Jorge

The second of five students of mine who graduated this year is Jorge. Tonsie, Jorge and Tra’Paul all have been with me for three years. Three posts are forthcoming: Tra’Paul’s, Isaiah’s, and Austin’s. Yes, that is a lot of students for one class.

But this post is for Jorge. He is one of my favorite students and had the ability to use sarcasm from time-to-time without my ability to pick up on it. That may be his super power. He would say something to me that seemed off sorts. I would get on to him. And then he would say, “I was being sarcastic.” In that light, what he said made perfect sense and I would realize I’d been schooled by one of my students. I was left with my typical reply: “Jolly good!”

Jorge loves dinosaurs, Skittles, and Red Velvet cupcakes. We both shared a love for Red Velvet cupcakes from HEB, the specialty ones, not the 14 for a dollar ones. From time to time, I would pick some up just for him. I also kept a supply of Skittles… just for him. Yes, the other students like the Skittles, but I knew he loved them. I made sure to buy the different kinds of Skittles, just for him.

What he didn’t like was cheeseburgers. I found this out the hard way. We made a quick field trip to HEB, for a cooking project, and missed the city bus back to school. We were going to miss lunch. I walked over to McDonald’s while my aids watched the student and bought them all cheeseburgers.

He took one look at it, saw that it was cheeseburger, and crumpled it up, and put in the trash can. He doesn’t like cheeseburgers. He doesn’t like pickles on his hamburgers, or onions. In the three years we spent together, this was the important thing for me to know. No cheeseburger. No pickles. No onions.

I feel like I owe him a proper burger!

Perhaps after I finish the diet my wife has me on from eating all the Red Velvet cupcakes from HEB, I can take him and get a proper hamburger.

We were on our Train Ride field trip, waiting for the train when I took this picture. There was a playground under a bridge next to the train station. We took the Amtrak train from Killeen to McGreggor. A short ride, but worth the effort since most of my class had never been on a train.

At Cameron Park, with Fidencio and Miranda.

Every year, we would walk over to the Yes! Expo and this was one of the exhibits. We got to see how television newscasters use the green screen. Jorge is in front of the green screen.

A garden project… in which… nothing grew. We had no access to a hose to water what we planted and were dependent upon the rains for our crops. It was a sad, bitter crop and answers that lifelong question: should I have been a farmer?