The Boy Missing In Plain Sight

Following the March break after the third term report cards, a pale young student began attending fifth grade. He was small quiet and pleasant, fitting in so well he sometimes disappeared. He disappeared at other times too, he attended school on average every second day. Our school had classes four extended days rather than five shorter days so his school week was two days long. That made it impossible to keep up in any subject. He continued for a while with his unusual attendance, missing I noted test days and always present for field trips. Having inquired about the absences, the family confirmed that the boy was sick, nauseated and vomiting on the days he did not attend school.

When I contacted the public school for records transfer my contact was a lovely woman who really cared about this boy. She shared with me the details of his sporadic attendance and frequent visits to the nurse’s office. I believe in his last year in public school he missed one–third to one­–half of the public school’s 180 days. Our concern for this child was not only the amount of time he was missing, but the camaraderie with his classmates and the impossible task of keeping up with his schooling in any academic subject. Many things had to be let go of or amended, nonetheless how could he accomplish success at school without being present? We all thought that the key to change was succeeding, his ability to accomplish something and do it well.

We met a few times together in my office and I met with his parents. We would pray for him and bless him and we also explained how important it was that he attend class. So, he began to attend school. Some days he would be very white and raise his hand to be excused to the restroom. I met him in the hall on his return and offered him a place to rest. The church had very kindly provided a sofa in a small room near the classroom. As time passed the trips to the bathroom became less frequent and we adjusted the workload in the meantime the Lord working all the while.

Less than one year later this student was absent only two to three times a month and did most of his work. Then an amazing thing happened, he began to misbehave! He had been transformed from a pale faced, sad, lethargic boy to a cheerful eager confident boy who smiled most of the day. He loved school and he rarely went to the restroom, in fact he began instead to need a scolding or a prayer for being naughty at recess.

This child's school records were unlike any I had ever seen. Looking back over his former report cards, the only notation where the grades should have been recorded was an asterix. The public school assesses students on a very simple grading system, 1 Poor, 2 Below Level, 3 At Level, 4 Exceeding Level but his assessments were simply a star. Refreshing my memory, I looked at the fine print, the asterix stood for "not able to assess". The student had missed so much school that he didn't have a report card – could not be evaluated. When the public school wanted to assess him for special needs his family brought him to us.

At one of our school programs early on in his attendance I overheard his mother remark, "My son says at the public school they think I'm stupid but at this school they think I'm smart!” And he was smart and he did achieve grade level and he did have fun. He loved God and he prayed and his prayers were answered. He became just another little boy having fun learning, a little naughty at times yet his endearing smile I still remember.

The true issue with these children as the Word of God points out was a matter of the heart. We are so fortunate that we are accepted in the Beloved and we knew this young man was also accepted by God and us. We were commanded to love one another and we did, all of us. We knew also, submit one to another and pray for one another. It turns out this child had something to learn as we did also.