Elaine's Circle: A Teacher, a Student, a Classroom, and One Unforgettable Year by Bob Katz

Author:Bob Katz [Katz, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Munn Avenue Press
Published: 2022-05-21T16:00:00+00:00

In class, Seamus was a constant topic. During free time, when the children had completed their curriculum work, they enjoyed making cards for him. Elaine would periodically stop by the Farrells’ house to deliver them.

“Oh, no, Seamus!” Jim would bellow in mock warning. “Your teacher’s here!”

At Circle Time, she told the kids about the radiation treatments Seamus was receiving. Radiation, she explained, was the main treatment for brain tumors. Special equipment, an X-ray machine, was used to deliver high doses of radiation to prevent cells from growing in the cancerous tumor.

Naturally, the kids were curious to know if radiation really could cure cancer. Elaine could only say yes, it sometimes had that power. She had undergone extensive chemotherapy herself and here she was, two years later.

However, she cautioned, Seamus’s tumor was among the most serious types and, located where it was within his brain, among the most difficult to effectively treat. His chances weren’t good, but she could not bring herself to say that Seamus actually had no chance. There was always hope. The second week after holiday break, Seamus came to visit. Elaine had told Susan that he should come, on whatever basis, at whatever time suited him. She wanted it understood—by Susan and by Seamus—that he would continue to be a member of the class. Seamus had completed two weeks of radiation therapy and, while feeling far from peppy, was learning that some days were better than others. One morning he told his mother that the thing that would make him most happy would be a trip to Ravenwood School.

Seamus had been a popular boy long before he became an object of sympathy. He was spunky and playful, but also sensitive, and he didn’t care who knew it. After watching the movie Jaws, he was upset at the decision to destroy the giant shark. “He [the shark] could have been trained to be good,” he’d protested. “They didn’t have to kill him.” The special qualities he brought to the class were missed.

Seamus could walk, but only unsteadily. He had developed a severe foot drop, a worsening of the limp and purported ankle injury that had afflicted him back in the innocent fall, and he wore a hard plastic brace on his bad leg for support. Otherwise, it could have been the same old Seamus. Elaine had done little specifically to prepare the class for this visit—but then again, they’d been preparing all school year.

Seamus sat in a chair. Kids gathered around him. There was a moment’s hesitation as his emotions adjusted to being back in this cozy space, with its wall maps and artwork and large-lettered sign above the door: THIS ROOM IS A SAFE PLACE.

Seamus sat there beaming. He wore a blue U.S. Navy cap with gold lettering.

“Nice hat,” someone said.

“Usually I keep it on,” he told them. Much of his hair had fallen out. What remained was aggregated in a few isolated clumps, as if it had been erratically pasted on as a Mr. Potato Head project.

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