Graduation Post Script

What relief! The graduations in the family are over. I came home today and took a long afternoon nap. Then I woke and worked in the garden till dark. Hiromi and the boys installed the window air conditioner since today's mid-80s heat and humidity taxed Hiromi's limited tolerance for discomfort when he wants to be in relaxation mode (as he usually does when he's indoors).

I'm happy to report that Grant came in under the wire with enough school work done to be able to join the graduation festivities. His actual diploma will join the fancy diploma cover and envelope after he finishes up three more paces and does some Bible memory work next week.

On graduation day he was due at school at 6:00 p. m. for picture taking ahead of graduation. At 5:00 when I returned to school from picking up a new tire for the van (Grant had a flat tire earlier in the day.) Grant, who had worked all day at school, still had two required English 3200 tests to take and pass. I asked him if I could help him, and he said "I don't know." So I sat beside him and listened to his proposed answers, and headed off any tendencies toward wrong answers that I perceived. I felt only slightly guilty, and informed our principal that he wasn't seeing "anything ." He laughed and obligingly ignored us.

Grant got a 96 per cent on the first of the two tests. For the last test, he read the questions and called out the answers, which I typed into his computer. When I checked the printed copy. he got a score in the 90s on that test also, and at 5:20 he was ready to go home and get ready to graduate. Whew!

The principal gave the obligatory disclaimer about the lack of authenticity in the awarding of Grant's diploma. I was too relieved to be embarrassed, and I suspect Grant felt the same way. I may have imagined it, but I thought the applause when he got his "diploma" was louder than for anyone else.

Many of those who clapped loudly could justifiably claim a hand in Grant's success. Students and parents of students told me they were praying for Grant. One of the final Monday chapels ended with the school board chairman who conducted the chapel leading in a prayer huddle for Grant and his classmate Ryan who also was feeling anxiety about getting finished in time. All the boys gathered around them and laid hands on them while anyone who wished led out in prayer. The girls linked arms and gathered around the boys. With my arms occupied and no facial tissues within reach, my nose dripped shamelessly until the prayer was over and I bolted toward the Kleenex box in Grant's office. From that point on, Grant finished a pace every day. He didn't sleep much and was rewarded with consistently high scores on his pace tests, despite hardly ever asking for help.

Hiromi and I fervently hope that this lesson on the high price of procrastination is not lost on Grant. At the same time we have some regrets about circumstances that short-circuited his best chances at academic success. The vision problem that was diagnosed at the end of his freshman year was a detriment long before any of us caught on. While the immediate effect was a reading rate so slow that no amount of hard work was enough to stay caught up, the more long-term effect, still present after therapy corrected the problem, was discouragement and a sense of hopelessness. During his junior year, he didn't even try. He filled his after-school hours with helping do chores on a dairy and working with a friend in the radio-controlled airplane shop afterwards. He built, flew, wrecked, and repaired airplanes all year, but he didn't do much school work. Near the end of the year he spent long hours in fund raising activities for the Spanish class trip to Costa Rica and Nicaragua. "The way I see it," our principal commented, "he paid for his own trip and several other people's."

I also lament that the main curriculum for our school is predominately suitable for visual learners--the very modality that coincided with Grant's least efficient learning style. He generally did much better in the classes that were conducted conventionally. In our school Grant is not alone in this "mismatched" category. I grieve for these other students as well.

In today's mail a card from Sterling College arrived for Grant. It declared "We saved a place for you." They ought to put the "reserved" sign into storage. I don't think Grant will claim the place.

Ironically, he spends lots of time at Sterling College every year during the summer. Much of the time he has a shovel or growling string trimmer in hand. Everywhere on campus he can point to a place of beauty he has helped create or maintain. This novel way of "going to college" is just fine with me. Most people pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege of being there. He gets paid, and he's acquiring skills that have the potential of generating income for a lifetime.

Maybe the mismatch of school and skills is finally in the past for Grant. Let's all say it together: "Yaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!