The Boy Who Felt Too Much by Lorenz Wagner

Author:Lorenz Wagner
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781948924795
Publisher: Arcade
Published: 2019-11-05T16:00:00+00:00

Kai smelled the air, felt the sun on his nose. It was as if he’d never left Israel. He rambled through the neighborhood, striking up a conversation with everyone. He made friends in his own strange way. He seemed so free and happy. Unfortunately, he had retained his fear of school. Where would his parents send him?

As is standard in Israel, a regular school offered to take him. A friend of Anat, a teacher, advised against it. “That’s not a good idea,” he said. Even if people in Israel are open-minded and the teachers are well-trained, it’s no paradise. Parents have to weigh the pros and cons. Kai was so naive, he believed everything and showed his feelings openly. Anat remembered all too well how his “friend” had incited him to throw stones at cars. “I’m afraid the other pupils will take advantage of him,” Anat’s friend said, “that they’ll make fun of him.”

Anat and Henry took stock. They were thinking less about Kai’s educational prospects and career opportunities. They just wanted him to feel good, to recover some of the self-confidence he’d lost in the United States and Switzerland. They wanted him to be surrounded by good people, for there to be no rift between him and others. This was so important to Kai, who more than anything else wanted to feel included; who, long before the UN had added “participation” to their definition of equality, had only one desire: to be among people.

With that in mind, they sought out and eventually found a school for children with learning difficulties—a special needs school. The classes were small, the teachers loving, the children happy. It seemed counterintuitive. They had moved Kai to Israel because they wanted him to live in a more inclusive society, because autistic people were treated like humans there rather than outsiders. And still they ended up sending him to a special needs school. Now they were the ones secluding him. But it wasn’t really counterintuitive: it was as logical as it could possibly be. They listened to their hearts, their inner voices. They were free to decide. This shows how forward-thinking Israel really is on these matters. While the UN has complained that parents in Germany aren’t free to decide what schools their children attend, parents in Israel enjoy that freedom to the fullest. Yes, you can include them; but you don’t have to. And special needs schools aren’t bad, per se; a study by the University of Lucerne praises the advantages that this form of schooling can have. For many, it’s a blessing. Blessed be a society that offers both: normal schools as the rule, even for pupils with disabilities, and special needs schools as a necessary exception.

Kai felt comfortable in the new school straightaway. For the first time since kindergarten, his parents could breathe freely. No drama, no calls from principals. Sure, he might have learned more elsewhere, the material was easy, and Kai was downright lazy, but that was beside the point. He was good at drawing, good with computers, good in music class, and excelled at basketball in PE.

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