Broken Wing
Some people are just doomed to be failures. That's the way some
adults look at troubled kids. Maybe you've heard the saying, "A
bird with a broken wing will never fly as high." I'm sure that T.
J. Ware was made to feel this way almost every day in school.
By high school, T. J. was the most celebrated troublemaker in his
town. Teachers literally cringed when they saw his name posted on
their classroom lists for the next semester. He wasn't very
talkative, didn't answer questions and got into lots of fights. He
had flunked almost every class by the time he entered his senior
year, yet was being passed on each year to a higher grade level.
Teachers didn't want to have him again the following year. T. J.
was moving on, but definitely not moving up. I met T. J. for the
first time at a weekend leadership retreat. All the students at
school had been invited to sign up for ACE training, a program
designed to have students become more involved in their
communities. T. J. was one of 405 students who signed up. When I
showed up to lead their first retreat, the community leaders gave
me this overview of the attending students: "We have a total
spectrum represented today, from the student body president to T.
J. Ware, the boy with the longest arrest record in the history of
town." Somehow, I knew that I wasn't the first to hear about T.
J.'s darker side as the first words of introduction.
At the start of the retreat, T. J. was literally standing outside
the circle of students, against the back wall, with that "go ahead,
impress me" look on his face. He didn't readily join the discussion
groups, didn't seem to have much to say. But slowly, the
interactive games drew him in. The ice really melted when the
groups started building a list of positive and negative things that
had occurred at school that year. T. J. had some definite thoughts
on those situations. The other students in T. J.'s group welcomed
his comments. All of a sudden T. J. felt like a part of the group,
and before long he was being treated like a leader. He was saying
things that made a lot of sense, and everyone was listening. T. J.
was a smart guy and he had some great ideas.
The next day, T. J. was very active in all the sessions. By the end
of the retreat, he had joined the Homeless Project team. He knew
something about poverty, hunger and hopelessness. The other
students on the team were impressed with his passionate concern and
ideas. They elected T. J. co-chairman of the team. The student
council president would be taking his instruction from T. J.
Ware.
When T. J. showed up at school on Monday morning, he arrived to a
firestorm. A group of teachers were protesting to the school
principal about his being elected co-chairman. The very first
communitywide service project was to be a giant food drive,
organized by the Homeless Project team. These teachers couldn't
believe that the principal would allow this crucial beginning to a
prestigious, three-year action plan to stay in the incapable hands
of T. J. Ware.
They reminded the principal, "He has an arrest record as long as
your arm. He'll probably steal half the food." Mr. Coggshall
reminded them that the purpose of the ACE program was to uncover
any positive passion that a student had and reinforce its practice
until true change can take place. The teachers left the meeting
shaking their heads in disgust, firmly convinced that failure was
imminent.
Two weeks later, T. J. and his friends led a group of 70 students
in a drive to collect food. They collected a school record: 2,854
cans of food in just two hours. It was enough to fill the empty
shelves in two neighborhood centers, and the food took care of
needy families in the area for 75 days. The local newspaper covered
the event with a full-page article the next day. That newspaper
story was posted on the main bulletin board at school, where
everyone could see it. T. J.'s picture was up there for doing
something great, for leading a record-setting food drive. Every day
he was reminded about what he did. He was being acknowledged as
leadership material. T. J. started showing up at school every day
and answered questions from teachers for the first time. He led a
second project, collecting 300 blankets and 1,000 pairs of shoes
for the homeless shelter. The event he started now yields 9,000
cans of food in one day, taking care of 70 percent of the need for
food for one year. T. J. reminds us that a bird with a broken wing
only needs mending. But once it has healed, it can fly higher than
the rest. T. J. got a job. He became productive. He is flying quite
nicely these days.
Jim Hullihan
Broken Wing. Reprinted by permission of Jim Hullihan. (c)1996 Jim
Hullihan.
