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I began teaching the Gifted classes in our school district in 1985. That year, the Ramses II exhibit was sent from Egypt to tour the United States. This was a one time opportunity to experience the authentic statues, sarcophagi, and other relics of ancient Egypt. The tour was having a showing at the Prime Osborn Convention Center in Jacksonville, which was a beautiful, huge new facility able to hold the great monuments. I created a curriculum using research materials provided by the exhibit, plus a study guide with slides from a very prominent group in Jacksonville. This group was offering a course on Ramses and the exhibit, and was giving excellent resources to anyone who took the course. I took advantage of this opportunity to be better able to present the information to my classes. My school district highly approved my curriculum. Many parents were quite excited about the course and the upcoming field trip to the exhibit.I had an 11 year old girl in my class whose mom had grown up next to my grandparents. These neighbors raised their children very thriftily-meaning their diet consisted of items picked from my grandfather’s garden and handed out from Granny’s freezer. When the little girl was born, I was in college, but I remember her running in and out of my grandparents’s house uninvited, stealing cookies and candy, and even hiding under the beds. I installed deadbolt locks on my grandparents’ doors, which prompted Little Daphne to bang on the doors and yell. Years later, when I took over the Gifted program as Director, I was “lucky” to have Little Daphne placed in my class.This child believed she was free to run around in school from room to room as she wished, disrupting learning by her behavior. This had been a problem since she entered school. After many warnings from other teachers and reviewing her records, I began to doubt her qualification for my program as she demonstrated no interest in the enrichment found in my class. In fact, her class work was in her regular class was often incomplete and sloppily done. I met with the principle, teacher, and guidance counselor about my concerns, requesting support for discipline with the girl. They all assured me that they had exhausted many methods.My next step was to contact her mom with each infraction. I would discuss what Daphne had done, then let Mom know how I would handle this after an initial warning. Her mom was fine with having me deal with her child’s behavior and appreciated my attempt to work with her, but she did not follow up. Mainly, the mother only offered a long string of excuses or the genetic history of her daughter’s behavior-“She gets that from her dad!” There was no dad in the picture, so I had no contact with a father.Time came for students to sign up for our field trip to see Ramses II. The promise of this trip was a great motivation for high interest in our study. I was excited to see how well my students’ knowledge applied to the exhibit. The students signed up, took home permission forms, and returned the forms and their $5 payment. We were able to get reduced admission and pay for the school bus for only $5 each. Students and parent chaperones returned permission forms and payments promptly. I called a few with reminders, who took care of this immediately. But of course not Daphne! Her mom was a nurse and was employed then, but I still contacted her with a reminder several times- offering to help with payment if she would send in the permission form. She said she’d get it to me, but never sent anything.The deadline came to pay and I sent our money in to pay for tour tickets. Admission was limited, so tickets had to purchased in advanced. I let Daphne’s mother know the deadline has passed. I could not get her a ticket, so Daphne would remain with her teacher that day. Of course, the day of the trip, I arrived at this school with the bus to pick up the students and there was Daphne in line. I explained again to her for the 100th time that she had not paid nor returned a permission form. Of course, the girl threw a tantrum, so I had her escorted back to her class.The field trip was a great success. Several parents, our Art teacher, and one principal had chaperoned the trip. The principal told me this was the best organized school trip he had ever attended and was impressed with the students’ interest and knowledge. But all didn’t end well! A parent meeting was soon scheduled by Daphne’s mother. At the meeting with myself, the principal, and guidance counselor, the mom requested to withdraw Daphne from my gifted class because, as she claimed, “I was teaching about Ramses- a heathen!” I took the Bible from the bookshelf and asked her to turn to Exodus. I asked,”Who do you think the pharaoh is who Moses went to?” I then pulled out my materials given to me by my Jacksonville class. I asked her to read the author of the booklet. She read, “Written by Dr. Homer Linsey, Jr., and Reverend Jerry Vines of First Baptist Church, Jacksonville, Fl.”After a long, stunned silence, the mom complained I should have told her the source. I showed her signature on acceptance of my curriculum and reminded her that a copy of our reading had been sent home to her. She kept saying,”I didn’t know!” The principal asked her,”If you didn’t know, why did you say Mrs. Hooper was teaching about heathens?”

As a retired elementary teacher from an international school in Bangkok, I have gone on hundreds of field trips. Now technically, these excursions should be related to the curriculum being taught. Let’s just say that I stretched the truth sometimes when filling out the request forms for the trip. Shown below is a perfect example.This photograph was taken by my Thai teaching assistant on the tarmac of the Suvarnabhumi Airport before it was open to the public. A friend of Dee (my wife) had called her and asked if my class would like to tour the airport. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity and then began to wonder how I was going to pull this trip off.And then it hit me. As part of our English curriculum we had been studying about newspapers and each student was in the process of making their own newspaper for distribution to the rest of the class. Perfect. We would be touring the airport as reporters. The only problem was that a trip to the Bangkok Post had already been arranged, but luckily both the parents and school gave their approval for an additional educational trip.Let me set the scene. Bangkok Post headquarters. Circa 2004.A couple of Bangkok Post employees met us as we were getting off of the bus and the tour began. My students and I were amazed at the massive rolls of paper used, how fast the newspaper was printed and how noisy the printing presses were. After the tour we went to a large classroom for a question and answer period with a senior member of the administration team who was of Western heritage. But right off the bat, I noticed that the tour guides were not experienced teachers. Why?On the top of every desk that a student was sitting behind was a colorful plastic bag filled with Bangkok Post knick-knacks. Trust me, most eight year old students are not able to multi-task and nobody was asking questions. After a couple of minutes of silence, I decided to help out and break the ice. Plus it allowed me to tell the students to put everything down and pay attention. I then asked my question.“Does anybody in Thailand ever tell the Bangkok Post what to write or not to write?” I thought the guy was going to have a stroke. He stuttered and stammered and luckily a student soon asked how come the ink smells so bad. He answered that question.Why did I ask that particular question? I had got tired of students asking me over and over again what to print in their newspapers. My goal had been to try and get them to think for themselves and thought the Bangkok Post guy would say something along the lines that reporters have to find stories on their own.At the end of the day, the Bangkok Post ain’t a bad newspaper. I’ve read it for years and they do the best they can under the circumstances. Personally, I enjoy perusing the ‘Letters to the Editor’ section. Trust me, they have some nuts that write in…

Research the continents, then countries that interest you first.Decide on three.Then research international residential schools. This is to maximize your contact with students from other countries. That contact will add to your education and benefit you for your future life.Look up programming in each school.Examples: look at sports, field trips, physical environment, equestrian activities, availability of language instruction, music, art, etc.Then look at the positive combinations: languages and arts, music and sports, field trips and equestrian.Go over the websites and make notes in your categories.Form your questions and write to the school requesting more information about those programs. Do students have single or double accommodations? How often are field trips scheduled. What instruments are used in the music program? What are the rules for electronics? What procedures are they using with regard to Covid-19?Tell them you are conducting research on behalf of your parents and are entering grade 9.Keep all your notes and charts to help you and your parents compare.