The Body Reading Journal #1

EdUcAtIoN

     God, only if I could teach these kids and keep them under my nose! It's all I could think about as I was reading this book for about 30 pages. The four main characters, Chris, Teddy, Vern and Gordie all come from the family environment where they are not taken such good care of with tenderness and affection. They are either getting too much attention; beaten to near-death like Teddy, or is completely ignored from their parents like Gordie. The worse part is that they themselves know that others think of them as idiots, as they all come from such a terrible family background. People just make conclusions so fast like that, without trying to understand what they have been through and how they have changed. This was very evident when Chris said,

     "And you know what, Gordie? By next June, we'll all be quits." "It's not gonna be like grammar school, that's why. You'll be in the college courses. Me and Teddy and Vern, we'll all be in the shop courses, playing pocket-pool with the rest of the retards, making ashtrays and birdhouses. Vern might even have to go into Remedial. You'll meet a lot of new guys. Smart guys. That's just the way it works, Gordie. That's how they got it set up." Then Gordie said, "Meet a lot of pussies is what you mean." But then Chris gripped his arm and said, "If you don't, then you're an asshole." "What's asshole about wanting to be with your friends?" 

     I was really moved and surprised at the same time at how matured and grown-up these kids are, at least in the inside of their hearts! They do go smoking and stealing guns and talk about weird stuff that I do not understand why, but they do think about their friends so deeply and care for each other all the time. Then I asked myself, 'With these kind-hearted minds, why are they acting so inappropriately all the time, losing their minds once in a while and doing things they're not supposed to?' The answer just came into my head like a lightening: EDUCATION.

     We often say that the best teacher is our parents, and if we take a look at the family situations of each kid we can easily realize what kind of education they received as a child. Teddy must have learned violence and anger from his crazy father and Gordie must have learned to deal with everything on his own. And all four of them, of course, were never treated with tenderness, even at school. I think this environment of the kids have made them so vulnerable and naive. If anyone paid attention to the guys and taught them just a little bit of life lessons or maybe just gave them some interesting and didactic books to read, they would have had much more confidence, wisdom and knowledge.