Chapter nine
Becoming a Prefect
25th
July 2014
One evening after
school Charles rang me all excited and told me he had just been accepted to be
a prefect at school. I didn’t even know he had applied for the position! It
involved helping out after school, showing parents round for new intakes and
helping with charity events at the school. I was delighted. He then went on to
talk about the next term in September when the school was going to be taking
students out of school for PE to our local leisure centre to play games of
their choice. Once the lesson had finished pupils would be making their own way
home. That bit worried me a little as he wasn’t used to the roads yet and as
the journey was over a mile away I would have to make sure he would be safe. I didn’t
comment about it at that point as he was excited. I just said, ‘That’s
fantastic, son, come to the car and we can talk all about your news.’
He swung open the
car door, threw his bag on the back seat and continued, ‘Oh and there’s more,
Mom! A girl has just asked me for a kiss, so I obliged her. Then as she walked
away she told me she loved me! What do you think I should do now?’ I must admit
it was all rather a lot for me to take in. I spurted a little and then laughed,
’Wow, you have been busy!’
I congratulated
him on becoming a prefect and was thrilled when he said he had even written a
letter to apply. That I wanted to see! I was really happy for him.
I felt PE would be
fine as long as I could have a meeting with the school to put some procedures in
place. Charles said a friend would walk with him but I needed more reassurance
than that, and I knew the risk would be too great as Charles still struggled
with concentration when crossing roads. But I didn’t want to burst his bubble.
I just thought I would sort it out with the school and hopefully over the
holidays we could practise the route together.
Charles broke my
thoughts. ‘What about the girl, Mom?’
I must admit
alarms bells went off in my head about this news because he had never mentioned
any one at school before. Instantly I was wondering if she was playing with
him. I asked him if he knew her well, because to give someone a kiss and then
walk away saying you loved them was rather a fast courtship in anyone’s book.
I said maybe he
should consider just staying friends with her for now and that he could say
that he was flattered by her interest but he wanted to concentrate on his exams
at the moment. I said that he probably shouldn’t kiss her again and certainly
not when there’s no one else around. All sorts of things were going through my
head. I was worried for him and was trying my best to explain the implications
of things. Charles thought for a moment and then said, ‘She is nice, Mom, and I
think she’s under the disability umbrella as well.’
My thoughts were
confirmed. I kept it to myself but thought I would have a quiet word with his
classroom assistant in the morning to keep an eye out.
Charles was
worried that all this news in one go would worry me. Bless him. I repeated that
I only wanted the best for him and it’s exciting because he was gaining more
independence and freedom. I told him, ‘You don’t want to spend the rest of your
life tried to my apron strings, do you?’
‘Nooo,’ he said
thoughtfully, trying to work out what I had just actually said. ‘Thanks, Mom. I
am excited. I feel free and I love you.’
We hugged. ‘I love
you too.’
I loved our little
talks in the car on the way home because it seemed to be the only time I could
get his full attention. Once home the computer, telly and food distracted him.
The school agreed
that until I practised walking with Charles over the holidays and got him more
familiar with the roads they would arrange school transport for Charles to get
him there until it was safe to do otherwise. Then at the end of the PE lesson I
would have to go and collect him. Charles was happy with the decision because
it was put across as an adventure with his PE teacher in his car and other
children would also get a chance to go with him so he didn’t feel singled out.
We just needed a little more time to make sure Charles would be safe as the
teacher was not there to supervise the children as they walked the one and half
miles back through a busy town centre. I was relieved.
Even though
Charles had been walking to school and back I think sometimes fate had a little
helping hand in pushing things along and I am truly grateful for that.
As for the girl,
Charles said she was fine about things and that she did want to stay friends
with him.
Below is the
letter Charles wrote to apply for prefect position.
Dear Mr Grice,
I would like to be
a prefect because I feel like I have the right mind set and personality to do
the task. Also it would be perfect for my DofE award (which is the Duke of
Edinburgh Award) but the main reason I want to be a prefect is to look after
the students in the school that don’t want to fight. Ensuring their safety on
the school grounds. The qualities I possess that would be good for the
position include loyal, caring,
intelligent, morally right and when I get I friend I intend to keep them and
look after them which shows my compassion. Also I am a hard worker and excel at
sciences, being in top set for all of my science classes. Also the experiences
I have had at my scout group have given some form and definition to my moral
compass so that I know right from wrong. I demonstrate these qualities
previously mentioned every day and at the time of writing this my friend
Christian was getting teary eyed and so I decided to help him out even though
my other friends were the ones getting annoyed by his antics. Even outside of
school. I always team up with the people I know to make sure if their safe even
though they may not do the same for me. What I can bring to your school as a
prefect is a person with a big brother like attitude and not letting the
younger students get hurt. But at the same time not using violence and instead
some kind of diplomacy because words speak louder than actions.
Yours sincerely
Charles cornfield.
He meant actions
speak louder than words!
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