Tone Deafness Can "Speak" to Us

[adamjack]

No textbook, paper or any other implement of learning cluttered his otherwise empty desktop.I handed him a copy of the overhead review questions. “Start your warm-up, Richard,” I whispered. He didn’t acknowledge my presence. I took the sneaker, rather forcefully because he didn’t want to let go. “I’ll lace your shoe; you do your warm-up.” Richard looked unsure. His eyes remained on the sneaker in my hands while the class finished their warm-up, his questions left blank on the paper I’d given him.I taught the math lesson; then students worked in small groups practicing some problems. After a few minutes, lined paper littered the floor in a large circle around Richard’s team. Each sheet of paper was filled with big black numbers. Richard, his lips puckered in concentration, wrote with one of my blackboard markers.

He stopped, sniffed the marker and stared at it, fascinated. “No, that’s wrong, Richard,” his teammate Alex said.Richard angrily threw the paper to the growing pile on the floor enveloping his team and pulled a new sheet of notebook paper from his binder.I was required to give Richard copies of my overhead notes. He couldn’t copy information from the board. His writing ability was on sixth-grade level, his reading slightly below that. Ability wasn’t the problem. He was just so fascinated by the sound the overhead projector made or the small rainbow of light it reflected onto the ceiling that he couldn’t concentrate long enough to copy information. He drew pictures on his paper, fascinated by their shapes. He could spend an entire ninety-minute class on one detailed drawing.

I thought he showed exceptional ability in art, although his art teacher didn’t think so. Richard painted his pencils with correction fluid, and then scraped it off, leaving tiny white shavings covering his desk and the floor. He snuffed the fluid and the shavings.Richard played with anything on his or his neighbor’s desk. Because he never remembered his own supplies, or he lost them during class, he stole supplies from his neighbor, usually causing a disagreement. I frequently had to change the seating of students sitting next to him due to complaints from students and parents. I gave Richard two textbooks so he could keep one textbook at home and one in his locker. Still the textbook was an enigma that somehow never made it to class.Richard kept an assignment book where he recorded his homework assignments.

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