A BOY IN
MY NEPHEW’S CLASS
For a long time my nephew had been complaining of Musa, a boy in his class, Kindergarten 2 (KG2) who he claimed did not know how to talk properly but always ransacked his school bag and took his snacks. He said he had been telling the teacher who had tried talking to the boy and even punishing him but the boy persisted on.
After hearing enough about Musa, my nephew's mother tried a trick that involved camouflaging the snacks by wrapping the package in a newspaper before putting it in the bag. This worked for some time. Musa would ransack the bag and would only find what looked like a ruffled newspaper, but with time, he learned that in fact what was in the papers was food. With this knowledge he started checking the bag thoroughly and would take whatever food he would find wrapped in the newspapers.
My nephew reported the new development to his mother who devised another method. This time round the snacks would be given to my nephew’s older brother so that its handed to him during break time. When Musa realized this, he too upped his game. He strategically started waiting for the handing over of the snack such that as soon as my nephew’s big brother was out of sight, he would run and forcefully snatch away the snack.
We all got alarmed at Musa’s zeal. We started wondering what kind of a boy Musa was and why the teacher was not helping much. We decided enough was enough. We were not going to take any more stories about the boy Musa and were up in arms ready to face the KG2 teacher and the school administration. On reaching the school compound it did not take long before we met Musa. My nephew spotted him right from the gate and pointed at the fat brown boy, quite big compared to his class mates.
We went to my nephew’s class and took our time to explain our problem to the teacher……nothing had prepared us for what the teacher told us and soon we were all seated on the little baby chairs deeply engrossed in the story of Musa.
“In fact Musa is the reason am teaching in this class”, she began while apologizing for telling us the story, for she knew this was the only way we would understand the situation she was in. “None of the other teachers could handle him because they say he is troublesome and does not know how to talk properly", she narrated “I am meant to be teaching KG3 but the school administration requested that I teach this class because of Musa. He is troublesome, yes. A slow learner yes, and does not know how to talk properly. But I decided to take up the challenge.
A deeper story about Musa touched our hearts even deeper. Musa was a twin. At about seven months when he was still in his mother's womb the doctors discovered the other twin had died. The doctors said it was not possible to remove the dead fetus without interfering with the live one hence they decided the mother would have to wait for two more months until the surviving twin is nine months before they operate on her. Two months later the operation was done and Musa was born. Though with a slight mental and communication disorder, he is a charming boy who bubbles with joy. His aggressive behaviour is in fact a way of communicating which is misunderstood for being a bully.
The teacher concluded by asking us the BIG question, “What would you do if it was your child? I have decided to take Musa and love him the way he is and look”, she said while showing us his classwork, “he has improved a lot, even his vocabulary has increased tremendously”.
For a long time my nephew had been complaining of Musa, a boy in his class, Kindergarten 2 (KG2) who he claimed did not know how to talk properly but always ransacked his school bag and took his snacks. He said he had been telling the teacher who had tried talking to the boy and even punishing him but the boy persisted on.
After hearing enough about Musa, my nephew's mother tried a trick that involved camouflaging the snacks by wrapping the package in a newspaper before putting it in the bag. This worked for some time. Musa would ransack the bag and would only find what looked like a ruffled newspaper, but with time, he learned that in fact what was in the papers was food. With this knowledge he started checking the bag thoroughly and would take whatever food he would find wrapped in the newspapers.
My nephew reported the new development to his mother who devised another method. This time round the snacks would be given to my nephew’s older brother so that its handed to him during break time. When Musa realized this, he too upped his game. He strategically started waiting for the handing over of the snack such that as soon as my nephew’s big brother was out of sight, he would run and forcefully snatch away the snack.
We all got alarmed at Musa’s zeal. We started wondering what kind of a boy Musa was and why the teacher was not helping much. We decided enough was enough. We were not going to take any more stories about the boy Musa and were up in arms ready to face the KG2 teacher and the school administration. On reaching the school compound it did not take long before we met Musa. My nephew spotted him right from the gate and pointed at the fat brown boy, quite big compared to his class mates.
We went to my nephew’s class and took our time to explain our problem to the teacher……nothing had prepared us for what the teacher told us and soon we were all seated on the little baby chairs deeply engrossed in the story of Musa.
“In fact Musa is the reason am teaching in this class”, she began while apologizing for telling us the story, for she knew this was the only way we would understand the situation she was in. “None of the other teachers could handle him because they say he is troublesome and does not know how to talk properly", she narrated “I am meant to be teaching KG3 but the school administration requested that I teach this class because of Musa. He is troublesome, yes. A slow learner yes, and does not know how to talk properly. But I decided to take up the challenge.
A deeper story about Musa touched our hearts even deeper. Musa was a twin. At about seven months when he was still in his mother's womb the doctors discovered the other twin had died. The doctors said it was not possible to remove the dead fetus without interfering with the live one hence they decided the mother would have to wait for two more months until the surviving twin is nine months before they operate on her. Two months later the operation was done and Musa was born. Though with a slight mental and communication disorder, he is a charming boy who bubbles with joy. His aggressive behaviour is in fact a way of communicating which is misunderstood for being a bully.
The teacher concluded by asking us the BIG question, “What would you do if it was your child? I have decided to take Musa and love him the way he is and look”, she said while showing us his classwork, “he has improved a lot, even his vocabulary has increased tremendously”.
My sister in law and I decided that from that day henceforth we shall be packing a little extra snacks so that my nephew can share with Musa and that we would try and help other people to understand the plight of challenged children both in regular and inclusion schools.
