correct.

Sorry, I didn't analyze every word in your post, just trying to help and have forgot how to read minds so had no idea what you may or may not have done. So ..... no need to get uppity with me, I’m just making suggestions and trying to help. Try it on another forum member, not me, PAL.

[Kananga]

Thats what you get for sending your kid to a sub-par (probably) Thai school.

The Int. schools have web portals, weekly newsletters, and 7 year olds are certainly not allowed to leave the school grounds with out their parents or approved guardian (who must present a valid ID at the gate). If a child was not picked up, the school should have kept her in the office until a parent was contacted.

Send your kid to a proper school or stop complaining.

Its not as simple as that kilgore. we live in the sticks so the only school available is the local school. failing that my 10 year old would have to rise at 5 a.m. get a bus to the nearest town school 50 km away and then have to go through the return trip. i have seen kids arrive home at 6:30 pm.

what needs to be done is for the schools to have some foresight and thought process when they want or need to close early. the same happens in my kids school. they cancel lessons to attend retirement parties or for school trips. 30 students go on the trips and so do ALL of the teachers. its a free jaunt, so why not. the other 600 students are told not to come to school. its wrong and affects the students' education but hey! mai pen rai.

As mentioned you get what you pay for. Perhaps you should have put some more thought into where you decided to live based on your childs education needs.

JH

This is where my wife lives. also my kids' aunts,uncles,cousins,grandfather,grand mother,best friends. this is where my wifes job is. this is where we built our home. to suggest moving to an international school in a different town just doesnt make sense. International schools here are on a similar par to normal schools in any town in the uk and we know how crap they are. the closest international school is 4 hours drive away and does not have a good reputation. the farrang teachers that teach there come and go on regular intervals. when they get a good teacher, he is then thought of as too old or not handsome anymore and doesnt get his contract renewed. yes they do insist on a minimum degree qualification but what kind of teacher does that get you. a back packer or a bar hawk just waiting for his next pay check.

i have thought this out, checked the options available and have come to the same conclusion. all thai schools international or not are all crap. the high school diplomas or degrees the kids get may as well be toilet paper. I will let him go to the school that is best for him and us, with the limited local choices i have. when he gets to 18, if he so chooses he can go to a uni outside thailand.

hope this meets with your approval.

Your choices dont need to meet with anyone's approval, however I would personally put my children's education far ahead of living in close proximity to my inlaws. It seems as if you have given up on providing the best education (or even a semi decent one) you can for your children over a life of convenience which I for one find most bizarre and a little depressing. What could be more important than your children's education???????

[thequietman]

Your choices dont need to meet with anyone's approval, however I would personally put my children's education far ahead of living in close proximity to my inlaws. It seems as if you have given up on providing the best education (or even a semi decent one) you can for your children over a life of convenience which I for one find most bizarre and a little depressing. What could be more important than your children's education???????

I would take family over a thai education any day of the week.

A good education is important, I know that, however on the other hand, these examples prove that for the truly intelligent, motivated, and brave, there may be better ways to spend several youthful years than sitting in a classroom.

• 
  Sir Richard Branson
  Estimated net worth: 8.6 billion USD
  Sir Branson left school when he was only 16. Ironically, his first successful business was publishing a magazine called Student. Today, Branson is known for his brand Virgin, which includes Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic Airways, and over 300 other companies. Also adding to his grandeur, Sir Branson bought his own 79-acre Caribbean island when he was just 24 and he was knighted in 1999.
• 
  Dean Kamen
  Estimated net worth: Unclear, but thought to be in the billions USD
  Dean Kamen, a prolific and ingenious inventor, dropped out of Worcester Polytechnic Institute before graduating. Although best known for the Segway PT, Kamen holds more than 80 US patents and has created many products such as the AutoSyringe and iBOT robotic wheelchair. When Kamen travels to work, he has to decide which of his two helicopters to take. For longer trips, he pilots his own private jet. He also owns a small island near Connecticut that generates its own electricity from wind.
• 
  Bill Gates
  Estimated net worth: 58 billion USD
  Bill Gates has topped the Forbes list of "The World's Richest People" continually since 1995. Gates took an interest in programming while attending preparatory school in Seattle. To earn time on early shared computers, Gates and his classmates offered to debug corporate software. When he was 14, Gates earned $20,000 from his first programming venture. After scoring a near-perfect 1590 on his SATs, Gates enrolled at Harvard but left, without a degree, to co-found "Micro-Soft". Today, one of Gates' homes in Washington has an annual property tax of about $1 million. In 2006, Gates claimed that he wished he wasn't the world's richest man, because he disliked the attention it brought.
• 
  Paul Allen
  Estimated net worth: 18.0 billion USD
  Paul Allen befriended Bill Gates while they were both attending a private school in Seattle. Allen went on to attend Washington State University, but dropped out after two years. He was also the one who convinced Bill Gates to drop out of Harvard in order to start Microsoft. The two co-founded the company in 1975, but Allen has distanced himself from the company since then. In addition to more than 100 million shares of Microsoft, Allen owns 12 professional sports teams, plenty of real estate, and has stakes in dozens of technology and media companies such as Dreamworks Studios.
• 
  Ralph Lauren
  Estimated net worth: 3.6 billion USD
  In high school, Ralph Lauren was known to sell neckties to his fellow students. In his yearbook, he stated that he wanted to be a millionaire. He studied business for two years at Baruch College but never graduated. Nonetheless, he has far surpassed his goal of becoming a millionaire. In 2006, Polo Ralph Lauren had a net income of $300 million.
• 
  Steve Jobs
  Estimated net worth: 5.7 billion USD
  In addition to being the CEO of Apple Inc, Steve Jobs became the largest individual shareholder of the Walt Disney Company after selling Pixar Animation Studios in 2006. In 2007, he was chosen as Fortune Magazine's most powerful businessman. That's quite an honor for someone who dropped out of college after just one semester. Although his yearly salary is officially just $1, Jobs has received "executive gifts" including a $46 million jet and nearly 30 million shares of restricted stock. Because capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than salary income, this is also a tax minimization strategy.
• 
  Larry Ellison
  Estimated net worth: 18.4 billion USD
  In 1977, Larry Ellison put up $2,000 to start what would become Oracle Corporation, the world's second-largest software company. Ellison briefly attended the University of Illinois as well as the University of Chicago, but received a degree from neither. Today he is known for his extravagant lifestyle. He owns a 450 ft, $200 million yacht, exotic cars including a McLaren F1, over a dozen multi-million dollar estates in California, and several jets, which he is licensed to pilot himself.
• 
  Michael Dell
  Estimated net worth: 17.2 billion USD
  Michael Dell started a computer company called PCs Limited while attending the University of Texas at Austin. It became successful enough that Dell dropped out of school to operate it, and the company eventually became Dell, Inc, with revenues of $57.4 billion in 2007. In 2006, Dell and his wife gave a $50 million grant to the University which he attended but never graduated from.
• 
  Kirk Kerkorian
  Estimated net worth: 18.0 billion USD
  Kirk Kerkorian dropped out of school in the 8th grade. His first venture was an airline that flew from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. In 1962, he bought 80 acres of land along the Las Vegas strip for just under $1 million, and he continued making his fortune from buying and developing properties in Las Vegas. Currently, Kerkorian has a large stake in all of the following hotels: Bellagio, Excaliber, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, New York-New York, Circus Circus, The Mirage, and more.

[Kananga]

and how many of these (or any) highly successful people were subjected to a very poor developing nation standard of education because their parents couldnt be bothered to move away from Auntie and Grandma?

[Johnniey]

Kids need cell phones for this reason.

Absolutely, all children should be equipped with them and taught how to use them. Speed dial is so easy to set up for a 6-7 year old. and .... cells are so cheap for a base model no reason for a kid not to have one.

I disagree. I think the OP was partly to blame. Children of that age should be taught never to leave school by themselves - even if they stop early, wait for their mother/father. it not as though they'll be alone. My wife always had the phone number of my kids' teachers and some of the other mothers.

[Johnniey]

and how many of these (or any) highly successful people were subjected to a very poor developing nation standard of education because their parents couldnt be bothered to move away from Auntie and Grandma?

Also sad that this guy is not interested in his kids' education but only in their income when they grow up.

Remember, our kids copy us - what kind of example is this, teaching your kids that money is more important than education?

[Moonrakers]

Kids need cell phones for this reason.

Absolutely, all children should be equipped with them and taught how to use them. Speed dial is so easy to set up for a 6-7 year old. and .... cells are so cheap for a base model no reason for a kid not to have one.

I disagree. I think the OP was partly to blame. Children of that age should be taught never to leave school by themselves - even if they stop early, wait for their mother/father. it not as though they'll be alone. My wife always had the phone number of my kids' teachers and some of the other mothers.

Ain't hindsight a wonderful thing.

[mario299]

Moonrakers

Now see what you've done. You're stupid, Thewalkingman sets bad examples for his children, I'm uppity and now apparently have a PAL I certainly don't want or need.

I thought it was a pretty simple problem and story you had, and I'm glad your little girl is okay, but look at the tempest you have created. Aren't you ashamed of yourself?

[Moonrakers]

Moonrakers

Now see what you've done. You're stupid, Thewalkingman sets bad examples for his children, I'm uppity and now apparently have a PAL I certainly don't want or need.

I thought it was a pretty simple problem and story you had, and I'm glad your little girl is okay, but look at the tempest you have created. Aren't you ashamed of yourself?

For my next thread, I think I might expose the moral failings of people that use one tea-bag instead of two......

Edited September 28, 2011 by Moonrakers

[KeyserSoze01]

Quite predictable. A simple little thread about how a child walks home from school degenerates into character assassination of the OP due to poor parenting and lack of concern over a child's education as compared to family needs. Do you people actually read the drivel you write and more importantly, believe half of it -or- is this all yet another wind up?

[thequietman]

Quite predictable. A simple little thread about how a child walks home from school degenerates into character assassination of the OP due to poor parenting and lack of concern over a child's education as compared to family needs. Do you people actually read the drivel you write and more importantly, believe half of it -or- is this all yet another wind up?

Wind up, however i can only speak for myself. its fun to let them have the bait and see what happens.

bunch of opiniated oafs some members. experts on everything to the last.

however thaivisa is my life line and you do get lots of good info on here as regards immigration, so long may it last.

keep smiling guys and be careful out there.