Chapter 6

Chapter 6 reveals some much anticipated background information about Boo. Torey finally gets to talk with his mother, Mrs. Franklin, who until that conference was always seeming to avoid Torey. When they talked, Torey found out how scared Mrs. Franklin was that someone was going to come and take Boo away from her. She said that it was because her husband told her someone would if Boo couldn't learn to talk right, and that someone would take him to an insane asylum. Mrs. Franklin and her husband had fought a long battle with Boo, and originally their physician told them that Boo was just going through a stage. Through infancy, Boo was somewhat delayed but did learn many things at a fairly normal rate. Once he turned three, their doctor still insisted he was just going through a phase, but when they enrolled him into a preschool someone immediately recognized his symptoms to be that of autism. They traveled all over and went broke trying to figure out how to help Boo by enrolling him in all sorts of schools/programs who all had different philosophies, all of which failed. This was heartbreaking for Torey because she hated to hear about people who did nothing wrong and had such difficult situations placed upon them. Reading this part made me feel sad as well, and it really makes one realize how even those with the best intentions can end up on difficult times. When it is all said and done, Mr. and Mrs. Franklin still loved Boo, but they were just so sad, scared, and frustrated because they felt helpless when it came to helping him. A quote that really resonated with me was when Mrs. Franklin was talking about her sister's son in comparison to hers, and the huge difference in goals one can have based on circumstances. She said, "My sister has a little boy just four months younger than Boothie. She always writes me about what Merlin is doing. He's in second grade. He got picked to sing in the children's choir at church. And all I want is for Boothe to call me mama."

The next part of the chapter took place around Halloween. Lori was supposed to spend the second half of the day in her normal classroom because they were all going to wear costumes and celebrate. She ended up running into Torey's room part way through because a boy told her she was "the retardedest girl in the whole school". She then asked Torey if she was, because she had flunked kindergarten and said she was probably going to flunk first grade. Torey told Lori that there is nothing wrong with her. I definitely think this is a very difficult and fragile situation that I imagine I will have to deal with in some form or another. I've already heard kids in my practicum hours/other experiences with children who tell everyone that they are stupid, because they don't want the children to get their hopes up for any success being brought about by that child. I have also seen children many times call OTHER students stupid and tell them that they can't do things that 'normal' people can do. These situations make me really upset and sad, and are often difficult to deal with.