I’ve just read the book “A Child Called It” by Dave Pelzer and although I find most of the things in it unbelievable, I was not able to stop myself from being so moved by the story. I’ve read the book in one sitting and in that one sitting; I felt pity, anger, deep sadness and then relief. I am not sure why I am so affected but it could be because I’ve got my small share of physical abuse in my childhood too. Not from my parents, mind you, but from my grandmother whose obsolete principles on disciplining a child lay on corporal punishment.

Dave Pelzer was physically abused by his own mother in ways unimaginable to me. I didn’t know that a human being—a mother at that, is capable of doing such things to her child. How could she? The story implied that Dave’s mother has some alcohol problems and that she was also physically abused as a child. But still. How could she?

So anyway, Dave’s teachers came in and saved him from his abusive mother. This is where I realized once again how important for us, teachers, to understand our pupils. Dave Pelzer was the school enemy number one. He was not only delinquent but he was also unkempt and stinky so nobody likes him. If it’s not because of that one substitute teacher who cared, he would have died in the hands of his mother or he would have end up being a criminal.

When pupils begin to behave badly at school, let’s not judge them immediately. We, as teachers, should try to understand why they are behaving like that. Dave was stealing food from his classmates. He didn’t do it for fun. He did it because he needed to survive. He was not fed enough at home so he thought of ways to feed himself. Who would’ve thought of that?

When our pupils behave in a disturbing way, let’s try to reach out to them. Let’s be mindful of their school marks but let’s not forget about their individual personalities because it is only when we understand our pupils that we are able to help them with problems they might have beyond our classroom walls.