zero

Zero
Gloria Chen
0. That is his grade.
How many times did he answer my questions in class? 0.
How many times did he raise his hand to show me he got it? 0.
How many times did he laugh with his classmates when I thought I said something funny? 0.
He didn’t talk. He didn’t read. He didn’t write. He couldn’t even repeat the vocabulary words I spoke to his ear. I had his hearing tested. The result came back “Normal.” I called parents’ meeting, but no one answered the phone. I should contact guidance counselors for a special need test, one of these days, I told myself.
Over the months, his ESL classmates has made significant progress: Dae Keun Lee has started writing 10-senteced journals; Mohamed has read 15 books in the Read-a-Thon program; Daniel has got a GPA of 3.2 in the third semester; and Katina, who just came to this country for 6 weeks, has been able to spell words with 8 letters.
But what happened to Dinh Tran, this skinny boy from Myanmar? I made word cards to help him recognize letters; I made tapes to help him hear the pronunciation; I drew lined paper to teach him write; but what did he do? 0. Z-E-R-O.
That morning, my ESL Level1 class was practicing spelling. “How do you spell ‘good’?” “I know. G-O-O-D.” Manuel proudly announced. “Say together, I am good!” “No, we will move to 5 letters. How do you spell ‘smart’?” “S-M-A-R-T!” Alicia said out loud. Obviously she was a smart student. “Now let’s say, I am smart.” My students eagerly and cheerfully participated one by one: patient, positive, wonderful, 9 letters, intelligent, WOW, 12 letters.
I look at Dinh Tran. His mouth was shut like a lying down 1. I decided to give him a chance. “Dinh Tran, tell us how do you spell ‘red.’” I thought these three letters would be his redemption. Who couldn’t spell R-E-D? Silence; except his face turned to be R-E-D. I tried H-A-R-D not to show my frustration, and even A-N-G-E-R.
After the class left, I picked up trash students left on the floor. I picked up a little scrap of under Dinh Tran’s desk. On the paper were scribbled a few words, “I am SCAD.”
S-C-A-D, scad? Is it English? What does this skinny boy from Myanmar try to say? SACD? Does he say, “I am sacred, S-C-A-R-E-D, 6 letters?” Or does he say, “I am scarred,” S-C-A-R-R-E-D, 7 letters?