I asked her
'Are you waiting for school bus?' She shook her head.
'Are you waiting for your parent?' She nodded.
'Are your parent normally come late?' She shook her head.
'Do you have your house address?' She shook her head.
'Do you have your house phone number?' She shook her head.
'Do you know your house direction?' She nodded.
She wouldn't talk. The conversation was between shaking and nodding heads. She was sent home by the school canteen boss, fully relying on her finger-pointing direction.
The canteen boss later told me, they reached her grandpa house that day, which was not very far, but was not where she stays. The grandpa mentioned that she was not waiting for her parent, but school bus. However this girl likes to play and run around school while waiting for her school bus, that's why she missed her bus.
What was missing here? A list of simple things parents should teach their young children going to school.
- Give them a tag with house phone number and address to keep in school bag.
- Give them some money to keep in school bag (for emergency use, call home/buy food).
- Teach them to use the public phone.
- Teach them to differentiate reliable adults (school canteen workers, teachers, schoolmate's parents) vs. stranger on the street.
- Teach them to speak up if -- someone bully them, stranger getting friendly, alone in school, etc.
- Spend some time with them at home to talk about strangers, robbers, kidnappers, bullies, rapist. Not too deep, but at the level they can understand.
Teach our children things that cannot learn in the text book, tell them how to handle things that no one will explain to them if you don't (and they will one day face it).
They will be better children when they are 'informed'.
'Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.' ~ Deuteronomy 11:19
