Sub pages and template issues

Hi everybody. First, thanks for just being here and helping others. This is my first support request here and I wish to get some answers, if someone might have them ??

I am using wordpress 2.5.1 and I am trying to create a page template, in which I can display the page’s child pages. Since there is no “loop” for pages, I am using this piece of code:

<?php
				$pageChildren = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT * FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_parent = ".$post->ID." AND post_type = 'page' ORDER BY menu_order", 'OBJECT');
				if ( $pageChildren ) : foreach ( $pageChildren as $pageChild ) : setup_postdata( $pageChild );
			?>
				<?php echo ($pageChild["post_title"]); ?>
				<?php the_excerpt(); ?>
				<div style="clear:both; border-bottom: 1px solid red;"></div>
				<?php endforeach; endif; ?>

now, this isn’t working out very well although I have tried many different variations. I always get the same – the page stops loading (‘dies’) at echo ($pageChild["post_title"]);, but if I mark that as comment then the_excerpt(); function is working properly.

I really don’t know what to do next. I would be more then happy if someone could explain that to me or provide some alternative way..

thanks again. ^_^