Good Day

This morning I received a phone call that was quite a surprise to me. It was from a fellow that I had not heard from or much about for at least 17 or 18 years. He was a student at de Paul School when he was in grade school, so I knew him there, but after dePaul he moved on to high school and when he was about 16 or 17 he came to be a tutor in the dePaul summer program at Mt. St. Francis.

He is a very good looking guy and pretty much had everything that money could buy. For his 16 th birthday he received a new sports car along with a vanity licence plate that had his name on it. He tooled up to the Mount each day in his carefree manner and was so easy to spot by the State Highway patrolmen that he got a few speeding tickets, which his dad promptly paid. He was sorely in need of some "growing up" skills. I did my best to provide him with those skills. He was always amenable to my guidance but did not always apply the rules that I urged him to follow. He had a very winning smile and the charm that is so evident in so many dyslexic people.


We concentrated on changing the lives of the children that we taught but along with that we changed the lives of the young tutors that we hired. It was a daunting task but I loved it. He was a challenge because of his delayed maturation. Somehow or other we survived the many trials and tribulations of the term. I dealt with a few thousand more children in the following winters and summers after that summer. I do remember most of them.

When he called me this morning, he identified himself and asked if I had a few minutes that he could talk to me. He said he was baby-sitting his two children, a one year old and a 3 year old, and he said he'd apologize in advance if he had to rush off screaming suddenly. He told me that he thought of me frequently and of the things I had said to him in those years in my effort to grow him up. He wanted to thank me and had wanted to thank me for years for my patience and guidance with him. He quoted a few of the things that I had said to him during those years. One of the things that he said he often thought about was my statement that all authority was by assumption. (At the time I was trying to convince him that he could indeed teach his little student the Linguistic rules and other things without being intimedated.

He is now a member of LDA and is intent on giving adult learners the opportunity to learn to read and write. He said he finally did grow up and realize that he had to quit depending on his dad for everything and to also realize that he could never take his dad's place in the world. He is selling real estate and doing well, and he is married and has his two beautiful kids. He is content with his life. I know that he is giving me too much credit for his success. He had the potential all along, he just needed someone to push him and give him responsibilities.

Every now and then something happens that makes you know that it was all worth while. He said, " When you walk in the door of heaven there will be thousands of people there that will say 'thank you' for being a part of my life." He certainly made my day! I just hope those thousands of people outnumber the ones that will be trying to throw rocks at me! Ciao