The meeting

Now it was down to the Lord what the response would be. We prayed much as a family and the church was kind enough to be concerned and to make it a matter of prayer. The days flew past and around came Thursday 6th September. The classroom was set up and I waited along with Ellen (my colleague) to see who would come. As it turned out only two sets of parents did. One an Afro-Caribbean family in the process of leaving an independent school, and the other a Hindu family with a pre-school aged child. The talk and session in general went very well but I had to inform the parents that because of the lack of interest we would have to close the Academy and offer other tuition services. We took details and arranged to go around and see what could be done.

Earlier that afternoon I had been teaching a boy from our church's Sunday School. He is the son of a Latvian and a Trinidadian. This boy is only 5 but has gone through much disturbance in his short life. He had refused to utter a single syllable during the 9 weeks of lessons he had had with me up to this point. It is pretty hard to teach reading and phonics to somebody who won't talk. My pride was well and truly dented although the mum had asked me to persevere. The lad obviously enjoyed the lessons (well they are given by me) and smiled and responded non-verbally but just didn't want to talk. Today I made up my mind that if he wouldn't talk I would teach his younger siblings instead. I asked permission for this to happen and had just started to sound out some work with them when he responded and formed the same sounds. He copied my words and began to converse happily. He made a real effort and mum was delighted (as was I). We had done some work on the "b" sound and I had been drawing a bird for him to colour. It was then that I decided to sing a song for him about God loving people more than birds or flowers. I went home so excited and shared this with the family.