Thursday, November 10, 2005

Good News 11/10/05

Colleen Paulson (name changed) was worried about her young son. Only 5 years old, he had been suspended from his school bus for fighting and was about to be left back in kindergarten. Asked about his troubling behavior, the boy's tearful response was, "Nobody loves me."

As the 2004-05 school year ended, Colleen and her husband began searching for alternatives. Their older child had been put in small special education classes in her early years and was now thriving in regular junior high classes. But small special education classes were eliminated by new legislation and years later the young Paulson son was unable to get such personal attention. Yet the Paulsons did not have the income to put him in a private school either.

Reaching out to others, Colleen began talking to friends and extended family about her predicament. What would happen to her son when he grew up if he had a childhood of school failure and behavior problems? And being left back would only make him even bigger than the other children who were already picking on him for being "different." Now was the critical time to make a change and give him a real chance in life.

In response to Colleen's distress, many people around the country began praying for the boy and his family. Some wrote poems. Others sent "white light" affirmations. Each trying to offer their support in their own way.

A few weeks before the new school year began, a co-worker of Colleen's learned of the situation and told her about a small, spiritually focused school just blocks from where Colleen worked. Colleen still worried about being able to pay for her son's attendance, but there was no reason to worry. The school gave him a scholarship and he was admitted at no cost to the struggling parents!

Now the little boy is thriving in his new environment. He is the delight of his teachers and is doing satisfactory work to progress. His mother is able to take him to school each day so that he doesn't face the overwhelming magnitude of the large school busses he used to ride, but sometimes she lets him ride the small busses of his new school anyway, just so that he can get used to the experience of being with the other children on the ride in a gradual way. He no longer gets into fights and is learning to talk to adults when he has conflict with other children.

With hope, commitment, and the ability to be vulnerable and ask for help, the Paulsons have secured a good education foundation for their son. And we consider that to be very good news.

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Posted by Indigo at 8:10 AM   

Comments:

The most deeply touching aspect of this story for me is the idea that a blessing was created for a child at a very lonely and frightening time for him as well as his family. What a wonder!

Getting a place at the school, and the obvious relief of the parents would surely have a positive effect on the child.

But taking this in the context of the earlier post about water and positive thoughts, I am enjoying the thought that the powerful messages of hope, warmth and love sent towards this boy also touched him in a way that allowed him to thrive in his new situation.
# posted by WellWisher : Thu Nov 10, 10:59:23 AM HST
 
Yes, WellWisher, I think the loving prayers also reached him to produce an internal shift in him that allowed him to be new himslef in the new environment. Children tend to carry less baggage and be more adaptive just naturally, because they don't have a lot of history forming a particular self-history enough to cling to it the way adults do, but the momentum of past experience still tends to cause them to carry behavior patterns forward unless something intervenes. Thankfully there was a loving intervention for this boy and he is thriving now. It encourages me to say my prayers for others each day and know that it really is a worthwhile effort, even if the stories don't always make it back to me the way this one did.
# posted by Indigo : Fri Nov 11, 09:27:45 AM HST
 

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