Rankings

I am beaming with pride.

My 8-year-old, Thun, came home with his report card. He is ranked 3rd out of 31, and he is #1 in mathematics. This is the Thai system. They rank 8-year-olds.

When I went to his school, I saw the rankings prominently displayed outside of the classroom. There's no hiding. Name and ranking, just like the League Tables in soccer, or the Standings in baseball. When I saw his name third, I was proud, but then I realized: the kids at #30 and #31, they've got parents, too!

But what really makes me happy is this: not only do they rank the students; they rank the subjects, too! Thai Language ranks first. Mathematics ranks 2nd. Science and English are tied for third. Art, computers, and religion (surprisingly!) are tied for 5th, and PE comes dead last!!! Why can't our school do that?

Thun's grades in the important subjects are all very good. However, his teacher thinks he's no good at PE, because he likes to play ball instead of listening to the teacher, and he sucks at Art, because instead of drawing a still life, like he's told, his imagination wanders to abstract expressionism!

Geek Talk

Yesterday was the first day of our long holiday but I had to go to school to take care of a few details. What did I find? The War Gamers Club, more properly known as a Geek Convention. I went inside and asked them:

"Where's the girl that used to play with you guys?"

Their heads started spinning and they looked at each other in puzzlement:

"Girl??" Huh?? We used to have a girl?? Really?? Who?? Did we really have a girl??"

Then I took a video where I got their advice about computers. I thought the video would be 30 seconds but I had the wrong disk in my camera so it was only three seconds. Luckily! It took two minutes just to upload that. And who wants to watch 30 seconds of Geek Talk: arguments about computers? I think Mr. Watts was right.

Mr. Watts, our principal, saw the boys in the old library and asked me:

"Are you supervising them?"

"No!"

"Well, who's supervising them?" he demanded.

"Probably, no one," I offered, "they're pretty smart; they probably figured out how to get into the old library by themselves."

"Well, they must be supervised," insisted Mr. Watts. "What happens when they start fighting each other with flame-throwers?"