I had to hold back all my tears today in school.
I did an activity with the children of 5/1 (that's the best selection of students for the age group that is equivilant to grade 5) . The topic was "how to describe people" so I wrote up on the board "he/she is _____ and he/she has ___ ____" with columns that came after with things such as beautiful, fat, thin, short etc etc for the first one and blue/black/brown/soft/rough/dark/light skin/hair/eyes etc
the students' task was to fill in these blanks as a group describing a character which i assigned to groups (famous singers and cartoon characters etc) they had a lot of fun doing it. when i divided up the groups I had trouble deciding where to put the one autistic child. He is really intelligent but wanders aroudn a lot and cannot be depended on for working with the group. Anyways, I just placed him in a group with three girls.
Not only did they not complain when I put him in their group, they worked on the assignment (while he wandered and didnt' pay attention) and everytime they got a new answer they would go get him and take him by the hand and bring him back to the group and read to him what they found!!!! it was ADORABLE. If that wasn't enough to make you feel warm inside, then certainly what happened next will. The students, who were not paying attention to each other while they presented their findings (nothing out of the ordinary... ) looked up when this particular group came up to the front. The little autistic boy DID THE PRESENTING!!! He read off the groups' answers to the whole class, loud and clear and did the best out of the entire class!!! the whole class burst into a huge cheer and clapped for him.
AMAZING. If that doesn't open your eyes and make you feel a little special I don't know what will. I think the Western world has a little something to learn from Thai children. They might jump on desks while you're teaching... they might yell over top of you while you're presenting, they might throw things, knock over desks, leave the classroom and do other work during your english class.... i might come home with a sore throat everyday but at the end of the day these children.... they accept everyone. they love everyone. they call you fat, but it's not an insult... it's just a fact and then they move on. if a person is missing a hand, they say "why don't you have a hand" and the person is not offended, they explain the accident and then they are friends and they move on.
if a person is crosseyed, people don't awkwardly look away, they look into their eyes the same as anyone elses. if a child is autistic, they don't avoid him/her, they include them and giggle when he/she doesn't do something the same. not making fun of him, but just enjoying his presence and different take on things. I hope to bring home with me some of this delicious and accepting innocence.
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