Rachel, bless you for being Present! How fortunate for Kyle that You ran after him, imagine how that felt to him, for someone to show enough care and concern to not let him go. I can see why he loved you; you showed him through Action that you cared. Words mean nothing when one is abused as he was, action means everything. One of the most powerful memories I have of teaching within my volunteer project in Belize (I sold my home & most of my stuff to create/facilitate the program) happened at an inner city school with a 12 year old boy whom the teacher told me was always a "problem" and I should simply not bother with him. I work hard to view every person not as a problem, but as a human being. And what I discovered during the lesson was he could not read or write and he'd made it to the 7th grade that way. Not his fault, the fault of a system that failed him in diagnosing his learning difficulty. How frustrating it must have been for him to be in the classroom day in, day out, year after year, without knowing how to read or write. And there are no Special Ed teachers nor paraprofessionals to help him. He probably had a myriad of other problems too. When I led the discussion about Belizean legends such as Tata Duende the protector of the rain forest, he always raised his hand, or shouted out responses to the questions. But at least he was contributing; true he was trying hard to see what I would say to his mostly flippant answers. I said YES to all of his answers responding, "Oh that is creative. I never heard it told that way before, yes, stories have many versions and ways to be told." When it came time for the writing, (note: almost All the students in Belize speak English as a second language. Many of the schools do little to NO creative writing, but the children are expected to write an essay and a story based on a proverb or a picture on their National exam to enter high school) I walked around the room encouraging and helping with spelling, sentence structure. I noticed only scribbles on his page, deep scribbles tearing the paper. I leaned down and whispered gently in his ear, "you don't know how to write do you?" Eyes downcast, 'no Miss." "You don't know how to read, do you?" "No, Miss." I leaned in closer touching him on the shoulder, "It's not your fault, let me help you, let's do the story together, you tell it to me and I'll write it down for you." His eyes lit up. And he told me an Amazing story. He was very creative, but his teacher never saw that side, she saw only his disruptive behavior because he always felt less than at school. When the class was finished with the exercise I chose 5 to share their stories with this class, including the boy I had helped, asking it he would like to tell his story, 'No, Miss, you tell it." And I did, his classmates were astounded at the story he created, his teacher's jaw dropped. The students were patting him on the back saying, "You a storyteller!" He beamed. As I left the classroom, the teacher followed me asking how I had gotten him to do the exercise, I simply said, "Respect, I treated him like a human being, not a problem." Bless you Rachel for seeing the hurt human being in Kyle. I am sure he will remember you and be grateful to you for his entire life. You created a turning point, hopefully other teachers followed suit later in his school life.
On Sep 5, 2012 Kristin Pedemonti wrote:
Rachel, bless you for being Present! How fortunate for Kyle that You ran after him, imagine how that felt to him, for someone to show enough care and concern to not let him go. I can see why he loved you; you showed him through Action that you cared. Words mean nothing when one is abused as he was, action means everything.
One of the most powerful memories I have of teaching within my volunteer project in Belize (I sold my home & most of my stuff to create/facilitate the program) happened at an inner city school with a 12 year old boy whom the teacher told me was always a "problem" and I should simply not bother with him. I work hard to view every person not as a problem, but as a human being. And what I discovered during the lesson was he could not read or write and he'd made it to the 7th grade that way. Not his fault, the fault of a system that failed him in diagnosing his learning difficulty. How frustrating it must have been for him to be in the classroom day in, day out, year after year, without knowing how to read or write. And there are no Special Ed teachers nor paraprofessionals to help him. He probably had a myriad of other problems too.
When I led the discussion about Belizean legends such as Tata Duende the protector of the rain forest, he always raised his hand, or shouted out responses to the questions. But at least he was contributing; true he was trying hard to see what I would say to his mostly flippant answers. I said YES to all of his answers responding, "Oh that is creative. I never heard it told that way before, yes, stories have many versions and ways to be told."
When it came time for the writing, (note: almost All the students in Belize speak English as a second language. Many of the schools do little to NO creative writing, but the children are expected to write an essay and a story based on a proverb or a picture on their National exam to enter high school) I walked around the room encouraging and helping with spelling, sentence structure. I noticed only scribbles on his page, deep scribbles tearing the paper. I leaned down and whispered gently in his ear, "you don't know how to write do you?" Eyes downcast, 'no Miss." "You don't know how to read, do you?" "No, Miss." I leaned in closer touching him on the shoulder, "It's not your fault, let me help you, let's do the story together, you tell it to me and I'll write it down for you." His eyes lit up. And he told me an Amazing story. He was very creative, but his teacher never saw that side, she saw only his disruptive behavior because he always felt less than at school.
When the class was finished with the exercise I chose 5 to share their stories with this class, including the boy I had helped, asking it he would like to tell his story, 'No, Miss, you tell it." And I did, his classmates were astounded at the story he created, his teacher's jaw dropped. The students were patting him on the back saying, "You a storyteller!" He beamed.
As I left the classroom, the teacher followed me asking how I had gotten him to do the exercise, I simply said, "Respect, I treated him like a human being, not a problem."
Bless you Rachel for seeing the hurt human being in Kyle. I am sure he will remember you and be grateful to you for his entire life. You created a turning point, hopefully other teachers followed suit later in his school life.