This story that follows about a boy
named Ben and his school problems, had a profound effect on me because like
Ben, I had an awful time in school, because, to hit it on the head, my teachers
thought I was dumb. And school, being the way it is, the other kids in the
class, therefore, assumed I was dumb too because kids can read their teachers with
expert precision. School for me was often as embarrassing as it was humiliating.
I knew I wasn’t dumb but in school, that doesn’t matter and that just made it
all worse, a lot worse.
I would see a word on a page, and, I
swear to you, the God damn things would
rearrange themselves in front of me. The
advanced concepts of mathematics, meaning anything beyond simple addition, were
just lost on me. So was science. When
the teachers would start teaching in those classes, and once again I swear this
is true, they switched from English to a rare dialect of Mandarin no longer
spoken, even in China. Honest to God, they did.
Eventually,
in the 12 grade, I left school……okay, I left after I was invited to leave, but
still, I left. I didn’t have to stay there to be overlooked and humiliated. I
could go anywhere and be overlooked and humiliated.
I’m sorry I missed proms and football games
and going steady and all that stuff that
comes with high school, but it was a relief to get out of there because after
that, no one ever again summed me up as dumb because I couldn’t add numbers
correctly or read a sentence without stumbling over it a dozen times or grasp
academic concepts that don’t matter, or forget
what my class schedule was…….because in the real world the notion of dumb and
smart is different and much more practical.
In school, I was dumb. In the working
world, I was smart. I could make money. I was given jobs I wasn’t qualified for
on a resume, but I got them because I could think outside the box and visualize
the impossible from left field. The most important thing of all is that I could
make people laugh and in a business world dominated by men, the guy who makes
everyone laugh is assumed by other men to be some kind of genius.
Remember when you were a kid and you
swore that when you became not a kid, that you would remember all the mean and
stupid things adults did to kids and swore you never do those things?
Well, I remembered that promise and I
think one of the proudest moments of my life was when my son came to me, very
upset, and said he was having a hard time in school, that he felt dumb and confused.
I know you shouldn’t swear in front of your children, and I almost never did, but
that day I was so eager to take on the problem, I said “Aw fuck ‘em all big guy
you’re just smart in a different way”
After that, I took him out of school one
day a week and we drove around and looked at things, everything, it didn’t
matter what it was, and I explained it to him, what the thing did, why it did
it and why the world needed to do what it was doing. It worked, and it worked because like me, my
son learned from right to left while the rest of the world learns left to
right.
So when I read about this child, my soul
brother, in the following article and the wonderful, wonderful teacher who understood
him, I was genuinely moved, and I hope you will be as well.
JOHN
Autistic boy fails school exams – teacher sends him
home with powerful letter that goes viral
Bringing up a youngster with learning challenges isn’t any less
compensating than raising one without them, yet it very well may be said that
it’s significantly harder.
While guardians of youngsters without learning challenges
without a doubt worry over all the typical things a mother or father does,
those guardians whose kids are brought into the world with conditions, for
example, chemical imbalance have each one of those worries and that’s only the
tip of the iceberg.
Likewise, notwithstanding the stresses of the guardians, the
kids themselves can some of the time battle in high-pressure social conditions.
There is no preferable case of this over school, where evaluations assume a
significant job in your advancement.
11-year-old Ben Twist lives with mental imbalance, and his
mother Gail was given a tremendous amazement when her child’s school sent a
letter home after he bombed his SAT tests …
When Gail got a letter from Ben’s school, she would have been
pardoned for anticipating that it should say something regarding how he
expected to function more enthusiastically or improve his evaluations. Rather,
the letter contained no such thing.
The inventive masterminds at Lansbury Bridge School and Sports
College, in St. Helens, Merseyside rather gave Ben an increase in certainty.
Regardless of the reality he’d bombed his SAT tests, his instructor perceived
that what he required was support, not judgment.
The letter
Mrs. Clarkson sent him home with a touching letter that let him
know just how skilled he is, and what exactly he brings to the table.
The letter reads:
“Dear Ben,
I am writing you to congratulate you on your attitude and
success in completing your end of key stage SATs. Gil, Lynn, Angela, Steph and
Anne have worked so well with you this year and you have made some fabulous
progress. I have written to you and your parents to tell you the results of the
tests.
A very important piece of information I want you to understand
is that these tests only measure a little bit of you and your abilities. They
are important and you have done so well, but Ben Twist is made up of many other
skills and talents that we at Lansbury Bridge see and measure in other ways.”
The response
Upon reading the letter, Ben’s mom Gail found herself tearing
up. Mrs. Clarkson’s letter went on to list the things Ben was good at, things
that a usual school test can’t measure.
“Other talents you have that these tests do not measure include:
-Your artistic talents, your ability to work in a team, your growing independence,
your kindness, your ability to express your opinion, your abilities in sports,
your ability to make and keep friends, your ability to discuss and evaluate
your own progress, your design and building talents, and your musical ability.
We are so pleased that all of these different talents and
abilities make you the special person you are and these are all of the things
we measure to reassure us that you are always making progress and continuing to
develop as a lovely, bright young man.
Well done Ben, we are very proud of you.
Best Wishes, Mrs. Clarkson”
The world needs more teacher’s like Mrs. Clarkson It would have
been all too easy for her to send a standard letter telling Ben’s mom that he
needed to improve or change in some way. She didn’t though, because she realizes
that judging a fish on its ability to climb a tree is as pointless as judging a
monkey on its ability to swim in deep waters.
We hope that Ben takes his teacher’s words to heart and uses
them to remember that his value should never be measured by the results of a
school test.