Charles L. Baker | Cowboy boots for Christmas
Post by (ugg boots schweiz) Dec 2010
I was reminded this Christmas of a young man I'll call Johnny. He was referred to the children's center with a long history of violence. His record indicated that he had dozens of fights at school, not only with other students, but with teachers and the principal as well. When Johnny came to us we soon discovered that he fought because he was scared. In fact, I have never seen anyone as terrified of school, and anything associated with it, as Johnny was.
You see, Johnny came from a very poor family and had to wear hand-me-down clothes. A lot of rural kids wear hand-me-downs, but Johnny's were from his older sister.
Inevitably, when Johnny wore his sister's shirts or pants to school, he would be teased and ridiculed by the other children. Not surprisingly, Johnny, who also had a severe speech impediment and couldn't successfully compete in a verbal battle, would ball up his fists and wade into anyone who teased him about his clothes.
Johnny's school had one hard-and-fast rule — any student caught fighting in school would be paddled. So nearly every day that Johnny went to school he was first humiliated, then got into a fight and subsequently was paddled. It was no wonder he was terrified of school.
When Johnny arrived at the Children's Center, he had all his belongings in a small paper sack. He was wearing the only pair of jeans he owned, along with a completely worn out pair of sneakers. When our nurse gave him his physical examination, she found his painfully thin body covered with scratches and scars, the evidence of a life of pain and suffering. She also discovered the reason for his severe speech impediment. Johnny was nearly deaf from long-neglected infections in both ears.
Ear surgery was scheduled, and in time, Johnny's hearing was restored and, with speech therapy, his speech improved. He never overcame his fear of school, but in our on-campus school he did learn to read.
Of course, many staff members demonstrated their care for Johnny's well-being, but that caring is best illustrated by Alice, a child care worker, who within a few days of Johnny's arrival, took him on his first shopping trip. The budget for that initial shopping trip was $200.
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