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THEY ALWAYS HIDE BEHIND LOVE

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Sir,

I watched a movie about a boy named Howza who, at a tender age, stopped going to school and started stealing. This boy was brilliant when it came to schoolwork; other pupils always asked for his help regarding any subject and he’d gladly help.


No matter how smart he was, the only problem he had was living with a alcoholic mother. She was always intoxicated and rude to Howza. Each time he came with school documents to be signed by the mother, she refused and shouted at him to get off her back.


Signed


When Howza got back to school, with the papers not signed, his teacher, Mr Mabaso, would beat him even before he had a chance to explain. This continued until the day when a few boys were playing soccer inside the classroom while Howza was seated at a distance with his female friend. The boys broke a window while playing the soccer.


When Mr Mabaso asked who broke the window, they all blamed it on Howza; and again he was never given a chance to explain. Howza was told to come back with his parents the next day. He tried to tell his mother but, as always, she didn’t care and never bothered going. Howza had to go back to school, and upon entering gates, he saw Mr Mabaso waving a stick as if he was waiting for him to come so he’d beat him like he always did. When Howza saw the stick, he ran away and that’s the last time he went to school. He then met a friend named Spikiri who taught him how to steal and that’s how Howza’s dream of becoming a detective vanished.


Moral


The moral of the story is; Howza, a smart child, was never raised properly. He was never given the love and support he needed in order to achieve his goals. He had a mother who was an alcoholic and a teacher who never gave him a chance to explain himself.
And guess what, we see such happening everyday around us. We see children being blamed for their poor backgrounds; we see children being punished for their parents’ sins.


We see smart children destroying their dreams because of parents who couldn’t play their role. You see the see the mind of a child works in mysterious ways. At a tender age children grasp and remember critical information. Sadly they don’t only remember school stuff but they also remember the names they were called when they didn’t do well at school. They remember all the bad things said about them and being compared to other people. They remember being looked down upon.


Careful


The gist of the matter is, as elders, you should always be careful of what you say to your children because just like any other brain, they also remember the bad things more than the good ones. I am against the words used by parents out of anger and disappointment. Sometimes it’s better to be a mum or a dad than to be a mother or a father.


Until you learn to distinguish these two, you’ll be breaking us more than you are building us. Dear parents we love you and we know you love us too but sometimes we feel some matters would have been handled better if we were given a chance to explain ourselves. Kutehlisa akutange kubulale muntfu.

Luyanda Matimela

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