ST. NICK

this is the best christmas story i've encountered in years.

this nick is a 4th-grader, and was cast as the narrator in a little 5-page playlet about christopher columbus at the parkside school in sebastopol.

it was obvious from the first read-thru that nick was having trouble reading his heavy line load.  he was very very hesitant, so much so that i briefly considered giving such a strong vocal part to someone with better reading skills.  thank god i let that idea pass.

i sat next to nick in our reading circle for the next two fridays, the day i was a read-to-me volunteer at the school.  when he came to a word that he didn't know, he would stop.  so i started gently saying the word out loud, then nick would repeat it and move on, until the next stop about 7 words later.

so i asked ben to be his left shoulder guardian angel, and help him thru the tough words.

then i tiold nick to take his script home over the next two weeks, and read it aloud over and over, with a parent, or a brother or sister, or a friend.  

"that way, you will make the words your own."

he was surprised to learn that he COULD take it home.

"o yes! it's yours.  you can yellow-out your lines.  you can draw on it.  you can doodle on it.  it's your script.  please have fun."

so: this past friday, nick's class had its performance date, 11 am, ms. hall's classroom, about a dozen parents in attendance.  i was now as lame a duck director as our current president.  i was there to watch.

and what i saw filled me with awe, for here was nick: fluent! in character! smiling! practically off-book! and most important: he was beaming.

i went up to shake his hand after the show, and i quite honestly said to him "that was one of the most impressive theatrical achievements i've ever seen!  way to go."

there was a woman standing with him, his mom, and her eyes shone with tears.  then another woman asked me to step outside, and this is the christmas part.

she introduced herself as the special ed teacher, and told me that nick is three grades behind in reading level, has ADD, and just got put on some medication to help him out, and she had never seen this kind of progress in a child before.

i'm thinking: a little kind one-on-one, a little attention, and some motivation, i.e. you're gonna be doing this in front of an audience soon-take the script home, and don't forget to have fun.

because: if you don't have a sense of humor?

it just isn't funny.

23 december 2008, the last day of my 50's.