6.+Flowers+for+Algernon



I must begin by writing that this is one of my favorite books; it is one of the top ten formative/influential books and I still have my original copy which is now entering its third decade. However, that is not why I am assigning it to you. //Flowers for Algernon// is one of of two modern novels where it, and it alone, has made the author famous, the other being Harper Lee's //To Kill a Mockingbird//.

It is successful because it addresses several "big" questions in the format of a narrative story. In his memoir of the book, the author Daniel Keyes wrote that his inspiration was the feeling, as the first college-educated person in his family, that intelligence was driving a wedge between him and the people he loved. In broader terms, is "knowledge a curse"? The constant meme one receives from schools is: the more knowledge/learning/education, the better. However, there is a long counter-tradition suggesting that knowledge //is// a curse and that "ignorance is bliss." In the Judaeo-Christian creation story, God forbids Adam and Eve from eating from the "Tree of Knowledge," and their disobedience casts them out of the Earthly paradise of Eden. The //Psalms// promise that God will "confound the wise in the wisdom," while the Beatitudes predict that the "meek will inherit the earth." Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" (discussed more below) indicates that the pursuit of philosophy will make you an alien in your own land, misunderstood and persecuted. The political philosopher Leo Strauss wrote a book titled, //Persecution and the Art of Writing// that argued that most of the great books have hidden messages, understood only by the wise and elect, because they of the fear of popular disapproval. The famous historian Richard Hofstadter wrote in the early 1960s about the strain of //Anti-Intellectualism in American Life.// More recently, economics writer James Suroweicki argued for the //The Wisdom of Crowds,// indicating that the "hoi polloi" are the font of intelligence. "Book learning" -- abstract knowledge -- (even now in schools) is considered less than "Street Smarts" -- or practical knowledge. These are just a few examples, only to illustrate that this idea has a long pedigree across many different religious and philosophical traditions. This is a "big" question for education and educators, not only because it goes to the root of what we do, but the answers weigh heavily on what we think education should be.

The second thing this book does exceptionally well its capturing the voice of a developmentally delayed person and modulating the voice as Charlie Gordon develops his intelligence (and also the decay as he loses it). Although this may be, in part, a projection of what some may want to believe the inner life of a special needs person is, Keyes does a good job attempting to communicate a different view of the world at different levels of intelligence. Although we know much more now than when Keyes first wrote the short-story that became this book, this still provides a good jumping-off place to explore these issues further and deepen our understanding and appreciation of the challenges these students face.

Note: Certain aspects of how this book is written make it difficult to summarize sections as I have for other books we are reading. I will try to do this more thematically and list examples.

The quotation from Plato's //Republic// is key to understanding the first broad theme of this book: is knowledge a curse. This selection comes from the section known as the "[|Allegory of the Cave]." Plato's //Republic// is the first great book of political philosophy in the Western Tradition and it is set up as a dialogue among Socrates and his pupils, primarily Glaucon and Ademantus, about the nature of justice. Throughout the dialogue, various interlocutors, such as Cephalus and Thrasymachus, challenge Socrates and he outlines his ideal republic, ruled by philosopher-kings.


 * Charlie's perspective on tests is interesting and rings true. Teachers often see tests as diagnostic: they tell us what you know and help us understand what is and is not learned. However, students, and especially special needs children, often have the feeling that they are being evaluated and the fear of failure and rejection is real. The notion that tests determine one's real worth.**
 * pg.1. "I had a test today. I think I faled it and I think mabye now they wont use me."
 * pg.2. ". . .kept telling me to rilax and that gets me skared because it always means its gonna hert."
 * pg 2. "I thot that was a easy test but when I got up to go Burt stoppd me . .. I remembir Dr Strauss said do anything the testor telld me even if dont make no sense because thats testing."
 * pg.3. "He rote something down on a paper and I got skared of aling the test . . .I dont think I passd the //raw shok// test."
 * pg.5. "I dont know the frist 2 werds but I know what test means. You got to pass it or you get bad marks."
 * pg.6. "I gess I faled that test too."


 * A related theme that is how difficult and tiring it is for some special needs individuals to do even simple tasks. In addition, instructions can be difficult to understand even if the task itself is not difficult.**
 * pg. 1. "I cant think anymor because I have nothing to rite so I will close for today . . ."
 * pg. 4-5. "I hope I dont have to rite to much of these progris riports because it takes along time and I get to sleep very late and Im tired in the morning. gimpy hollered at me because I droppd a tray full of rolles I was carryign over to the oven. They got derty and he had to wipe off before he put them in to bake. Gimpy hollers at me all the time when I do something rong, but he reely likes me because hes my frend. Boy if I get smart wont he be serprised."
 * pg. 6-7. "[A] laboratory meens a place where they make speramints. I thot he ment like where they made the chooing gum but now I think its puzzels and games because thats what we did. I couldnt werk the puzzels so good because it was all broke and the peices couldnt fit in the holes. One game was a paper with lines in all derections and lots of boxs. On one side it said START and on the other end it said FINISH. He tolld me that game was //amazed// and I should take the pencil and go from where it said START to where it said FINISH withowt crossing over any of the lines."


 * I think Charlie's description on why he wants to participate in the experiment are telling. The notion that learning is "fun" seems lost on many adults and teenagers. Charlie seems to have the desire only found in younger students (who run into school). All he wants is the opportunity and he will work hard.**
 * pg. 4. "Prof Nemur said but why did you want to lern to reed and spell in the frist place. I tolld him because all my life I wantid to be smart and not dumb and my mom always tolld me to try an dleern just like Miss Kinnian tells me but its very hard to be smart and even when I lern something in Miss Kinnians class at the school I ferget alot. Dr. Straus rote some tings on a peice of paper and prof Nemur talke to me very sereus. He said you know Charlie we are not shure how this experamint will werk on pepul because we onley tried ti up to now on animils. I said thats what Miss Kinian tolld me but I dont even care if it herts or anything because Im strong and I will werk hard. I want to get smart if they will let me."


 * Another point made early by Keyes is the simple morality of Charlie Gordon. He bristles against the TAT (Thematic Apperception Test) because it asks him to "make up" stories about pictures, essentially a creative writing/brainstorming assignment, because he associates it with lying.**
 * pg. 5. "Now you got to make up storys about the pepul in the picturs. I said how can I tell storys about pepul I dont know. She said make beleeve but I tolld her thats lies. I never tell any more because when I was a kid I made lies and I always got hit."


 * Again, in the discussion between Professors Nemur and Strauss, we get the contrast between intellectual ability and moral virtue. Unlike Charlie, the professors are playing games with Charlie. In addition, they seem to equate low IQ with low motivation, hostility, and lack of cooperation.**
 * pg. 9. "Dr. Strauss said I had something that was very good. He said I had a good motor-vation. I never even knowed I had that. I felt good when he said not everbody with an eye-Q of 68 had that thing like I had it. I dont know what it is or where i got it but he said Algernon had it too. Algernons motor-vation is the chees they put in his box . .. Prof Neumur was worryd about my eye-Q getting too high from mine that was too low and I would get sick from it . . . Charlie is not what you had in mind as the frist of your new breed of intelek***[ual] . . . superman. but most people of his low ment***[ality] are host**[ile] and uncoop***[erative] they are usally dull and apathet**[ic] and hard to reach. Charlie has a good natcher and hes intristed and eeger to pleese."**

Often those with low mentality ability are assumed to simple and innocent and dependent on others. We often equate morality with intellectual ability. For example, Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development, parallels Bloom's Taxonomy and Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Growth. This may be a projection and assertion of our own (general population) ability and morality without taking them seriously.

Another thing that Keyes lays out is the habitual and superstitious behavior of the developmentally delayed. They must do something the same way and can become unglued if they leave their routine.**
 * pg. 11. "He wished me luk. I hope I have luk. I got my rabits foot and my luky penny and my horshoe. Dr Strauss said dont be so superstishus Charlie. This is sience.I dont no what sience is but they all keep saying it so mabye its something that helps you have good luk. anyway Im keeping my rabits foot in one hand and my luky penny in the other hand with the hole in it. the penny I meen. I wish I coud take the horshoe with me to but its hevy so Ill just leeve it in my jaket."


 * Just before the operation, we get a glimpse into Charlie's vision of his better life due to the operation and what he hopes to gain from it.**
 * pg. 12-3. "If the operashun werks good Ill show that mouse I can be as smart a s he is even smarter. then Ill be abel to reed better and spell the werds good and know lots of things and be like our pepul. Boy that would serprise everyone. If the operashun werks and I get smart mabye Ill be abel to find my mom and dad and sister and show them. Boy would they be serprised to see me smart just like them and my sister . . . Prof Nemur says . . . Ill be famus and my name will go down in the books. I dont care so much about beeing famus. I just want to be smart like other pepul so I can have lots of frends who like me."
 * pg. 15. ". . . when I am smart they will talk to me an dI can sit with them and listen like Joe Carp and Frank and Gimpy do when they talk and ahve a discushen about importent things. While their werking they start talking about things like about go d or about the truble with all the mony the presedint is spending or about the ripublicans and demicrats. And they get all excited like their gonna have a fite so Mr. Donner go tot come in and tell them to get back to baking or theyll all get canned union or no union. I want to talk about things like that. If your smart you can have lots of rends to talk to and you never get lonley by yourself all the time."
 * pg. 16. "What do smart pepul think about or remembir. Fancy things I bet. I wish I new some fancy things alredy."


 * We find the first sign that Charlie is learning when he corrects his spelling of PROGRESS, REPORT, and MARCH.**
 * pg. 15. "Thats why I go tto do these progris //progress reports.// Burt says its part of the esperimint and the will make fotastats of the rip //reports// to study them so they will know what is going on in my mind. I dont see how they will know what is going on in my mind by looking at these reports. I read them over and over a lot of times to see what I rote and I dont no whats going on in my mind so how are they going to."


 * We also get the first articulation about the morality of the experiment on Charlie, i.e., humans should not play in God's playground, from the nurse, Hilda. She is quickly removed for speaking out of line and questioning the experiment. When we see how the whole thing plays out, we should return to Hilda's concern. It also raises the question of what is "normal" and what is "abnormal" and whether special needs individuals should be seen as "mistakes" that need to be corrected.**
 * pg. 16. ". . . she said mabey they got no rite to make me smart because if god wantid me to be smart he would have made me born that way. And what about Adem and Eev and the sin with the tree of nowlege and eating the appel and the fall. And mabey Prof Nemur and Dr Strauss was tampiring with things they have no rite to tampir with . . . She says mabey I better prey to god to ask him to forgiv what they done to me. I dint eat no appels or do nothing sinful. And now Im skared. Mabey I shoudnt of let them oparate on my branes like she said if its agenst god. I dont want to make god angrey."


 * The March 15 progress report is interesting because it is the first time that Charlie appears jaded and thinks the work is "stoopid." There is a transition around 4th/5th grade where students stop seeing school as fun and start seeing it as work. The begin to question the assignments the teachers give them. They are stuck where they are not smart enough to get out of the assignments, but aware enough to not like doing them.**
 * pg. 18-9. "Nothing is happining. I had lots of tests and differint kinds of race with Algernon. I hate that mouse. He always beets me . . . Those amazes are stoopid. And those picturs are stoopid to . . . And I cant do the puzzels good. I get headakes from trying to think and remembir so much . . . I still think those races and those tests are stoopid and I think riting these progress reports are stoopid to."
 * pg. 20-1. "I hate tests and I hate the amazeds and I hate Algernon. I never new before that I was dumber than a mouse. I dont feel riting any more progress reports. I forget things and even when I rite them i my notbook sometimes I can t reed my own riting and its very very hard."


 * Another thing that separates the "smart" from the "simple" is shame. The experiment is kept secret because Nemur and Strauss are worried that it might fail; Charlie has no such worries. It does not matter if people laugh at you. Charlie will not always feel this way as the story progress.**
 * pg. 20. "I dont reely understand why I got to keep it a seecrit. Burt says its in case theirs a faleure Prof neumur dont want everybody to laff espeshully the pepul from the Welberg foundashun who gave him the mony for the projekt. I said I dont care if pepul laff at me. Lots of pepul laff at me and their my frends and we have fun. Burt put his arm on my sholder and said its not you Nemurs worryd about. He dont want pepul to laff at him. I dint think pepul would laff a t Prof neumur because hes a sientist in a collidge but Bert said no sientist is a grate man to his colleegs and his gradulate studints."


 * This carries over when Charlie returns to the bakery. The reader is aware that his "friends" are taking advantage of him and having fun at his expense, but Charlie does not pick on it. He thinks they all just like him.**
 * pg. 23. "Some times somebody will say hey lookit Frank, or Joe or even Gimpy. he really pulled a Charlie Gordon that time. I dont know why they say it but they always laff and I laff too. this morning Gimpy hes the head baker and he has a bad foot and he limps h e used my name when he shouted at Ernie because Ernie losst a birthday cake. He said Ernie for god sake you trying to be a Charlie Gordon. I dont know why he said that. I nveer lost any packiges."


 * Learning is like a boiling frog. We are often not aware that it is happening, making unheralded connections and epiphanies, but even as the reader notices over the first 30 pages, Charlie's writing is improving. This is a good point about educational progress: there may be no evidence or visible progress, and then only the realization that your level has "upped." No doubt, you will look on the papers you are writing today in four years and wonder: how could I have been so dumb? Or written like that?**
 * pg. 24-5. "Then Dr. Strauss came over and put his hand on my sholder and said Charlie you dont know it yet but your getting smarter all the time. You wont notise it ofr a while like you dont notise how the hour hand on a clock moves. Thats the way it is with the changes in you. They are happining so slow you cant tell. But we an follow it from the tests and the way you act and talk and your progress reports."


 * For the first time, Charlie beats Algernon in the maze, but he also identifies with Algernon. It is not "I beat you, in your face!" but sympathy for Algernon's position. This shows a very different perspective on what is valuable than many of the other adults in this novel.**
 * pg. 31. "I beet Algernon. I dint even know I beet him until Burt Selden told me . . . I asked can I feed him because I felt bad to beat him and I wanted to be nice and make frends. Burt said no Algernon is a very speshul mouse with an operashun like mine . . . Algernon is so mart he has to solve a problem with a lock that changes every time he goes in to eat so he has to lern something new to get his food. That made me sad because if he coudnt lern he woudnt be able to eat and he would be hungry."


 * Charlie begins to have memories of his family life before he was placed in the home. While Charlie does not fully understand or appreciate them, we get a glimpse into the family dynamics surrounding a special needs person. We see that his Uncle Herman, who put him into Donner's Bakery and took him out of the Warren Home, is often out of work. We see how Charlie's sister is disciplined by her parents for making a comment about Charlie. Parents feel protective of the special needs child, but this can often built jealousy and resentment in their siblings.**
 * pg. 32-3. "Uncle Herman use to sleep in our house all the time when he was out of werk on the old sofa in the parler. He was fat and it was hard for him to get a job because he use to paint pepuls houses and he got very slow going up and down the ladder. When I once tolld my mom I wantid to be a painter like Uncle Herman my sister Norma said yeah Charlies going to be the artist of the family. And dad slppd her face and tolld her not to be so goddam nasty to her brother. I dont no what a artist is but if Norma got slappd for saying it I gess its not a nice thing. I always feeld bad when Norma got slappd for being meen to me. When I get smart Ill go visit her."


 * Why spelling is hard, it is not really a sign of intelligence, but memory.**
 * pg. 33-4. "Miss Kinnian teeches me how to spel better. She says look at a werd and close yoru eyes and say it over and over again untilyou rembmer. I ahve lots of truble with //through// that you saw THREW and //enough// and //tough// that you dont say ENEW and TEW. You got to say ENUFF and TUFF. Thats how I use to rite it before I started to get smart. Im mixed up but Miss Kinnian says dont worry spelling is not suppose to make sence."


 * Charlie makes an "advance" at the bakery when he showed that he could operate the mixer. His coworkers thought he would break it and they would get the day off. To their chagrin, he does it better than the regular person and his boss promotes him. Charlie does not want a new job, but this changes his relationship with his coworkers, even though Charlie does not understand why.**
 * pg. 36. ". . . Charlie I dont know how you done it but it looks like you finally learned something. I want you to be carefull and do the best you can do . . . I dont want a new job because I like to clean up and sweep and deliver and do things for my friends but Mr Donner said never min yoru riends I need you for htis job. I dont think much of a man who dont want to advance . . . So now instead of delivering packiges and washing out the toilets and umping the garbage. I m the new mixer. Thats advance . . . I dont know why Frank and Joe are mad at me. I asked Fanny and she said never mind those fools. This is April Fools day and the joke backfired and made them the fools instead of you. I asked Joe to tell me what was the joke that backfired and he said go jump in the lake. I guess their mad at me because I worked the mashine but they didnt get the off like they thought. Does that mean Im getting smarter."
 * pg. 37. "[Ms. Kinnian] says Im a fine person and Ill show them all. I asked her why. She said never mind but I shouldnt feel bad if I find out that everybody isnt nice like I think. She said for a person who God gave so little to you did more than a lot of people with brains they never even used. I said that all my friends are smart people and their good. They like me and they never did anything that wasnt nice. Then she got something in her eyes and she had to run out to the ladys room . . . my mother told me to be good and always be friendly to people. She said but always be careful because some people dont understand and they might think you are trying to make trouble."
 * NOTE: Charlie now spells "people," "brains," "shouldnt," "friends," correctly, but he still does not have apostrophes and mistakes "their" and "they're" -- like most high school students.


 * The next memory scene where Charlie remembers being hit by his mother for holding his baby sister is poignant. We sometimes believe that those who are "simple" are dangerous because they do not understand what the right thing to do is. Is your conscience cognitive? Parents often deal with this problem with younger children where a 2-3 year-old thinks a newborn is just like a doll.**
 * pg. 38. ". . . I got up to pick [my sister] up and hold her to get quiet to the way mom does. But then Mom came in yelling and took her away. and she slapped me so hard I fell on the bed. Then she startid screaming. Dont you ever touch her again. Youll hurt her. Shes a baby. You got no business touching her. I dint know it then but I guess I know it now that she thought I was going to hurt the baby because I was too dumb to know what I was doing. Now that makes me feel bad because I would never of hurt the baby."


 * Another dimension is Charlie's growing self-awareness; he has ambivalent and regretful feelings about his past that he did not have before. In the 1980s, there was an animated movie titled //The Last Unicorn// about a unicorn that is turned into a human to protect it from "bad guy." When she is turned back into a unicorn, she asked "what is different?" and she responds that now, having been human, she regrets. In the same way, the Genesis story tells that, after eating from the Tree of Knowledge, Adam and Eve realized they were naked (and they were ashamed), a fact that had not bothered them before. Little children go through this stage from blissfully peeing and pooping everywhere to the stage where they do not want to be seen doing so. There are similar stages along the way. As adults, we need to remind ourselves that our view of our behavior, with the benefit of retrospection and hindsight, cannot be appreciated by younger people who have not yet come to that point of awareness, i.e., the value of your education, the ridiculousness of your fashion choices, the quality of your friends, will only fully hit you looking back on it. As the philosopher Kirkegaard observed, "Life can only be understood backwads, the tragedy is that it must be lived forwards." On one hand, it is a normal process: everyone was young and stupid; on the other, there is the cognitive dissonance that you and that younger person are the same. The question is whether we embrace or dismiss the younger, stupider, less aware self or not.**
 * pg. 42. "Everyone was laughing at me and all of a sudden I felt naked. I wanted to hide myself so they wouldn't see. I ran out of the apartment. It was a large apartment house with lots of halls and I couldn't find my way to the staircase. I forgot about the elevator. Then, after, I found the stairs and ran out into the street and walked for a long time before I went to my room. I never knew before that Joe and Frank and the others liked to have me around just to make fun of me. Now I know what they mean when they say "to pull a Charlie Gordon." I'm ashamed.
 * pg. 43. "I think it's a good thing about finding out how everybody laughs at me. I thought about it a lot. It's because I'm so dumb and I don't even know when I'm doing something dumb. People think it's funny when a dumb person can't do things the same way they can."


 * Ah, Punctuation. The mystery of grammar that eludes even the most articulate among us. Charlie's growth in his use of punctuation parallels the stages that most skills are learned: part from conceptual understanding, part from practice, trial-and-error experimentation . . . Side note: most students clearly just guess, like Charlie, where a comma should and should not be in the sentence. There are rules, but these are often not helpful in the practice.**
 * pg. 38-9. "Today, I learned, the //comma//, this is, a, comma a period, with a, tail, Miss Kinnian, says its, importent, because, it makes writing, better, she said, somebody could lose, a lot, of money, if a comma, isnt in, the right, place . . . I dont, see how, a comma, keeps, you form, losing it, but, she says, everybody, uses commas, so Ill use them, too,,,, . . . I used the comma wrong, its //punctuation//. Miss Kinnian told me to look up long words in the dictionary to learn to spell them. I said whats the difference if you can ready anyway. She said its part of your education so from now on Ill look up all the words Im not sure how to spell. It takes a long time to write that way . . . Punctuation, is? fun! . . . What a dope I am! I didn't even understand what she was talking about. I read the grammar book last night and it explains the whole thing. Then I saw it was the same way as Miss Kinnian was trying to tell me, but I didn't get it. I got up in the middle of the night and the whole thing straightened out in my mind."

**Emotional Growth vs. Intellectual Growth: they are not the same thing. We probably all know someone who is "book smart" but not socially aware or in touch with their own feelings. Some argue that this difference is natural: those that progress quick intellectually are often no spending time developing their social skills or ignoring their emotional needs. Schools today usually focus on cognitive, academic skills only, and put social and emotional skills as emergent or secondary to academic progress. Only academic progress is consistently measured. Is this wrong on the part of schools?**
 * pg. 47. "'The more intelligent you become the more problems you'll have, Charlie. Your intellectual growth is going to outstrip your emotional growth. And I think you'll find taht as you progress, there will be many things you'll want to talk to me about. I just want you to remember that this is the place for you to come when you need help.'"


 * A key epiphany in the growth of one's intelligence is when one goes from thinking that there are just "right" and "wrong" answers. Intelligence is simply the ability to give more "right" answers than not. Most grades function this way: intelligent students are the ones who get a higher percentage of correct scores on assessments. I would note that this is a "dumb person's idea of what a smart person is." Appreciating that for many things there are different theories, perspectives, etc. and to understand the subtle and nuanced differences is (in my experience) how really intelligent people view knowledge. We get a taste of this when Charlie asks what IQ is. In addition, we may think about the debates in education about the use of IQ scores.**
 * pg. 49. "When I become intelligent the way Prof. Nemur says, with much more than twice my I.Q. of 70, then maybe people will like me and be my friends. I'm not sure what I.Q. is anyway. Prof. Nemur said it was something that measured how intelligent you were -- like a scale in the drugstore weighs pounds. But Dr. Strauss had a big argument with him and said an I.Q. didn't //weigh// intelligence at all. He said an I.Q. showed how much intelligence you could get, like the numbers on the outside of a measuring cup. You still had to fill the cup up with stuff. When I asked Burt Seldon, who gives my intelligence tests and works with Algernon, he said that some would say both of them were wrong and according to the things he'd been reading up on, the I.Q. measures a lot of different things including some of the things you learned already and it really isn't a good measure of intelligence at all. So I still don't know what I.Q. is, and everybody says it's something different. Mine is about a hundred now, and it's going to be over a hundred and fifty soon, but they'll still have to fill me up with the stuff. I didn't want to say anything, but I don't see how if they don't //what// it is, or //where// it is -- how they know //how much// of it you've got."


 * The next few pages deal with a dream Charlie had that morphs into a memory. It should be read carefully and full, so I will not excerpt, but I think this gives a good picture of the internal life of special needs children in a school setting. It should be noted that this was before "special education" as we know it today, existed. Charlie just liked to play with other children, although he was made to play the "monkey in the middle" role. Only one girl, who was popular with everyone, was nice to him. So, he wanted to give her a valentine, but he does not know how to write. He takes his mother's locket and has his friend write the note to Harriet. Unknown to Charlie, his friend wrote something obscene. Charlie expects Harriet to respond positively, but the episode ends with Charlie beaten up by Harriet's two older brothers to the cheers of his classmates. While not pleasant, Charlie did not fully appreciate what happened to him; now, he does. Is Charlie better off now with self-awareness and memories? Is this characterization of the "simple" accurate? Do they know when other people are talking about them or using them?**


 * Charlie's frustration and tension as the memories build up is released upon Burt, who, if anything, has been the nicest to Charlie so far. When Burt readministers the Rorschach Test, Charlie thinks that Burt lied to him before (like everyone else) and gets angry. After they play for him the tape of his first interview, Charlie realizes that they did not, but is also comes face-to-face with his previous self.**
 * pg. 56. "I was shocked. I stared at the card and then at him. That wasn't what I had expected him to say at all. 'You mean there are no pictures hidden in those inkblots?' Burt frowned and took off his glasses. 'What?' 'Pictures! Hidden in the inkblots! Last time you told me that everyone could see them and you wanted me to find them too.' 'No, Charlie. I couldn't have said that.' 'What do you mean' I shouted at him. Being so afraid of the inkblots had made me angry at myself and at Burt too. 'That's what you said to me. Just because you're smart enough to go to college doesn't mean you have to make fun of me. I'm sick and tired of everybody laughing at me.'"


 * Students, occasionally, have outbursts that seem to come out of nowhere and often these are directed at teachers. The key to remember is: it is not really about you; do not make it (or take it) personal(ly). And, do not get angry at the student. This theme is continued, but transferred, to the bakery. The notion that the "simple" do not understand what is going on makes them a mark for people to pick on. It is "OK" to injure them because they do not feel pain, embarrassment, or shame like "normal" people do. People talk about them often as if they are not there.**
 * pg. 60-1. "'Leave the kid alone,' says Gimp. 'Jesus, Frank, why do you always gotta pick on him?' 'It don't mean nothing,' laughs Frank. 'It don't hurt him. He don't know any better. do you, Charlie?' Charlie rubs his head and cringes. he doesn't know what he's done to deserve this punishment, but here is always the chance that there will be more. 'But you know better,' says gimpy, clumping over on his orthopedic boot, 'so what the hell you always picking on him for?' . . . As he usually does when people are talking about him, Charlie has been keeping his head down, staring at his shoelaces. He knows how to lace and tie them. He could make rolls. He could learn to pound, roll, twist and shape the dough into the small round forms . . . 'You want to learn something? You want me to teach you how to make rolls like me and Frank are doing?' Charlie stares at him, the smile melting from his face. He understands what Gimpy wants, and he feels cornered. He wants to please Gimpy, bu there is something about he words //learn// and //teach,// something to remember about being punished severely, but he doesn't recall what it is -- only a think white hand upraised, hitting him to make him learn something he couldn't understand. Charlie backs away but Gimpy grabs his arm. 'Hey, kid, take it easy. We ain't gonna hurt you. Look at him shaking like he's gonna fall apart . . .'"

media type="youtube" key="dbiYJkiX-Dg" height="400" width="552" align="center"
 * This section reminded of the scandals at the Willowbrook (Staten Island) State Institution which housed mentally-ill children and adults (uncovered by Gerald Rivera when he still did reporting). At the time, it was common to isolate and separate special needs individuals from the general population, as if it was contagious. This happened within schools, too, where special needs children where instructed separately from the regular population. However, at places like Willowbrook, the students were often abused or left to live in horrendous conditions. The video below shows a clip of the original documentary.**


 * There is also the tendency to treat special needs individuals as if they were animals, without feelings and human intelligence. To get Charlie to calm down, Gimpy gives him a "bright shiny object" to play with, much as you would give a dog a treat. Or, as if they need to be trained, i.e. "stranger danger," to have impulsive reactions to situations ("good touch, bad touch"), such as to determine whether someone is a friend or not. Think about whether this behavior is appropriate or helpful with special needs students, younger students, etc.**
 * pg. 62. "The pendant is a brightness that Charlie remembers but he doesn't know why or what. He doesn't reach for it. He knows you get punished if you reach out for other people's thing. If someone puts it into your hand that is all right. But otherwise it's wrong. When he sees that Gimpy is offering it to him, he nods and smiles again. 'that he knows,' laughs Frank. 'Give him something bright and shiny.' Frank, who has let Gimpy take over the experiment, leans forward excitedly. 'Maybe if he wants that piece of junk bad enough and you tell him he'll get it if he learns to shape the dough into rolls -- maybe it'll work.'"


 * Charlie's reaction to Frank and Gimpy's attempt to teach him how to make rolls is important to understanding what special needs student struggle with in trying to do academic tasks and why some may need more time or special environments to succeed.**
 * pg. 64-5. "Charlie stares at the huge slab of dough and at the knife that Gimpy has pushed into his hand. And once again panic comes over him. What did he do first? How did he hold his hand? His fingers? Which way did he roll the ball? .. . A thousand confusing ideas burst into his mind at the same time and he stands there smiling. He wants to do it, to make Frank and Gimpy happy and have them like him, and to get the bright good-luck piece that Gimpy has promised him. he turns the smooth, heavy piece of dough around and around on the table, but he cannot bring himself to start. He cannot cut into it because he knows he will fail and he is afraid. 'He forgot already,' said Frank. 'It don't stick.' He wants it to stick. He frowns and tries to remember: first you start to cut off a piece. Then you roll it out into a ball. But how doe sit get to be a roll like the ones in the tray? That's something else. Give him time and he'll remember. As soon as the fuzziness passes away he'll remember. Just another few seconds and he'll have it. He wants to hold on to what he's learned -- for a little while. He wants it so much."


 * Continuing the previous theme, Charlie is told to go in the corner and self-recreate by reading a comic book (a treat). I think this is important because it conveys what it is like not to be able, or to have difficulty, reading. It is also how little pre-literate children who read books experience reading by looking at the pictures and why they want to learn to read so much at that stage.**
 * pg. 65-6. "Charlie smiles at him and goes back to the flour sacks . . . he likes to lean back against them . . .and [look] at the pictures in his comic book. As he starts to turn the pages, he feels like crying, but he doesn't know why. What is there to feel sad about? The fuzzy cloud comes and goes, and now he looks forward to the pleasure of the brightly colored pictures in the comic book that he has gone through thirty, forty times. He knows all of the figure sin the comic -- he has asked their names over and over again (of almost everyone he meets) -- and he understands that the strange forms of letters and words in the white balloons above the figures means that they are saying something. Would he ever learn to read what was in the balloons? If they gave him enough time -- and if they didn't rush him or push him too fast -- he would get it. But nobody has time."


 * Clearly, Charlie's notion that he will have more friends if he becomes more intelligent is not panning out. If anything, he is more lonely.**
 * pg. 66-7. "People at the bakery are changing. Not only ignoring me. I can feel the hostility. Donner is arranging for me to join the baker's union, and I've gotten another raise. The rotten thing is that all of the pleasure is gone because the others resent me. In a way, I can't blame them. They don't understand what has happened to me, and I can't tell them. People are not proud of me the way I expected -- not at all."