I never got an answer. Novice Ton does not have big dreams. He just wants to avoid the traps other hilltribe children fall into when they are uneducated. They are obvious even to a child of 12. In my village, illiterate peasants are often cheated by the educated city people.
Many parents allow their daughters to go with the flesh trade agents.
Some of my friends were lured into drug trafficking. According to the head monk, education is not about getting good grades. Rather, he sees it as a process of acquiring values and knowledge which will later serve as one's moral compass. A monk shaves the head of a hilltribe boy in preparation for his ordination as his Karen mother looks on. At the ordination ceremony, most of the hilltribe boys who came from various villages in Hod were accompanied by their parents.