Old Friends · Sun Oct 8, 19:33 by Eleri Straker
Some years ago I taught a very singular boy, who, for now I’ll refer to as Harry. He was in the first GCSE class I taught in my present school. Harry was exceptionally tall and gangly, in fact, we had an agreement that when he needed to talk to me, we would find the nearest staircase and I would stand about four steps up and he was to stand on the floor. In that way we could actually make eye contact!
He was a very bright boy and absolutely brilliant orally, but picking up a pen was far too much like hard work so he never wrote anything down. So I believed that he was covering up his limited ability by pretending to be lazy. I predicted that he would achieve a couple of Ds if he were lucky.
However, about a month before the final date for the coursework to be handed in, Harry turned up with an essay on Macbeth (the play for GCSE then) and it was brilliant! He got an A. But of course one piece would not make a decent folder, but then he handed me another essay…then another…and they were all As. I couldn’t believe it. Talk about hiding his light under a bushel! When the exam results came out he had achieved two As!
Harry returned to the sixth form but fell into the same behaviour pattern and was asked to leave.
I heard then that he had gone to the local sixth form college and on to university to study music, his first love.
Ten years later, I’m sitting in the English staffroom when I’m told that I have a visitor, and standing in the doorway is this enormously tall man grinning from ear to ear. It took me a moment, then I recognized him. It was my old friend Harry. Within minutes I’m wrapped in a bear hug!
He told me that he had graduated from university with a First, was engaged to be married and, was now, of all things, a teacher!
I was very fond of Harry, he used to make me laugh and impressed me with his insight into Shakespeare. He has overcome tremendous personal problems to get where he is today. When I saw him today, I have to admit to feeling a sense of pride. One of my colleagues commented that I must have made an impression on him if he had sought me out after so long. It’s a nice thought.
Harry has fulfilled his potential and is happy and successful. I like to think that perhaps I had some little hand in that. At least, I hope so.
