Thermal

I love stories like this, probably because I’m a lazy git: That Kid by Tom Demerly

I don’t know the polite words to describe this kid so I’ll tell it like it is: This kid is fat. I’m talking 210 pounds and about 5’5”. Call it anything you like, but that is a fat kid. Thirteen years old. Add to his tub of lard physique the fact that he is pretty darn wretched looking. Bad acne, hasn’t had a decent haircut in months and dresses like he gets his clothes from a thrift shop. You know the type. It looks like he never gets outside. Spends a lot of time in the basement; ugly, dumpy fat kid.

It goes without saying that this kid can’t play sports. Gym class at Junior High is a nightmare for him. He is awful looking in shorts; a bathing suit is out of the question (the acne on his back is worse than on his face). He is always last to be picked for the team- if he is picked at all. He never scores a goal, never hits a home run, never makes a touchdown. When they have tests to see how many push-ups he can do, he really can’t even do one properly. He’s a human jelly roll with pizza flesh. Awful looking kid.

Of course you can tell where it’s going, but that doesn’t take away from it being a great piece of writing, and a great example of what a really good teacher can achieve. Unfortunately good teachers are few and far between, but sometimes you get results like this.

I was kinda lucky in that I was good enough at sports not to be laughed at, and I enjoyed them, but there’s always the group of kids for whom every lesson must be torture. Most of the time though, it’s the teachers who lead the mocking and for that they have a lot to answer for.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 1st, 2007 at 7:16 pm and is filed under Internet, Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.