Charles

Charles

He had the most beautiful, piercing, catlike eyes. He struggled so much with words. His vocabulary was limited. His stilted vocabulary shrank to infinitesimal proportions, and I believed him to have almost no words with which to express himself, especially when I asked him a question during class. He was quiet and respectful with a stillness about him which made me wonder what he was thinking. He was in my sophomore English class. He struggled to pass and I really didn’t know why. He wasn’t lazy, but he didn’t do well on assignments. The only thing about him which caught my attention were his eyes.

In the spring my students created Power Point presentations for their research projects. Courtney appeared to be working, but when he turned in portions of his assignment, he had little or nothing written. As the due date drew nearer and he still had nothing competed, I requested he stay with me at lunch to at least write something down for a grade. He could not fail because he did nothing. Somehow he believed me and stayed. He and I ate our lunch together –I shared my chips because I said I didn’t want them, but I really wanted to make friends with him. (The way to any male’s heart is through their stomachs – correct?). I asked him what did he think was the real problem? He said he didn’t know. I told him that was not really an answer. Could he put any other words together? He just shrugged.

A feeling of panic coursed through my body. I thought to myself, “How do I get his attention? How do I show him?” I prayed a small prayer of deep supplication – Lord please give me wisdom. I don’t know anything about the needs of this child, yet he’s waiting on an answer. (If anyone ever wants to argue about prayer being removed from school, I could carry my own in that debate. As long as there are teachers and students, prayer prevails.) I thought to myself. What would I do if I wanted to know something about a topic about which I have no prior knowledge? I could send him to the library then I could eat what was left of my lunch in peace. I could suggest he get on the internet at home and then I could feel as he was responsible for his own work. Wait, I don’t know if he has a computer. I could ask for the advice of another teacher and get back to Charles in a couple of days when I had a better answer. All of these things were options, but Charles was waiting on an answer now – not in a couple of days. I looked behind Charles at my bookshelf of garage sale purchased books which I hoped one day would come in handy. Today seemed like the day. I went to my shelf and got this big book of 20^th Century Occurrences. As I lifted the hug book from the shelf, I had immediate doubts about its ability to help, but I had to start somewhere. I asked him, “Charles, do you know anything about your topic?” He told me he didn’t even know where to look. I was astonished. I thought I had taught and shown and modeled. Somehow it didn’t connect. I sat beside him and we looked in the index for his topic. I don’t even remember what it was. Suddenly and I mean suddenly, he jerked his head around, looked me straight in the eye, and grinned the biggest grin I have ever seen. He said is that all there is to it? I said to what? We simply looked in the index. He said he didn’t even know what to look for. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I remembered being in his shoes and the teacher saying, “just take notes from the source. Don’t write everything down. Then write your research paper.” I guess at that moment his synapses fired and the dendrites connected and he knew what to do.

Honestly, after that day, his grades increased. He passed the class. He never failed another high school class. Recently, he graduated from college. I see him from time to time. He is a handsome young man with a future before him. It was nothing I did. I just happened to see the miracle unfold in front of me.