Today, I was taking attendance in my most difficult class as they attempted to settle down from lunch. They often bring the left-overs of their meal to class with them and enjoy as they do bellwork. One of my very special babies, Shawn, was sitting in front of me. He has to sit very close to me during class as he requires a great deal of attention. He is a wonderful young man who has captured the hearts of many of his teachers, including those who do not have him in class.
As the class worked, Shawn let out a large sigh. He turned to me and said, "Miss, I sure wish I had some chips." I told him, "I wish you did too. But, I didn't buy those students theirs. They bought them with their own money." He responded, "Well, you know Miss, you could buy some large bags of chips, and we could all eat out of them." I laughed and said, "Who would pay for them? I'm a bit tight on money right now." He said, "I'd give you the money." I just smiled and urged him to get back to work. I know he doesn't have the money to spend on chips for the class.
A few seconds later, he turned around again. "Miss, I know what we can do, just me and you. I can buy some soda, and you can buy some chips, and I can buy some little plastic cups. And we'll a throw party for the whole class on the 18th, just me and you." I smiled again, loving that he wanted to have this special little secret with me and share with the whole class. Then, as if he could read the doubts in my mind he said, "Cause my mom is going to get a $1,000 check for babysitting, and she's going to give me $30 for helping." Wow! What little he has, he wants to give to the class. I agreed to organizing a party with just him, but maybe close to time we could invite the other students to help provide the snacks so he could save some of that money for himself. He thought that was a pretty good compromise.
About thirty minutes later, I ran into a fellow teacher getting onto him for putting on a vest that was not uniform. She told him he should wear a white long-sleeved shirt underneath his short-sleeve polo so he wouldn't be cold. After dancing around the issue for a minute, he admitted that he didn't have any at home. I realized his family didn't have the resources to provide him with them, and I knew the weather was going to be even colder tomorrow. I decided to immediately take him "shopping" in the office of our social worker. While in her office, it came out that he was also waiting on a donated winter coat. When she informed us that the donations had not arrived as planned today, I think I was more disappointed than he was. As my face fell, she suddenly remembered she'd gotten just one coat yesterday, and it was his size! He tried it on and paraded around the room in his brand new coat. (It even still had the tags on it!) He pointed out that it had originally cost a whole $13. All I could think was, "And this was the baby who wanted to spend his precious $30 on snacks for his class."
