Special Needs Students Teach Life Lessons

Sometimes the smallest moments in life teach the biggest lessons. Such a moment for me occurred many years ago during a gym class. I was substituting for a local high-school coach. My duties were simple: throw out a basketball and let the kids play. One student; however, could not play. Her name was Jolene. She sat on the sidelines with me. Her appearance, mannerisms, and speech patterns suggested to me that she spent her days in a self-absorbed world, unaware of her impact on others. She helped me realize that my assumptions about her and about special needs students were stereotypical and unkind.

Jolene was small and frail for a sixteen-year-old girl. Her blue eyes crossed and looked glazed over. When speaking, she looked toward the ceiling and fluttered her eyelashes so fast that her eyes weren't visible. She could see, but to what degree I did not know. She chattered about this-and-that, showed me how she could jump off the lowest bleacher, and demonstrated her ability to do a somersault. When excited, she put her fists together, in front of her face, and giggled. Her teacher, Mr. Howard, came into the gym, and Jolene laughed. I asked her if she liked Mr. Howard. Her fists squeezed so tightly against her cheeks that her arms shook.

"He be real nice," she said.

She practiced jumping a few more times, and then sat down and became still. Her hair was pulled up on the sides and held by a pink ruffled ribbon. Her bangs and the back were curled under neatly.

"You look pretty today, Jolene," I told her. "Who fixed your hair?"

"My mama. My mama do it," she replied.

She patted the top of her head. I told her that her mama did a good job. Jolene swayed from side-to-side and then jumped up.

"I wish it be red or green," she said.

"Red or green? That would look funny!"

"My sister look like a white baby when she be born. I tell my mama she ain't no white baby."

She paused a moment and looked down.

"I be ruinin' my mama's life. That's what I is: Ruinin' Mama's Life."

I tried to tell her that she wasn't ruining anyone's life, and that her mama loved her. My words had no effect on her.