Kevin sighed as he looked at the report card which had been handed to him earlier that afternoon before he left school. Though it was only the end of the second quarter, he had already amassed two report cards this year which showed him continuing to fall behind many of his classmates. Indeed, the average was three and a half weeks late for assignments now, and several classmates had been ridiculing him for being lazy and stupid if he could not keep up with his peers. Yet, he could take that, but not what he knew he would have to face at home. For facing his parents was the biggest challenge of them all.
His parents, Greg and Judith, both loved Kevin greatly, yet they also placed great emphasis on him to do his work as they believed that he could achieve more greatness if he only tried a bit harder. Ever since he had been a young child, they knew he was bright and gifted, but he never put it to good use academically.
You see, whenever Kevin would be given an assignment by one of his teachers, be it back in Elementary school or even now in Middle school, he would hide it from his parents and ignore the problem, wanting to do things such as watch TV or play video games. During classes, he would simply glance at the clock or be so bored, that he would daydream about other matters which would be apparent to his teachers when they would call upon him to answer a question, and Kevin would behave like a deer caught in the headlights, struggling to come up with an answer as he hadn’t been paying attention. For in-class assignments, he would either not hand them in straight away, or else he would just write gibberish on a piece of paper and turn that in, which also frustrated his teachers.
Yet, whenever his parents would take him for testing as a child to see if he had a disability, the tests always had come back normal, with the person administering the test telling them that their son was extremely bright. It was frustrating thus for his parents because they would then have to go into parent-teacher conferences and try to argue that he wasn’t in need of special education, something many teachers had argued he needed to be placed in, and so people would assume that he was simply just lazy and would be lazy for the rest of his life, completely disinterested in things around him which didn’t appeal to him.
Opening the envelope, Kevin took out the folded piece of paper and looked at it. As he suspected, it listed over and over that he had missed deadlines for assignments and was struggling in each of his classes. He knew all too well what the outcome would be when his parents saw the repot card. No TV or video games until he had caught up and shown improvement in each course. A punishment he felt was worse than death. Thus, he dreaded going home. He was tempted to just throw out the report card, yet that wouldn’t be helpful as he already had tried that sort of stunt as a child and it had backfired when he overlooked that his parents would simply contact the school if they hadn’t received the report card after a certain length of time.
As he made his way home, albeit going a very long way around instead of his usual direct path, Kevin came across one of his classmates named Sean. Like himself, Sean was a bit of a loner with their classmates, although in Sean’s case, it was due mostly to being bound to a wheelchair as a result of a minor case of spinal bifuda which he was suffered his entire life. He was still a nice person to talk to, but many of their classmates sadly shunned Sean due to his physical impairment and would ridicule hm behind his back for needing a wheelchair to get around. Kevin had not really talked much to Sean outside of classes, so he really did not know him that well, and yet on this somewhat fateful day, that was all about to change.
He really did not have a need to go and talk to him, and yet something inside of Kevin pushed him forward. To this day, he never understood what it was that actually made him walk over, yet if one were to ask Kevin, he was certainly glad that it was allowing him to avoid arriving home sooner than he wanted. Especially given that he was still unsure as to what he would do with the report card to lessen the blow. And although they were ridiculed by their classmates for different things, it seemed something that they might possibly be able to connect of as fellow human beings, let alone classmates.
Sean was busy reading a book titled ‘How the Cobbers Started’ when Kevin approached him. A book all about the Concordia College in Minnesota and its athletics program.
“Hey” Kevin said nonchalantly as he walked up to Sean.
Sean glanced up from his book and saw Kevin, before putting on a cheerful smile. “Hey there. How did you do on your report card” he asked. It wasn’t as a stab at Kevin like it would be taken from other students who wanted to use it as fuel to proclaim Kevin as stupid, but rather just a genuine question of interest. However, because of how their classmates would ridicule him, Kevin at first was somewhat wary of the question and partially took it the wrong way, shoving the report card into his jacket pocket as a defense.
“Meh, I can’t complain about it. Not the best report card I have ever had, although not the worst either.”
While this was certainly true, as the worst had been in the fifth grade when Kevin had been forced to repeat the year as a result of not having met the requirements to move on to the sixth grade on his first attempt. That had been a punch in the gut which he had not wanted, but which at this point, he felt had probably been for the best.
“I hear ya,” Sean replied. “It’s been a weird quarter at school.”
“What’s that you’re reading” Kevin asked, interested more as he did not recognize the image on the front cover of the book, which was apparently of a college corn cob mascot.
“Oh, this? Well, my parents want me to start thinking of my future now, even if we are only in the seventh grade, and so they want me to start looking at colleges for my future. So, I was looking through this book to see what the life is like at Concordia College in Minnesota. Their sports mascot is an angry ear of corn named Kernel, and they have several programs which might work out for me. But still, it is early days really as we’re not even in high school yet.”
“Do you think that I have what it takes to go to college,” Kevin asked. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do this weekend outside of TV and video games, let alone what he wanted to do after high school was over. That was way too far out, but it was still something to ponder, he supposed.
“That depends. Do you want to go to college?”
Sean’s question brought up a great point in Kevin’s mind. Why worry about the future, instead of just living in the here and now, was how Kevin perceived it, even if that wasn’t what Sean had asked.
“I don’t know really. I honestly haven’t thought about it much at all. I know that as a child, my parents started pushing me, saying that I needed to go to university to have a good paying job. But, in all honesty, I just don’t know what I would want to do. I mean, it’s not like you can make a living simply watching television or playing video games.”
“Is that what you do in your spare time away from school?”
“Yeah, although my mom keeps nagging me to get off the TV and focus more on my schoolwork. She insists that I have a limit of 30 minutes a day for one or the other, and that I need to do my work.”
“Why don’t you do your work though? In class, you always seem dazed and completely out of it.”
“I don’t know. I just find the classes to be boring and not entertaining to me. I just want to be able to do my own thing, and not have to be stuck doing what others want me to do in such a prison-like environment, I guess. Especially as I hate being stuck in those rooms with teachers who just want to lecture in their usual monotone-like voices as if just saying something without any interaction is going to help the students.”
Sean chuckled.
“What?”
“No, no. It’s nothing. Please, continue.”
Kevin shrugged, and continued his spiel. “Another thing is how I’m sure that the clocks in schools are deliberately designed to slow down in the last 5 minutes of class, so that those few minutes become an eternity in and of themselves. It’s agonizing to watch the clock and be wishing that the bell would ring already so that I can get out of that room, even if it is only to be tortured by going to another classroom during the day.”
Sean burst out laughing at that confession regarding the clocks in school. “As they say, a watched pot never boils.”
As they continued to chat, the sun began to wane off in the distance, and Frank had completely forgotten about his own dilemma regarding the report card with his parents. When it came time to head home for real, he waved goodbye to Sean, who himself started wheeling home, and turned to head back, his report card still in his jacket pocket where he had placed it earlier.
Upon arriving home after dark, Kevin took off his jacket and shoes before hearing his mother call out to him from the kitchen.
“Kevin? Is that you?”
“Yeah, sorry. I was chatting with a classmate after school and lost track of the time.” Which was completely true, although not the entire truth at that.
“Well, come into the kitchen as your father and I would like to talk to you about something.”
‘Oh boy,’ he thought to himself. ‘Here we go.’
Trudging into the kitchen, but without his report card, which was still in his jacket pocket, Kevin sat down with a somewhat dejected look upon his face.
“How was your day today,” his mom asked. “And who were you chatting with? Was it a girl, by chance?”
“MOM!” Kevin went beet red Though it certainly was neither a girl, nor someone he was romantically interested in, it was simply the notion that his own mother would jump the gun and assume that it was a girl he liked. While there was a girl in the class whom he did fancy, it wasn’t Haylee whom he’d been talking to, although he was certain that Haylee wasn’t interested in him due to how most of the class treated him for his lack of participation in school.
“Sorry sweetie. It’s just that you are at that age where boys really start liking girls, and I was just wondering if that was the case.”
“No, it was Sean. We just ended up chatting about random stuff near the bus terminal, and lost track of time as a result.”
“Anything in particular you talked about?” his father asked.
“Uh, well, he was looking over information for a college in Minnesota, which I found surprising that for someone in the seventh grade, he would already be thinking well into his future like that.”
“That’s great. It shows real commitment to his own future.” His mom Judith said before patting her son’s hand. “Listen, Kevin. Your father and I have been talking, and we’ve decided to have you go through a new round of testing.”
Kevin’s eyes rolled in annoyance at the idea of having to undergo yet more testing by a specialist, given all the tests he had previously had, all of which turned out negative for intellectual disabilities.
“Now, don’t roll your eyes. We’re doing this for your own good. After all, we want what is best for you. It’s been quite a while since you were last tested, and although those all came back to say that you were completely bright, as I’ve always insisted that you are, newer tests have come out which may help shed some light on what your situation truly is. Don’t you want to be able to find out what it is that’s holding you back from getting your homework and in-class assignments done on time?”
Kevin thought for a moment about what his mom had just said. “What if the results all come back the same as they had before?”
“Then we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
There was a brief pause, during which Kevin thought deeply about the whole situation. “Alright, fine. I’ll do it.” Though partly it was the thought that he would be able to get out of school in order to do said testing, that made him more accepting of the idea of getting tested.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” his mom then added. “Where’s your report card?”
There was a painful groan by Kevin before he got up and made his way back into the hallway to grab it from his jacket which was hanging up in the closet. Upon returning to the kitchen, he handed the report card to his mom who looked over it, before handing it to his father.
“Well, hopefully after getting this testing, we’ll be able to see you get away from such abysmal grades as these are,” his dad said, all while biting his lower lip in frustration.
*****
A couple of months later, while Kevin certainly hadn’t improved his grades in readiness for the next quarter’s report card, he sat in preparation for the meeting between himself, his mother, and the child psychologist who had carried out the testing, Dr. Roubache.
“Well now Kevin, I have some good news for you based upon what we have looked over with both your schoolwork and your testing with me over the past couple of months. Not only are you truly bright, but I understand what has been causing you to be feeling spaced out in the classroom. You see, while you had previously been tested for Attention Deficit Disorder, up until recently we only had a diagnosis for the condition with the hyperactivity aspect, which you don’t possess. It wasn’t thought that a person could have the condition without being hyperactive. So, while you met all the other markers even as a child, it was that one thing which has unfortunately become a barrier for you over all these years. Now that the field has a broader understanding and has determined that it is possible to have Attention Deficit Disorder without the hyperactivity, and based on my observations and the testing which was carried out, it would certainly be a perfect match to what you have been experiencing.”
A part of Kevin felt better at knowing how they finally had something of an answer, even if another part of him worried about what it would mean for him going forward.
“The most important thing to keep in mind, is that this isn’t your fault, and that you don’t need to be placed in a special education program. Instead, I’m going to refer you to a doctor who can run a few additional tests in order to determine what medications and strengths can be used to help raise your concentration levels and thus fix this matter once and for all.”
“Wait! You mean to say that there’s a magic pill that can make me smarter than all of my classmates?”
“Now, I didn’t say that. All I said is that there are medications out there which can help people such as yourself, to overcome the obstacles which are distracting them and allowing them to go on impulse throughout their daily lives. But as far as which one, if any, will be prescribed to you, I cannot say myself. It could be a stimulant such as Ritalin, or Adderall, for example. But that will have to be determined by the medical doctor, Dr. Corazon.”
“Isn’t that wonderful news, Kevin? We finally have answers to help you going forward,” his mom said with some relief in her own voice. All those years of having to insist to his teachers that he truly is a bright student, and now she felt vindicated on his behalf for the past.
I pledge…
Richard Yeomans.
Word Count: 2827.
**********
Word Count for Write-up: 453
Project Write-up
For my Major Project assignment, I actually partially referenced my own past in the story with regards to it having been the seventh grade that I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder after years of testing at the bequest of schools who would then be notified that I was too bright for the Special Education classes which they’d been trying to push me into. I also took reference from both John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men with how Lennie and George interacted, as Kevin has times where his internal mentality struggles between the two sides of a coin. The Lennie side of his mind (which drew on impulse), would try to do things such as hiding his homework to avoid doing it instead of playing video games or watching television, and George’s more logical side of the mind having to rein in such impulsivity to remind him of what happened the previous time he’d tried that. It also refers to Collin Craven from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden for the character of Sean who is trapped in a wheelchair (although in Sean’s case it was the result of spinal bifuda). Both Kevin and Sean are ostracized by their classmates for their perceived weaknesses.
I began with a rough layout after setting a character spreadsheet of who would be included, and then a general idea of the plot. Once that was completed, I then started on the rough draft of the story, typing it out before proofreading (I used the “Read Aloud” script reader on Microsoft Word to do this so as to remain impartial) and editing to see what worked and what needed to be tweaked/dropped. After that, I then retyped the final version for everyone’s enjoyment.
I enjoyed working on Kevin, because it gave me a chance to look at things from my past through not just the eyes of my own self, but from the eyes of others who had experienced it at the time, with even seeing the old reports from the school board in regards to my testing as a young child when the teachers would be pushing for me to be put in Special Education because they felt that they couldn’t handle me due to issues like frequent daydreaming and not wanting to do assignments (and the Special Education teacher at my most notable Elementary school hated her job and would sadly talk down about her students in front of the regular students all the time (frequently saying that her students were the “stupid kids of the school”)). And as there is always more than one lens to look at an issue through, it was certainly beneficial for me healing some of the wounds of the past.
I pledge…
Richard Yeomans.
