Letter to Arturo

Dear Arturo
This is Marcelo. You told me that I had to work at your law office this summer and that if I did a good job, meaning that I did all the work the right way, that I would be able to choose where I go to school in the Fall. Marcelo did not want to work there but just wanted to be able to go back to Paterson and take care of the ponies. Marcelo did all the work he was supposed to do but found out something very bad. Arturo did something very bad that hurt someone that needed his help. Ixtel needed help and Arturo did not help. You are my father and Marcelo trusted you because you said I could. Marcelo thinks Arturo is not who he thought he was. Marcelo helped Ixtel. It was the right thing to do. I am sorry I had to hurt Arturo and the law firm but Marcelo had to do it. Marcelo will go to public school in the Fall. I am not the same as I was before. I have seen that people can be very good and they can be very bad. The real world is a scary place sometimes but I can handle it now. I will go to public school. I will find my place in the real world. Thank you for making me go out there because I know it's OK out there now. I will find my place and I will make the world better.

Your son
Marcelo

Final Reflection On Marcelo

Because of having a student with Autism in my class for the past 2 years I have become very interested in the topic. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Marcelo In the Real World because it helped me to get into the head of someone with autism to see how they process information. Even though each person with autism experiences things a little differently, there are still many similarities. Marcelo helped me to understand the little quirks those with Asperger's have such as the focus on one area , religion in the case of Marcelo , cars in the case of my student. The way Marcelo dealt with his feeling, his understandings and misunderstandings facinated me. Marcelo forced me to really look at what's wrong in this world and to realize that we need to work toward fixing or making right what we can rather than simply accepting things as they are. Marcelo grew as a person even though at times it seems as if he were just losing his innocence being immersed in the real world. He was forced to grow up or he at least accepted the challenge to grow up but he didn't accept the world as it was. He saw an injustice and went about making it right. He figured out fairly easily that it isn't all good out there. I will be more thoughtful, try to be more involved and more aware of what my student and all those who may think a little differently experience, good or bad, in our "real world".

I AM Poem

I am innocent and protected.
I wonder what it's like to feel love.
I hear music that no one else can.
I see things the way they should be.
I cry out for understanding.
I am becoming.
I pretend that I understand.
I feel scared sometimes.
I touch lives.
I worry about being in the real world.
I am becoming.
I understand that people can be both good and bad.
I say what I think.
I dream about what I don't understand.
I want to right what's wrong.
I am Marcelo.

Campout Toondoo

By bohlandlr | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/2451457/Untitled

Gentle and Strong

"But I realized that in order to work with children I needed to be gentle and strong. Gentle and caring with the children, but strong and tough with all that threatens to increase their suffering and dininish their chances to be healed." "Sometimes I have to protect them from their own parents. I protect them even from their own negative thoughts at times. I wouldn't be able to do that, to protect them, unless I was an adult, unless I was strong, unless I was willing to fight for them."

I felt such a  connection with this passage because we as teachers have to also be gentle with our students and at the same time strong to keep them from all that gets in the way of achieving their goals and of giving their very best.
In this picture the gorilla represents us as  teachers, strong, able to deal with administrators, other teachers, well meaning parents - or not, and even the children themselves, to increase their chances of learning and of becoming who they were meant to become. We have the power to hurt, if we abuse our power, or to gently guide our students, protecting them from anything that gets in their way. The kitten represents our students, small, moldable, trusting in us to care for them gently in every way.

The Life and Times of the Bohlands