I was totally flushed with excitement! I’d been tutoring Nicoama, a first grader, after school every day since I’d started working for the school district. He’d just been evaluated and had tested out at an IQ of 50. At 50 a person is considered severely mentally retarded. It pissed me off. Learning disabilities, yeah…challenged, yeah…crappy home life and parents who didn’t give a hoot about education, yeah…but retarded? If you weren’t trying to get him to read or do math you wouldn’t have known there was anything wrong with him.
So I changed my strategy and had him start reading harder and harder books. When I got him he could only sound out 3-letter words and would say (for example) t – o – p, pot! He wasn’t hearing things in the right order. Dyslexic? When he’d finally mastered the 3-letter words, then I’d started teaching him phonics blends so he didn’t have as many sounds to deal with. Instead of c-l-a-p, we did cl-a-p. He’d been improving steadily and was sounding out 4- and 5-letter words quite well.
Finally I’d pushed him to read a book that was too hard for him, and I’d only had to help him with a half dozen words. Then he’d read another. And another while his regular teacher listened in amazement. I was about ready to bust my buttons I was so proud of him.
Then the last week of school the teacher got the test results of his second evaluation. To her disbelief he was functioning at an IQ of 70! That’s where Down’s Syndrome kids usually function. His IQ had gone up 20 points!
I was so stoked! And was 100% convinced that Nicoama was not retarded, that he just had a learning disability. I watched him improve day by day and was disappointed when it was decided to promote him to second grade and have him spend half a day in regular class and half a day in special ed. I felt it was a mistake. I wasn’t a qualified teacher, but I was a mom, and my gut told me he should repeat first grade with special ed so he’d have a chance to get some “victories” and self-confidence under his belt. It made me angry. And not just for Nicoama. Why were they so willing to just give up on these kids and shove them through the system?
I toyed with the idea of offering to tutor Nicoama over the summer for free if his folks would agree. I had no clue what I’d be getting myself into. But they weren’t interested. In their mind, too, their son was “retarded” and they felt it would be pointless to get his hopes up. Hopes for what? That he could be a productive and functioning individual?
I didn’t go back to tutor the next year. That experience took the heart right out of me. I’ve no idea what happened to Nicoama. I can only hope that my work with him made a difference in that young man’s life.
* * * * *
This was a post I started back in May about an experience I had tutoring at Dee Elementary, a school where a lot of migrant workers in this area enrolled their kids and pulled them out at will when work was available somewhere else. It was WAY longer than this. I had discussed a lot of the difficulties in teaching kids in that situation. But in response to a Writing 101 challenge, I decided to try and pare it down to 500 words. I did, and it became about Nicoama, one little boy I tutored.
Writing 101, Day 12
Play with word count
On days when you feel stuck and aren’t sure how to write a post, it might well be that your topic and content are solid, but your approach needs tweaking. Have you tried experimenting with word count?
In today’s post, pay attention to the total length of your post: if you usually write posts under 500 words, aim for longer. If you tend to write a lot, be succinct.
(Picture Credit: flyinghighinfirst.blogspot.com)
Impromptu Promptlings 
Brava!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, friend. 🙂
LikeLike
Nico was lucky enough to meet one person who went above and beyond, and quite likely will meet one or more others, no matter where his life takes him.
I worked in a sheltered workshop at the ARC for a couple of years. Our society does not have interest in taking the time needed to really work with those they consider to be more a burden to the greater portion of citizenry. But there are always individuals who make the difference in these people’s lives, like yourself. That’s where the help comes from. It’s sad because the parents won’t fight for their children any more than the rest of society. 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think part of the problem is the parents are themselves a product of that same environment. They see no successes in their own lives and doubt the validity of thinking it will happen for their children. They don’t seem to be like the parents at the end of the depression who busted their butts to see that their children had more than they did. These parents feel paralyzed, unable even to fathom a different way of life for their family.
Actually I think we see that all over the world. Especially in 3rd world countries. Without severe intervention and help, the poor in most cultures cannot conceive of a different way of life. Jesus said we would have the poor with us always. I don’t think that’s necessarily because outside sources are being withheld from them or good folks don’t want to help.. It’s a mindset people don’t know how to get out of. At least that’s how it seems to me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re absolutely right about the families being a product of that same societal mindset. They also feel at the very least either embarrassed and at most like failures, for the child they produced, because they know how most people look upon those who are developmentally disabled – regardless of whether that child has been given the chance to progress through one-on-one help, or has been hidden away, or put into residential program like the ARC. It’s only been a short while that advocates have become more vocal and have set up things like Special Olympics to help others understand how important every person is no matter their circumstances. It won’t be enough to help all who need it, though it brings the need for help into the public eye.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very good points! And if you’re going to be around today and want to gab, I’m home all day. Talk to you soon! {{{Fim}}}
LikeLike
This post broke my heart. Nicoama has potential. I pray he meets someone else who, like you, senses what he is capable of and helps him go forward.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m guessing all teachers pray that prayer a lot. Thanks for stopping by Andrea. {{{Andrea}}}
LikeLike
IQ tests ones acclimation and mastery of tasks and knowledge determined by the system and can predict how well one can function within it. It has little to say about more important aspects of a person. Dyslexia only exists because there is writing. Its a disorder created in the attempt to have all people to conform. Many times people who are labled with that are more “intelligent”. Their brains work differently with information and can make connections and understand in ways others can not. My daughter does not do language in the traditional or “normal” way. She thought she was stupid for a long time because of the system. But it was because the system was retarded and less than. She can write poetry and understand more deeply than any teacher the system has put in front of her. Your work with this child is another example of your particular genius. You do poetry where its most important, in people’s lives.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hope it did some good. So can you tell me why Nico’s IQ test was higher after working with him for three months? Did he really improve, or was the testing just a hit and miss indicator of anything at all? Not being a trained teacher I wasn’t too inclined to grill a teacher about it. (That’s why I went to the parents outside of the classroom.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Any of those tests only measure how they answer the questions in any given moment. He may not have been focused. The person giving the test may not have done a good job. He may have not tried. I’m guessing the main thing was you helped him feel more confident and he thought he could succeed so he tried harded and was more focused because of the hope that was in him.
LikeLiked by 1 person
In other words using those tests as indicators of where these kids belong is just very random anyway. So maybe he did belong in second grade?
LikeLiked by 1 person
They are indicators of how well they can function in a system that is more interested in indoctrination than birthing souls. Intelligence is about how well one can succeed within a system that I think seeks to deaden souls and create workers that don’t think much past what they are taught and see on tv.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We’ve talked about this before, haven’t we… It’s kind of scary listening to you talk about it knowing that you work within the system and see so much up close and personal.
LikeLike
Btw, I’m not getting notifications of your comments for some reason. So if I miss one, bonk me on the head, will ya, dude! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think I am missing a lot of stuff too
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for sharing this story. I’m sure you made a difference, not just with the reading, but with your kindness.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much for the encouragement. All we can do is plant seeds and hope that others water them so they’ll grow, I guess. I appreciate your stopping by! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
That poor child! Hopefully your positive imput gave him the confidence to realise somewhere along the line that he was capable. Well done you!
When the system lets children down so badly it makes me sick. As for the parents, What was their background? What had been their experiences in life? Maybe they were used to so many knockbacks that they genuinely thought they were making the best decision for their son. They may have had little opportunity to understand how much his education mattered. Maybe it wasn’t their fault, but you would know the answer to this better than I do.
So sad.
LikeLiked by 1 person
They were a family of emigrants (which the first post was actually about). They would settle here for work part of the year then move on when it fizzled out. They go west or south and work and probably put their kids in a school there somewhere. When they came back here in the fall the kids came back to the same school. It was full of emigrant children. It’s not that they didn’t want their kids to be educated, but in this case they honestly believed there was nothing beyond “laboring” that their son could ever do. I knew the mother fairly well. She was a very nice person. But also very hopeless about her family’s future. Nicoama would probably be around 17 now. Sometimes I wonder how he fared.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I remember the other post, and your empathy for the children.
Going from one place to another just in order to survive. It can’t be an easy way of life, for the adults or the children. The feeling of never belonging anywhere, the lack of self-esteem, the low expectations for your children, perhaps being despised and distrusted everywhere you go. Very sad. We don’ t see that side of life in this country…
LikeLiked by 1 person
We could almost call them American Gypsies…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Romany gypsies prefer being permanently on the road. Do these people do it through choice or because they feel there is litle alternative?
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s a very good question. I’m guessing it could be either reason. It might be easier to answer if they were all minorities, but they aren’t. This family was Caucasian.
LikeLike
I believe that your work with Nicoama did make a difference in his life.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I hold onto the ideal that love is never wasted. And I did love that little guy. Thanks so much for the encouragement. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person