Why do we do this???

OK, so I am taking a break from the technology Things.

I had lunch with "Eileen" this week. She earned the priviledge because she has earned more than 20 points in Accelerated Reader. Someone forgot to tell her that she could bring a friend (most of her class has long since had lunch with the librarian), so there she was, by herself, grinning at me in the library. I grabbed my lunch box and sat down with her.

You need to know that "Eileen" is a second grader. She will be 10 years old this summer. When Eileen came to Ms B's class in August (from a sister school district), it quickly became obvious that the girl did not yet know her ABCs! And guess what? There is no evidence in her record that any of a number of schools ever tested her for any learning disabilities. Ms B. has had an interesting 6 months, especially since she herself is fairly new to this teaching game (and by the way, the teacher is herself dyslexic). And we have seen remarkable progress. We probably broke several inane laws in September because Ms B. asked everyone in the school to help her with Eileen, while the incredibly slow process of needs identification crawled along. No one at my school shunted her off to the side because she was so far behind. No one told Ms B. she couldn't do anything until the entire process was done.

So anyways, here I am talking about reading to this dark haired angel, when she looks at me and announces: "Ms B. doesn't read to me anymore."

Whereupon, I, the librarian, immediately somewhat concerned, ask, "Why not??"

She smiled this smile that melted my heart and declared, "Because I can do it myself!!" There is intelligence in those eyes. There is determination in that face. And one of my teachers put it there!! So, Texas, you can keep your TAKS tests. My school is not going to leave anyone behind!!