Not a Monster

To Sabbath School teachers: This story is for Sabbath, August 31.

By Andrew McChesney

T

eacher stood at the front of the classroom at the public school in Dominica. Rows of little first-grade children sat in their seats. Teacher spoke. The children listened. Except one.

Tap … tap … tap.

The noise interrupted Teacher as she spoke in the otherwise quiet classroom.

Tap … tap … tap.

Teacher stopped and frowned. Where was the sound coming from?She looked around the room. Her eyes stopped on 6-year-old Khyshawn.

Tap … tap … tap.

The little boy had a pencil in his hand, and he was slowly tapping it against his wooden desk.

Tap … tap … tap.

“Khyshawn,” Teacher said. “Stop doing that.”

Khyshawn laid the pencil down on the desk. Teacher resumed speaking. The children resumed listening. Several minutes passed. But then,

Tap … tap … tap.

Teacher looked upset. Some of the children tittered. Khyshawn didn’t notice. He was too busy.

Tap … tap … tap.

“Khyshawn,” Teacher said. “I told you to stop doing that.”

Everything was quiet for a few more minutes. Then again,

Tap … tap … tap.

Teacher picked up her phone and called Khyshawn’s mother.

“Take Khyshawn home,” she said.

Mother arrived at the school a short time later.

It wasn’t the first time that Teacher had called.

Khyshawn was a good boy. But he had trouble focusing on school. He was easily distracted and couldn’t keep still. He kept his mind occupied by tapping his pencil.

Tapping wasn’t the only way that Khyshawn disrupted the class. Sometimes, he got tired of sitting still, and he began to run around the classroom.

Teacher would ask him to sit, and he obeyed. But after a few minutes he would get up and run again.

Finally, Teacher would call Mother.

“He’s disrupting the class,” she would say. “Come, take him home.”

One day, Khyshawn asked Mother if he was a monster. He had heard the mother of another boy call him a monster in front of the school principal.

Mother looked sad. She held the boy in her arms.

“No, you are not a monster,” she said. “You just have ADHD.”

Khyshawn was not a monster. He only had ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), which made it harder for his mind to focus and his body to stay still. His brain just worked differently.

Mother wasn’t sure what to do. Then one of her friends told her about a Seventh-day Adventist school. “Go to the principal and tell her about your situation,” the friend said.

Mother did.

The principal said her class was very full and she didn’t have any space for more children. But when she heard Khyshawn’s story, she said, “I’ll give him a chance.”

On Khyshawn’s first day at the Adventist school, nobody called Mother to come and take him home.

When Mother arrived to pick him up after school, the principal said, “He’s a normal boy.”

Mother was so happy!

Khyshawn was also happy. On his first day of school, he had made a new friend.

Khyshawn is now 7 years old and in the second grade. He no longer taps his pencil on the desk or runs around the classroom. His teacher gives him so many things to do that he doesn’t have time to be distracted.

He likes his school. He likes praying and learning about God. He likes it when the teacher tells the children, “God loves you. God loves everyone.”

At home, he asks Mother, “Does God really love me?”

“Yes,” Mother says. “God loves all His children.”

He likes knowing that he is loved. Mother loves him. The teachers and other children love him. Most of all, God loves him.

Part of this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help Khyshawn’s school, Ebenezer Seventh-day Adventist Primary School, expand with a new building in Dominica’s capital, Roseau. The school was full when Khyshawn’s mother wanted to enroll him, and it remains full and in need of a larger building. Thank you for planning a generous offering on September 28.