A 12-year-old paves the road to Udonpit School

A couple of weeks ago I decided to go on the “good news tour” and bring constructive ideas and probably also solutions to neutralise the often-negative atmosphere of Thai education. I showed with “proven methodology” examples that Rajabath’s four-year proposal for teacher training had already been implemented successfully in other parts of the world, then brought home a distant Chinese “English learning” empowering anecdote. 
Surprisingly, today, Nation readers were amazed by a little Khmer boy with a head for languages and economics, eager to absorb the “verbal elixir” thrown at him daily by tourism’s diversity. 
The emphasis was on the effect of the sound-and-feel phenomenon and our Supawadi’s O-Net scores, indirectly showing her fellow P6-ers that they may not be able to copy her, but they could come a long way in challenging the O-net’s 50-per-cent hurdle with commitment and perseverance.
My article relates to a “direct version” of Supawadi’s “O-Net message” in 2012. Eight years ago I was sitting at the house of the education-focused family in the referred article, trying to master the Thai alphabet while answering English-related questions fired at me by three homework-doers. Suddenly the oldest of the trio, 10 years old, fetched a cartoon-like poster of the Thai alphabet and said, “This help you?” 
In 2012 she was the first student of her school to get through the (Special Class) admittance exams of the “Udonpit” school, which received recognition as the best school in the Northeast and ranked 11th in the country in 2013. 
Her Prathom teacher rewarded her with a Bt1,000 banknote and asked her if she could get permission to come back after the school holidays and give a “Yes YOU Also Can” speech for the new P5 and P6 students, which she did. 
Today I brought the “teacher with a vision” a large framed copy of the poster and a photograph of her, the speaker and the listening crowd, taken during the “legendary juvenile speech”. 
She was flabbergasted and had forgotten all about that day, but I had found another reason to continue “walking the unsolicited walk” where Thai education is concerned. Thailand is struggling with its education, but publishing the goodies as well can have an inspiring effect.
Dirk Sumter