When first seeing Kevin, I believed this kid must be full of energy, so energetic that I thought he was such an optimistic young boy that never knew what sorrow would be like since he stems from a well-educated family, along with his parents with traditional, decent backgrounds.
Later on, it was totally not in this case. Kevin seemed a little wordy, too attentive and even sensitive to what other classmates thought. He developed somehow offensive character, cursing back to peers all the time when others discussed about him, not to mention their trying to rebuke him for what wrong-doings he had made. I was a little worried about it, thinking the class order would be disturbed by dormant, unseen, coming arguments among my little friends.
Kevin is never a naughty pupil that is hard to be disciplined. He is only a little “overreacting”, caring too much about how people look at him. I never blamed him for clamor he brought forth in class. On the other hand, he is willing to learn almost everything as long as the teacher tells him in a relatively inspiring, not obligatory way of instructing. And, to my surprise, Kevin learns fast, especially in fields of languages and cultures. As far as I, his English teacher, am concerned, Kevin learns to speak foreign language very fast; he almost can memorize a small paragraph as soon as I read it out to him. This is not natural born, however. I found him to have such ability to catch the sounds, syllables, or even a certain groups of words to put them together, after I let him in my class for about half a year. I urged him nothing special to do, neither in class nor at home, nor did I give him specific assignments which must be in a tutorial manner with his parents. In respect of learning foreign languages, I gave him no pressure, no deadlines, just encouragement and comfort when needed. And he learns the skill by himself. He does it well.
With the little achievement he has established on English conversation, Kevin gained respects from his classmates on and on. Other kids might go to him asking some pronunciation-related questions. To my surprise again, he handled them well. Everyone, including himself, was satisfied. I persuaded the other parents accompanying their children in class to be more patient with Kevin for his tendency to fight over other students was what he couldn’t help. The quarrels happened less often, almost rare at the end. The class order was in totally control. Atmospheres in his classes were harmonious. Kevin was happy to be in my English class, and his classmates liked him, too.
Nevertheless, things changed again after Kevin went to junior high school in Taipei. The competitive environment and pressures from both school teachers and family choke him barely to breathe. The pace of learning and the ways of evaluations are too fast for him to follow up. Actually, the teaching materials of math, for example, are also too hard for him to grasp. Well, I would never say Kevin is mentally retarded; I just say maybe he needs some other ways, the unique ones especially for those kids like Kevin, to build him up, slowly but steadily. And I never think that a student is considered “bad” when he or she is poor at one or two of the school objects. Neither do I think a single education system can be “one size fits all”. There must be some leak or gaps where not all students could be taken good care of, and Kevin is one of them. And the leak is somewhat serious possibly resulting from financial budgets of a country, at least it is so in Taiwan. That’s why I strongly recommend Kevin’s parents to send Kevin to the U.S., where the social welfare for children who need special assistance of learning is sound and functioning, well, at least better than that in Taiwan. I’m not saying that Taiwan is a lousy place for students. But to tell the truth, Taiwan still has a long way to go in this point of view. And to Kevin, America is rather preferable.
I personally want to tell Kevin’s parents not to worry about him, instead, only to care about him. It is of no use at all putting too much worry on an innocent child. What we ought to do is inspire him, encourage him, and love him with all our hearts. To teach such a young boy, we need extra patience and extra faith. Not only his parents have to know their necessities, but his teachers. This will be a team work, and nobody can quit by halves.
I have faith that God has a very special plan on every one, of course on Kevin as well. We do as we could do, and we leave the rest to God. Let Him take care of Kevin. We shall lay no expectations on anyone for there’s nothing worthy expecting on us humans, but on God, for He is the only hope of people. As the Bible says, “For we brought nothing to the world, and we can take nothing out of it.”
People expect the world, and they despair; because they expect the wrong one. Our lovely Kevin is the one to love, not a race house to be expected for a trophy (though he actually is).
The twelve-year-old is one of my good friends, leaving Taiwan for NJ this August, and I hate to say good-bye. 
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