The evolution of Christopher

Lately we've been focusing our end of year studies with Christopher. Believe it or not, he will be graduating this month and moving on to the "real world". :) Monday he begins his full time apprenticeship program with his Grandfather in the family business. This is the real training he needs.

Christopher is a wonderful, intelligent, and capable child who was shoved aside by the public school system. He was labeled unteachable. They thought it best to end his "lessons" on writing and instead decided to issue him a scribe to write for him. They stopped their ineffective methods of "teaching" him to spell and instead taught him to use spell check. They stopped "teaching" him math and handed him a calculator. (This isn't rare.) They told him he was "slow", that he had mental issues. They gave him "his kind of work" which equalled nothing short of teaching cheating. They kept passing him along in grade levels, saying he doesn't need to be "at level". Gone was the goal of him graduating. They had the goal of a certificate of attendance in mind for him.

They gave up.

This led to one unhappy, and often ridiculed, child. What happens once you tell someone they must keep going in the silly system, but are incapable of doing so? What happens once you point out how behind the student is to the other students? What happens when the teacher joins in on the ridicule? (And his case is not all that rare.)


That's what I was handed at the beginning of this school year. Christopher came to me as an angry, sullen, and defeated child. But, that's not the Christopher you will meet today.

Today you will meet a fine young man who sees things the way they really are. Gone is the boy who once punched a teacher for standing in front of the class and ridiculing him. Gone is the defeated young man who was quite depressed about his prospects in life. Gone is the boy who believes their lies.

Today you will meet a boy who proved he can learn and that they were wrong.