The little boy was one of those
kids
that just made you
wonder.
At home he was a challenge but the parents didn’t let anyone know until the day before enrollment. A very cute and sweet little guy but not easy in the classroom, but not the worse case either. This type of child, the one you just wonder about comes along and it is just up to the teacher for the time being to think of strategies that might work. After all. when I was hired I was told rather point blank that I was being hired to be a thinking person.
So I did
just that and even tonight,
years
later,
I continue to
think about
the child and hope
all that has been tried
since then
is helping him progress
The thing is, the very heart of the matter is that he was just a small child with a comfort level in my classroom and knew I was a reasonable and kind soul that allowed him the understanding of his connection to his two toy cars and his leather New Testament inside his metal toolbox.
An Embarrassment of Freedom 
I was a real handful at that age.
No doubt you were a very clever and analytical child, reflecting on nature but I also pick up on a deep appreciation of language and poetry, a delightful child I’m sure.
I didn’t care a lick about language until I met an English teacher who punished students like me by having them copy pages from the dictionary by hand, word for word, using correct punctuation. I probably rewrote the dictionary twice that year and as you can imagine I didn’t care much for my teacher. What I didn’t realize though, was that I was becoming very interested in words and in learning their meanings. If it were possible I’d give that teacher the biggest thank you that I could because she truly changed my life.