The tragedy of entropy I

moved to Chicago from Detroit. He had moved To Chicago with his African American Grandma on his Dad’s side of the family because his white Mom was addicted to crack and had covered Eddie’s arms, neck and back with cigarette burns that had left ugly red whorls of scar tissue. His Mom was in jail for doing that. His Dad was in already in jail for drugs.

Eddie was a moderate EMH student. He always had a sunny smile on his face. That was probably because his chief delight in life was annoying people. His primary role models were The Three Stooges. He possessed the vocal mannerisms and rhythms of Bill Cosby’s beloved Fat Albert character. Although he was EMH, Eddie was mainstreamed into Caleb’s regular class. His presence made teaching a huge challenge.

Though he was at a disadvantage among the regular students and seldom understood what Caleb or they were talking about, he was genuinely delighted to be there, and he reasoned that if he did his best and made sure to shine in the classroom, he’d eventually ‘get it’. It might take longer than it did the other kids, but he knew that if he simply did his best each and every day, he’d be fine. The teachers were there to help him, so he had to let them help.

Eddie’s doing his best and trying to shine in the classroom were accomplished by his constant yammering out of turn, his continuous interruptions of others and his ceaseless hand waving. All days with Eddie were the same, but let’s look at a typical day.

Let’s say, nouns being people places or things was the lesson. Standing in front of his class, Caleb mentioned the word “horse” and asked if horse was a noun or not. Now, Eddie didn’t know then and doesn’t know now what part of speech horse is. And when Caleb asked if horse were a noun, Eddie didn’t have the foggiest notion, but that didn’t stop him from raising his hand.

He had to share the fact that one of his cousin’s friends owned a barn where he kept a horse that Eddie himself had ridden.

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