The Big Day

Thun was one of three students from his school to be invited to the Bangkok City-Wide Math Contest.

Of course we had to go. For the week before he went, when I came home, Thun would run up to me and jump into my arms, "Daddy, five more days!" or "Daddy, four more days", etc. I have never seen anybody so excited about a math contest.

I kept yelling at Poo: "you must get old papers, we need to study!" But she looked at me like I was crazy: "he's 8 years old, why make him study for a math contest??"

We got there and of course I was the only farang. A cop stopped me to make sure that I'm not a child molester, but I was able to adequately explain in Thai that this is my son and we're here for the test. There were thousands of kids and dozens of hawkers selling #2 pencils. I had to push my way to the Big Board, read (in Thai!) where Thun was supposed to be, and escort him to the indoor/outdoor classroom. Then I went to a picnic table an practiced number theory for a couple of hours. When Thun emerged, I asked him, "easy, huh?"

"NO!" he was stunned. "Too, too difficult." Poor kid, it looked like he had been in a war. To him, a math test is multiplication problems. Suddenly, he was being asked to calculate the surface area of a triangular prism!

I took him to Burger King and tried to calm him down. Still, it wasn't easy. He looked like he had been through electro-shock therapy. A kid's first experience of failure is not easy.