It’s so ironic. When one person can influence and inspire the whole world so much by his or her wisdom and love, one can actually destroy one’s life by firmly root in the fruits of hatred in his or her heart. It’s so scary to see how parents do not aware of their abilities to raise a miracle or a disaster. I strongly believe that how a person acts and decides greatly depends on how he or she is raised by his or her parents. See, parents are role models. When you have someone full of hatred raising you, you’ll end up building this wall around you and become so defensive against everybody. But if you have someone so patient and full of love caring for you, you’ll become another caring, thoughtful and full of love kind of person.

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I teach these two kids. Thalia and Hansen. Both of them are not normal. They have disorder in hearing and understanding. Both of them have difficulties in blending with their surroundings. They are different, and so I told their friends and the rest of their classes. The other kids understand that very well. They support Hansen and Thalia very much and I hate to see how such effort is wasted.

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See, Thalia’s parents in fact could not understand the difficulty their daughter has. They blame her for being a rebel and being so naughty. They even punish her for not listening to them. For God’s sake, SHE CANNOT UNDERSTAND YOU!! SHE CAN PERFECTLY HEAR YOU BUT SHE CANNOT UNDERSTAND YOUR WORDS SO HOW ON EARTH DO YOU EXPECT HER TO DO ALL YOU ARE TELLING HER TO DO?! HOW CAN YOU HIT HER?!!!

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How can you hit her for being different? How can you? It doesn’t give you the right to hit her even when you are her parents. It really doesn’t. How can you judge her for being different? How can you say she’s not a good kid? For Jesus’ sake, how can you hit her? How can you?

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Why can’t they be a little bit patient with her? Just a bit. Why don’t they repeat their words again and again until she understands? She can understand, but she can’t do it as fast as normal kids do. Can’t you understand THAT?

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I pity her. Hansen who has a more difficult problem with his autistic personality is blessed enough to have such understanding parents. They understand how Hansen is different from another kids and they love him even more. They teach him how to say ‘thank you’ and how to say ’sorry’. They teach him how to eat properly and how to sit properly. It’s a thousand times harder task than teaching Thalia to listen, yet Thalia’s parents won’t do the same thing.

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My heart aches when I see those bruises on Thalia’s stomach. My heart cries when I hear her story about her parents hitting her with a belt when she won’t listen. It’s not easy to talk with Thalia, and to get her listen to me, but yet I succeeded. Why can’t you as her parents do the same thing? Why can’t you be patient a little bit and understand? Don’t you love her? Doesn’t it hurt you when you hit her with your belt?

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Now I realize it’s not how your parents love you that matters. What differentiates good parents from bad parents is how they are willing to understand. Simply understand. Simply wanting to reach out their hands and open  up their minds. Simply listening to their children’s cries and opening up their eyes to see how their children are struggling.

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I cried yesterday. They are so small. Such innocent kids with unfortunate destinies. They are struggling so hard with their conditions, trying their best to have people accepting them and treating them properly. Trying so hard to win their love. I cried with a deep hurting and heartache. How I want to hold and love them so that they won’t be scared anymore. How I want to make them understand that they are loved, that they don’t have to be so ghastly against everyone.

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Hansen bit me when I first met him. He kicked my feet, bit my hand, pushed me, stabbed my palms with pencil, pulled my hair, almost tore my shirt, just because I wanted to talk to him. During our first encounter, Thalia slapped me on the face, almost broke my fingers, grasped my arm so firmly to hurt me, bit my hand, kicked me on the knee, just because I asked her to open her grammar book.

But now Hansen could come to me and say ‘good morning, miss’ with such a cute attitude. He offered to take my bag and folder, shook my hands when he was about to leave the class, said ‘goodbye’ with a manner, and walked slowly instead of running away.

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How different. How understanding someone can change so much in the person. How caring and treating them with love can make such a difference.

Please, I beg you. Do not hurt Thalia. She’s just a kid. She doesn’t understand what she’s going through. She needs help. She needs understanding and a reaching hand. Not a slap. Nor a belt.