This afternoon I saw a young girl at the back of my class surreptitiously applying ointment to her armpit area. Then I noticed a few pink spots on her face. I asked a Chinese teacher to find out what was going on, and the girl sheepishly admitted that she had Chicken Pox.
When our receptionist called her parents, they said, “Sorry, we forgot to tell you.” They also explained that they were too busy to come and pick their daughter up, so they’d arrange for an an ching ban teacher to come and get her (and take her back to the an ching ban she’d been at all day before coming to us). Needless to say, the parents of our other students were less than impressed. And I’m still fuming.
[quote=“Infidel”]This afternoon I saw a young girl at the back of my class surreptitiously applying ointment to her armpit area. Then I noticed a few pink spots on her face. I asked a Chinese teacher to find out what was going on, and the girl sheepishly admitted that she had Chicken Pox.
When our receptionist called her parents, they said, “Sorry, we forgot to tell you.” They also explained that they were too busy to come and pick their daughter up, so they’d arrange for an anqinban teacher to come and get her (and take her back to the anqinban she’d been at all day before coming to us). Needless to say, the parents of our other students were less than impressed. And I’m still fuming.[/quote]
I’ll bet you are. I really wish stories like this surprised me, but I guess I’ve been here too long…
Wait 10-21 days, and you will see if you have contracted the disease.
Also, you can advise that everyone get vaccinated against chicken pox. It’s a potentially fatal disease, but since 1995 there has been a vaccine available. Do yourself a favor: get vaccinated if you haven’t already had the disease or been vaccinated.
Don’t try to use Chinese medicine to take care of chicken pox. The China Daily reported in June 2005 that 223 students at an elementary school in Yunnan Province were poisoned by the concoction that their local health department gave them: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-06/17/content_452462.htm.
we had a chicken pox outbreak at my school back in december… one kid with it came and then everyday after that for about 3 weeks more and more kids were out sick.
That happened in my class, but it was a highly contagious fever accompanied by convulsions. The child’s mother wanted to go shopping, of all things.
Of course, the school acts angry in our presence, and is as sweet as sugar to Mommie Dearest, who claimed that “dealing with a sick child was not the reason she’d become a mother.”
Chicken pox? Don’t tell me you haven’t prayed that the whole class would become infected, causing several consecutive days off. Besides, it’s better they get it at a young age…
I quit a job once because of ass-kissing policies like this. I’ve seen the chicken pox mini-outbreak, chest infections (contagious kind that took most of the class out) and the dreaded pink eye.
The last one, pink eye, is what got me: 2/3rds of the school had it, including another teacher and myself, yet there was no policy in place to protect anybody. The unofficial (official) policy was to pack 'em in, no matter what.
The asswipe boss graciously offered me a day or two off unpaid so that I could “do the right thing” and not let any more of my students get infected. Asshole.
And asshole parents who can’t be bothered to notice the well being of their children enough to put a little elbow grease in the whole parenting thing and supply a little TLC at least WHEN NEEDED.
Students coming to class with Chicken pox is one of my worst nightmares here as I have no immunity to it. I’ve had it six friggin’ times in my life. Any time I see a kid with a pink spot anywhere, I start freaking out and make damn sure it’s not Chicken pox.
As for the attitude of parents towards their kids here, it’s just disgusting. The complete lack of desire to actually care for their offspring is sad, really. Especially when the kids are going to be the source of their retirement money. You’d think they’d be more willing to look after their investments.
On the plus side, a kindy I used to work for actually had the balls to close down for two weeks when some of the kids got that spots in the hand and mouth virus. I was pretty impressed at that.
A lot of Chinese parents think chicken pox is no big deal, as everyone is going to get it sooner or later anyway, and it’s better to get it over with when you’re a kid. That’s why other parents don’t usually complain very much when an infected kid shows up. I’ve heard stories of kindergartens lining all the other kids up to hug the kid with chicken pox!!
I still send them home when they show up at my school, or at least try to quarantine them until their parents come to get them, but the parents and even my Chinese staff think it’s not a big deal.
Going back to the subject of the thread…last year, my dumbass sister-in-law brought her daughter to Taipei for a visit…and her daughter had chicken pox. When I got home and found her there, I went batshit because her daughter was playing with my 2 year old daughter.
it’s not so bad. i never caught it as a kid, and was lucky when i got it as a 25 year old that it was not more severe. better to catch it as a child. i have even heard of parents bringing their kids around to another’s house when he was sick with it. mind you, ignoring the kid to go shopping is pretty tragic.
FYI: about 3 or 4 in 100,000 adults dies from chickenpox, often from pneumonia. pregnant women can have a child with birth defects. kids with chicken pox almost always recover fully, though about 1-2 in 100,000 may develop encephalitis (and usually recover). some people, adults and kids, go on to develop shingles later in life. chicken pox is contagious from a few days before the spots appear to about 10 days after the first spot. there is a vaccine now but its not really worth getting it except for immune compromised people.
now SARS and rubella and measles are a different kettle of fish entirely. don’t let your kid go to school with any of these!
Well…that all depends. At the least the child can end up scarred. And…my daughter has a brain tumor. It’s stabilized but if she gets a fever, she has to be rushed to the hospital and monitored because she can go into seizures.
[quote=“urodacus”]it’s not so bad. iFYI: about 3 or 4 in 100,000 adults dies from chickenpox, often from pneumonia. pregnant women can have a child with birth defects. kids with chicken pox almost always recover fully, though about 1-2 in 100,000 may develop encephalitis (and usually recover). some people, adults and kids, go on to develop shingles later in life. chicken pox is contagious from a few days before the spots appear to about 10 days after the first spot. there is a vaccine now but its not really worth getting it except for immune compromised people.
[/quote]
It’s not pneumonia I was told … it’s when the chickenpox go internal … men can become sterile
When you have to relieve the itching … go and sit in a bath tub with water starch solution …
Is this same course of action, sending the little ones off to school, done in the real schools here on Taiwan? Elementary, Jr. High and High Schools?
I find this absolutely amazing. Sending a child with a highly contagious disease to school is against the laws in all countries I know of.
Is this legal on Taiwan?
Besides, it’s better they get it at a young age…