How this young lad, found something he was, good at, and, pursued it, even though he couldn’t, excel in school, but he’s, excellent, in what he can do still! Translated…
At high noon, I’d heard someone called out my name, I’d gone out to see, it was my student from many years ago, A. With his face red, he’d, stuttered, “Miss, it’s your birthday soon, I want to treat you to a drink, and, here’s a card.”
I’d told him thank you immediately, and asked him to come into the house, but he’d, shaken his head, and, started off the engine on his scooter, about to, “skip out”, I’d, rushed out after him and inquired, “are you still in school, or have you started working?”, he’d left, “I work in a janitorial company, I’m making my own way now.”, then, left in a cloud of dust.
I’d watched how he’d left, I was, sent, aback to my memories: how did this boy know where I live? And knew my birthday too? I’d deducted, it’s, five years since he graduated from middle school, and on this day, he’d, come to deliver his homeroom instructor from school a drink, and a card, how thoughtful he was!
I was A’s homeroom instructor in his last year of middle school, back then, there’s no special education classes, and so, even though A has a learning disability, his I.Q. score tested lower than 70, he was still, in the, regular classrooms.
A couldn’t recite the 26 letters of the alphabet fluently or write them all down, and the essays in his Chinese text, he’d only understood about twenty-percent of the passages, as for math and science, he’s, completely, incomprehensible. But his, quite agile, really good at cleaning, and loved it too, he’d, treated the classroom cleanliness as his calling, for instance, if the glasses on the windows are dirty, he’d, immediately picked up the newspaper, and wiped; and he would, take the fans apart, to clean it every now and then; moved the podium daily, to sweep underneath, then, put the podium right back where it was; when he mopped, he wouldn’t, let, the tiniest piece of trash slide. For this, I’d, commended him often on how focus he worked, and, gave him a good comment on it, he had a face with freckles, and it’d, bloomed the smiles out.
The middle school students always had never-ending tests to take, from the early morning study period, the instructors of various subjects would assign the quizzes, everybody picked up her/his pencil, started writing, but, within five minutes of starting, he’d finished the tests and quizzes, then, placed his head down onto the desk to rest; sometimes at the mock exams, the tests lasted from morning to afternoon, no matter the subject, he’d, maintained his five-minute-long answering sessions, then, fell asleep. I can understand, how these sorts of exams aren’t fair to him, but, sleeping to pass the time in school, this wasn’t, right for what a student should be, doing, I’d told him my thoughts, he’d told me, “I can’t do well on exams, I just, want to, clean, okay?” and his naïve, made my heart ache.
Later I’d found, that he was very focused when he read the comic books, and would chuckle or giggle now and then, that he learns best through the images, and I’d, made a pact with him, that on the exams that comes in the future, he needed to take twenty-minutes on the tests, then, he could go to the teachers’ office, to read the comics I’d prepared for him, and, I’d also, assigned him to cleaning up the schoolyards, and alternated him between these two activities, he didn’t need to stay still all the time, he could, move around too, and it would help bring out his passion, put his passion to good use.
Pulling back to reality, I’d, opened up the card from A: “thank you teacher, I couldn’t make the grades, you’re very nice to me, I’m very happy.”, close to twenty characters, without the punctuation marks, and, either that the words are, with an extra, without an extra stroke, point, but, I’d, placed that card to my chest, felt my heart warming up, to the point that the tears came flowing from my eyes.
Not studious, can’t study, then there’s, no future? Look at A, he used his own skills, and is making a living on his own, happy at doing what he does, best.
So this still just showed, how grades, don’t make the M-A-N, it’s how you’re able to, find out what you’re, really good at doing, and do that thing that you’re good at, to make a living, to support yourself, with that hard working mannerism, your strong work ethics, that’ll, make you, stand out, from the rest.
Life, the Obstacle Course 