not my silhouette
From a Chinese blog that I subscribed to online, translated, by me…
The temperatures at night dropped to the sixties, there’s that hint of winter now, and, if in the winter season, it doesn’t feel quite like winter, I’d feel, regrettable. But today, as Y showed up for class, he only had a short-sleeve t-shirt on, the kids all spent their winters very bubbly, it’s, due to their zests for life.
Y, at age twelve, is the most hyperactive student, among the more hyperactive kids in the class. Every time I couldn’t make it to class, he’s always the one that the substitute instructor complained to me about. Y isn’t a child who’s easily handled, he couldn’t control himself, not only is he talkative in class, he’d often, interrupted others as they were talking, would walk around in the classroom, unsettled, he can’t seem to, sit still, for even one second’s time, and, he’d always, SCREAMED until his voice turned hoarse to reply to the instructors or the other students in his class.
I’d, singled Y out to talk to him about his unconscious and disruptive behavior in class, he’d, admitted to them too. Clearly, you CAN imagine, how much of a headache he must be for the classroom instructors during his regular school days. After Y had arrived, I’d, canceled my three weeks’ worth of evening counseling sessions, and buckled down, to work out the way, to manage the class better, wanting to, set up a social order in the classroom. It actually, didn’t take long, after three classroom sessions, Y is slowly, becoming, better, he sat quietly in class, and, had been active in the classroom discussions. He’d now, begun, raising his hands, and waited, to be called on to speak, and he’d no longer felt compelled to scream aloud every single word he’d wanted to speak anymore either. A short while ago, something came up, and I’d, had to leave the classroom earlier, and the substitute teacher told me, that Y was, on his best behavior.
Y isn’t, a good writer at all, he’d written the essays very slowly, didn’t have good contents either. And today, Y worked, hard on his writing assignments, he was, the last one to leave the classrooms, although I’d told him, to concentrate harder, he’d made, a ton of progress already.
As I left the writing class, the thermometer in my car read 17°C, I thought about how full-of-life Y is, that he’d needed, more concentration, more redirecting, a more precise, an even, slower pace to follow. As I lost myself, in my own train of thought, the song, “Slow from Before”, by the artist, Mu Hsin came on the radio, he was, an artist, and back when I was in college, I’d read his essays, and, this older artist had died, for quite a while now.
Listening to this song, it’d drawn me back to the past, I’d returned, back to the day, when I’d waited on the mail carrier to deliver the mails. The backdrop was usually a blue sky, and I recalled, how there was, that older small grocery shop, the elders with their young companions whom they’d played with. The middle aged man who sold the popsicles from a cart, the vendor who sold from the cart he pushed around………, all of a sudden, everything, slowed down.
I too had, slowed down too, parked, by the side of the road, stared into space for a little while. And, Y surfaced into my mind, Y too had, slowed down during this time too, no longer as jumpy as he once was anymore. I kept a slower pace from before, I surely can slow down right now too, if I wanted to. There’s, a sort of an attainment in education, I recalled how I’d used my slowness, to deal with Y’s jumpiness, and, he’d, slowed down. And I’m sure, that this sense of slowing down would, affect Y to some extent too. Although he’s so full of life, so active, I’m sure, that, I’d sown a seed of slowing down inside of his mind, I suppose………
And so, this, is a teacher’s reflection, of the progresses that a student had made, and, this child that he’d mentioned just has a different way of learning compared to the “regular children”, and, all that’s needed, for this kid to “behave” (b/c that, is what ALL adults want the kids to do???), is to allow him the time, to make HIS own adjustments, and this man had, allowed the child to take as much time as he’d needed, and not hurried him, scolded him for being so active, and eventually, things, improved, as they should………