#14

It has taken me a long time to get to this one. Partially because I have been busy with two weeks on the Cape and then catching up with friends in the area who are close enough to easily see but far enough away that I usually don't have the energy to get out to them. The other reason is that I do not know how to write about #14. He is incredible and one of the most rewarding and interesting students I have had in all my dealings with children throughout my life. Probably the most brilliant as well. I knew 14 when he was in 2nd grade because a teacher's aide, who is still a good friend, watched 14 and his brother in the mornings at our school. She put 14 on the bus to the lower school. Often, at the age of 7, 14 came to school in a suit. He would make witty comments and remark on whatever reading he was doing at the time or whatever new fact he had learned. At the time he would say that he wanted to be a politician. This past year he had added 'lawyer' to the possibilities.

The huge piece that is missing from this description is that every book or fact that he was into on any given day had to do with American history. From at least that age he was obsessed. He read every book and remembered every detail. He had his facts as straight as his tie.

Luckily in 5th grade we focus on American history in social studies. 14 was in his prime. He raised his hand and added extra information and fun facts during each and every lesson. He made my classroom into a place where webkinz and Hannah Montana were left at the door in favor of the history channel and biographies. Knowledge was in and that is every teacher's dream. It made me realize that just having a passion for knowledge and being willing to share that is contagious. By the middle of the year when 14 would offer up some inside gossip about John Adams, this would be followed by 3 or 4 hands being raised to try to add something just as juicy, or else to add the time and channel that a show on John Adams could be seen the following Sunday night.

14 joined the school newspaper and was assigned an article on the primary elections. 14 decided to describe the process and then chose 2 random candidates from each side to describe. He chose Hillary and McCain. I had always wondered which side he would fall on politically, but never wanted to ask him. So, I took the article as my opportunity and, after complementing him on it, asked him, if he could vote, who would he choose between the two. His answer solidified my decision to vote for him one day when he will be running for some important office - "Hillary, definitely."

At the end of the year, I had my class working on biography posters. I wanted them to choose someone who was fairly modern and could be considered a hero in some way. I posted a list of possible people, including Howard Zinn in hopes that he would capture 14's interest. In fact, I added 'historian' parenthetically after his name. I knew that 14 had read some liberal books on history that tried to incorporate a more equitable story, but I also knew that he would find Howard Zinn fascinating and that he could learn even more about the struggles of minorities in this country and the background stories to the major eras that he knew so much about already.

My manipulation worked perfectly. 14 chose Zinn. I gave him the kids' version of A People's History and he read it cover to cover. Each day he would comment to me about how much he loved it and then let me know some new information that he had discovered that would usually end with "can you believe it?" And me: "I can't." I wish that I had kept his paragraph about Zinn. It was incredibly written and insightful. He used many words that would sail right over the heads of many adults, let alone fifth graders. The last amazing quality that I am going to leave you with is that, in this report and throughout the year, each time he used an advanced word like "oppressed" or "conspiracy" he would stop and explain it humbly in perfect 5th grade lingo. As I wrote to him in a card near the end of the year, "I look forward to seeing all the great things you will do."