Short Bus
Smith, Al

AL: My name is Al Smith and here is my story. When I was in elementary school, I'm going to start in the fourth grade, I, like many kids, did not seem to understand the value of respecting other people so we would always wait for the short bus to come out in front of the elementary school to see who's going to get on the short bus. The short bus went to the retarded school in our community and we would laugh at the kids that were getting on that bus. The very next year they called my name and the very children that were laughing with me were now laughing at me. My mother worked in the cafeteria at the elementary school. I had no idea I was dumb, by the way, definition dumb. I was getting ready to get on that bus, doing everything I can not to cry because I didn't want my friends to see me cry. My mother came out with one of those big cooking spoons. The principal at the time was Mr. Cheney, she said, "Mr. Cheney, I don't want my son on that bus, you didn't talk to me about that." He said, while I'm standing there, "Mary, he's one of the dumbest boys in school, I'm doing him a favor by sending him to the retarded school to a special program we have over there." She said, "You're not going to put him on that bus." She kind of waved that spoon and he didn't want to get hit so they put me in the metal building out back with the special ed. kids. So all through the fifth grade, sixth grade, and even as I went to the junior high school at that time was the seventh grade, I was in remedial. I accepted the fact that I was dumb. Someone has got to be dumb, you've got smart kids and you've got dumb kids. So I'm one of the dumb kids and I accepted that. In junior high school they had career day about three times a year. Well we never got to go because we were the "special kids." Well one year Mrs. Walker, who was our special ed. teacher, we were right across the hall from the library, she says, "My kids are going to this." Principal said, "Not going to do it." She says, "Alright then you tell the parents why they can't go." He said, "Alright fine they can go but they have to sit in the back of the room." So I'm sitting back there and honestly I didn't care what those people were saying, I'm a dumb kid; I accepted that. So I'm looking out the window at the birds and I'm hanging just kind of looking around saying, "Oh so this is the library." But a doctor came and visited us and I can't remember if he was a psychological doctor or a medical doctor but he brought one of those kits similar to what you see a lawyer would have, one of those lawyer pouches. He opens this thing up, he takes out a scale and puts it on the table. He pulls out the model of the brain, he said, "This is the brain of an adult." And he puts that on a scale and he pulls out another model, "This is the brain of a person your age." And he puts that on the scale and you could see a few ounces of difference, you almost had the brain of an adult and he goes through all of this stuff about the hemispheres and what they do. I'm just counting how many birds that were out there but he said something that got my attention. He said, "Whether you all know it or not, there is no one in this room that is any smarter than anybody else." That's interesting. He said, "Unless you have some kind of chemical imbalance and there is something wrong with you mentally. There is no one in this room smarter than anybody else." And I said, "Well I know I don't have anything wrong with me." So I waited until everybody left and since we were right across the hall from the library I could wait until the bell rang and I still had time to talk and I said, "Doctor, did you tell me that-" I said, "In this room is a guy named Ronald Moon and Ronald Moon is the smartest guy in class, are you telling me that I'm as smart as Ronald Moon?" He said, "I'm listening to you talk, there's nothing wrong with you." He said, "The only reason why Ronald Moon is smarter than you is because Ronald Moon knows that he can do it, he believes in himself, and he probably has a better study habit. There's nothing he's doing that you can't do." My whole attitude about education changed that day. My whole attitude about what I could accomplish and what I could do changed that day. My grades got better. Did I become an A student that year? No, but over time I began developing and attitude that if anybody else can do something, I can. And here it is now, I'm working for a university designing well-based training for faculty and staff. The very guy whose mother was told that this kid was too dumb to even be in public school. And so that's my story.