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Members of the Hillside Flyers, a tumbling team in Duluth, take turns practicing handstands.
(MPR Photo/Chris Julin)
Reporter's Notebook - Chris Julin
I know some of these kids, because one year ago, I was teaching at Nettleton Elementary. It's a great school, in many ways - full of hope and potential. But it's a hard place to teach - the closest Duluth has to an "inner-city" school - and I couldn't cut it. A lot of kids at Nettleton have tough lives, and they bring their problems to school. Like the little second grader who was so unstable that an adult escorted him to a special bus every day, after the other kids had left.
This boy was in constant trouble, for running around, hitting other kids, swearing. But one day he really went off. It took two teachers to restrain him. He kept kicking people, so I pulled his shoes off and followed behind as they carried him to the office, screaming and flailing.
When we got to the office, the boy's mother happened to be standing in the hall. She had just checked in with her older son, who'd been suspended for five days for the same kind of problems. I handed the shoes to her and walked away, knowing that I had to stop being a teacher.
At school, several of the Flyers are what teachers call "defiant." They'll look an adult in the face and do the exact opposite of what they're asked to do. But here in the gym, they're polite - to adults and to each other. The big kids help the little kids. When they "spot" another kid who's doing a difficult move, they say, quietly, almost under their breath, "Nice job Alan," "Nice job Sam."
I see a skinny nine-year old spring improbably high into the air, and make a perfect landing. With just the hint of a smile, he dashes away and turns four consecutive, beautiful back flips.
This is the boy whose shoes I carried to his mother.
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