The First Day of School
On the first day of school, a big yellow school
bus arrived at the corner right on time. A young girl climbed
inside and began to talk very fast.
"Don't leave! Please wait!" she said.
"Eddie's on his way. He had trouble getting out of bed. Then
it took him too long to get dressed. That's ‘cause he couldn't
find one of his shoes. That's ‘cause he put the shoe in
his backpack. He really meant to put his reading book in it. I
found his backpack under the bathroom sink. He must have left
it there when he brushed his teeth. I don't know why he needed
his backpack to brush his teeth!"
The bus driver looked annoyed. "'Becky,"
he said, "I heard these same stories all last year. Let's
not go through them again. If your brother doesn't get here in
one minute, I'm leaving without him. And this is the last time
I'll wait for him at all. You tell him that."
Moments later, Eddie came running down the sidewalk.
Even though it was raining, he was carrying his baseball cap and
his raincoat, which was dragging behind him in the mud. His shoelaces
were untied, and his backpack was on top of his head. But there
were no books in the backpack. Only a big red skateboard was sticking
out. A little white dog with a big brown spot on his back chased
after Eddie.
"Sorry! Sorry!" Eddie shouted as he
jumped onto the bus. "I didn't mean to be late. How about
if we guys all attach our skateboards to the bus to make it go
faster? Then, we won't be late for school. Wouldn't that be cool?"
The bus driver looked at Eddie sternly and said,
"You'd better settle down, or I might have to report you
again. And just remember: this is the last time I'll wait for
you. I told you last year I wasn't going to put up with this late
stuff anymore."
Eddie sat down and started talking to the kid
next to him. He was talking very loud, and the bus driver turned
around and stared at him.
After that, Eddie got quiet. "Here I go
again," he thought to himself. "'More trouble. I never
mean to get into trouble. Why do I always have to get into trouble?"
As the bus pulled away, two big dogs appeared
and started to chase Eddie's little white dog with the brown back.
Fortunately, Eddie's dog managed to escape from the dog bullies.
The bus continued down the road. A few blocks
later, it stopped again. Two girls got on and sat next to each
other. One was Sonya. She was very quiet as she looked out the
window. The other girl, Eve, seemed a little scared. She stared
at the floor. She looked as if she had been crying.
At the next stop, a small group of children
got on. One of them was a tall, strong boy carrying a soccer ball.
He sat down and started to toss the ball up into the air and catch
it again. The bus driver made him stop that. Then the boy began
to spin the ball on his finger. He seemed to be trying to get
into trouble with the driver. But really he was playing with the
ball so he wouldn't have to think about school. He hated to think
about school. He looked angry.
In a little while, the bus arrived at the last
stop before the school. A boy with two book bags full of books
started to climb into the bus. As he put one foot on the first
step, he fell back to the ground. Some books in one bag fell out
into the mud. Several kids laughed. The boy picked up his books
and tried to wipe them off with his jacket. Then, he got on the
bus, went to the back, and sat down by himself.
Someone said, "Hey, Derek, how come you
have all those books?"
"These are just some of the many books
I read this summer," the boy answered. "'I'm taking
them to show the teacher. She'll be amazed at how many books I
read and how hard they are."
Bill, the boy with the soccer ball, looked up.
"Nobody cares how many nerdy books you read or how hard they
are," he snapped.
Derek answered, "You're just jealous. That's
all. You wish you could read hard books like me." Bill jumped
up, looking as if he were going to grab Derek.
The driver turned around and made everyone sit
down.
Finally, the bus arrived at school. Eddie made
rocket noises as he zoomed toward the building.
Eve and Sonya, looking worried, walked slowly.
Bill dribbled his soccer ball up the stairs and into the hall.
And Derek nearly bumped into a tree as he tried to read and walk
at the same time.
Everyone headed toward their classroom and their
new teacher, Mrs. Grillo. These kids, like most kids, wanted to
be smart in school and popular and good at sports. But each kid
was afraid that school would be tough or embarrassing again this
year.
What All Kinds of Minds Is About
All Kinds of Minds show us that different
children have different kinds of minds.
As we shall see, the children we met on
the bus are the stars of this book. All of them are really "neat"
kids. But each one has some problems with his or her kind of mind.
That's not unusual, though. All kids have some problems. No one's
life is perfect. And no one's mind is perfect.
In this book, we will learn a whole lot
more about the children on the bus. We will see that these kids
were worried or angry because they knew their minds weren't working
well enough in school.
Many kids go to school feeling bad about
themselves. They feel bad because their minds have a hard time
with certain kinds of mind work in school. Actually, there's no
such thing as a mind that does every kind of mind work well. Different
minds are good at different kinds of mind work. And, as your mind
gets better and better at different kinds of mind work, the mind
work gets to be mind fun!
Weaknesses in a student's mind can make
it very hard to do certain kinds of mind work. These weaknesses
are often called learning disorders. Sometimes they are called
learning disabilities. We will learn a lot about learning disorders
and about kids like the children on the bus, students who have
learning disorders.
Learning disorders can make kids very
sad so they worry a lot. Often, kids don't really understand their
learning disorders. They really don't know much about their own
kinds of minds. They may not have thought about all the different
kinds of mind work they have to do in school every day. You can
see a description of some of the different kinds of mind work
on page 10.
After you have read All Kinds
of Minds or listened to the tapes, you should understand
learning disorders much better. You will probably get some good
ideas about how to work on any learning disorders that your kind
of mind might have. And, remember, nobody has a perfect mind!
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