Day 58: Three Sentences

11 September 2014

I plan to update on my long absence soon, but this story I just had to blog! This is one of those moments I never want to forget. Sorry it's so long though!

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I think the first time I met Walter* while tutoring was about three weeks ago. When the teacher told me before he came in that he was one of the students I would be working with, I was excited. I have a cousin named Walter, he’s a nice kid, so I figured this would be easy. I was wrong. When Walter arrived, an Aboriginal student, he was about ten minutes late. The teacher told him to come sit by me in the front of the class which he refused. So, she gave him an ultimatum — Sit beside me (the tutor) in the front of the class, or go see the principal. He chose the principal. I felt a bit put out. I’ve never been thought of so negatively that a student would rather face disciplinary action than get help from me. Fine, I thought, have it your way. 

About thirty minutes later, Walter came back in the class. Hesitantly, I walked over to introduce myself and see if he was now willing to accept my help. When I got to his seat, I saw he was drawing the most amazing pictures. Clearing my throat, I spoke, “Cool picture, my brother likes to draw too.” No response. Okay, I thought, let’s try this again. “Hey, you want to do the assignment maybe?” 

“I don’t understand what we’re supposed to do.” 

Relieved, thinking, this is where I come in, I say, “Oh! I can help you, you know.” 

“No, that’s okay,” Walter replies going back to his drawing. 

Drat! This is not the way this was supposed to go. “I was a bit upset that you didn’t want to work with me today.”

No response.

“Well, if you ever want to work on the assignment, I’ll be right over here.”  

Walter's Paper

Returned with more silence. Like a rebuked puppy, I return to my seat. 

The next week was basically a repeat of the week before. The teacher didn’t ask me to work with Walter again. He came in twenty minutes late and I observed him from across the room. My mind was spinning. All the things I’ve studied about Aboriginal people came to mind, and I was afloat in a sea of facts, figures and procedures. I knew what he was doing because it’s a common response of many minority groups. When you feel you won’t do well on an assignment, you just don’t do it. That way someone can’t tell you how inadequate you are. I was all out of ideas. Yet another student I couldn’t help. 

This week began as a repeat of the week before. Walter came in ten minutes late, I wasn’t asked to help him, he sat in the back of the class like he did every week and drew his pictures. The students would laugh at one of his jokes every now and then, but basically he was ignored. In a sea of kids working on their English essays, there was Walter who chose to be different. Almost impulsively, I went over to his desk. “Hey.” 

No response.

“You know what would make me really happy? If you would write just one sentence.” 

He looked up, “That’s too hard.”

“No it’s not, all the sentence has to be about is the book we just read. Just tell me in one sentence what it was about. That’s all you have to do.”

“Didn’t read the book.”

“Okay, neither did I, but I’ve been here for the past couple of weeks and I feel like I know what it’s about, I’m sure you can guess.”

No response.

“One sentence Walter, just one," I plead as I go to help the other students.

When I come back to his desk twenty minutes later, there's a sentence! “The Chinese Cinderella is a story of a little girl brown as Adeline as she is unwanted by her family and is willing to fight for acceptance.” Not only was it a sentence, it was really good. I was overjoyed. I decided to push my good fortune: 

“That’s great Walter! Maybe you can write another one. This one’s easy too, just tell me about Adeline and another character in the story. Okay?”

“I don’t know anyone else in the story.”

“Yes you do. How about Niang?”

“Who’s Niang?”

“The evil stepmother, remember? She’s always really mean to Adeline. You’ve got this.” Taking a deep breath, I walk back to the others, but not before I hear him ask another student to explain who Niang is. (YES!) Twenty minutes later I come back to this: “Niang is the evil step mother of Adeline and has poor lack of positive communication between each other.” I was over the moon!

 "I’m so proud of you Walter!” The teacher comes over and is just as amazed as I am, "Good work Walter," she says, quite surprised at his effort. When she leaves, I give Walter a high-five. “That was weak,” I say, “Try again.” He hits my hand a second time. “Still wimpy, try one more time.” With the third hit I think I see a hint of the first smile I’ve ever gotten from Walter. 

“We have twenty more minutes of class. Can we write one more sentence?" I ask Walter before I have to leave again. "This one is just about how these two characters make you feel.” 
When I come back to his desk a few minutes later there’s another sentence! It seemed almost too good to be true! I jogged all the way across campus to get him a prize! This is definitely reward worthy. When I return, I hand him a pencil case full of markers. “So you can color your drawings.”  Though he shows no emotion, I know he likes them, when it's time to leave the class he won't get up because  he's too busy coloring!

 It was just three sentences, and for most ninth graders that’s nothing. But for me, three sentences made my entire day. I love what I get to do with my life when I leave Uni. When I think of how many moments like this I get to be part of as a future teacher, it makes all this studying worth it. 

*All names have been changed to protect the identity of the individual.