Nicky The Lionheart

 

Nicky the Lionheart

A while ago, a little sweetie arrived at my second-grade classroom door. Well, I can’t really say that he arrived, he more or less was dragged kicking and screaming. The guidance counselor introduced us as she peeled him off his mother’s leg. We guided him gently to a desk and a new friend helped him hang up his jacket and told him where to put his lunch. He sniffled all day. After that beginning, I wondered how he would adjust.

I needn’t have worried. The next morning, he bounced into the room with a big grin. What had changed? 

     “Well, you seem happy today,” I remarked.

     “Yes,” he said, “I had a talk with my mommy last night. I was scared to come to my new school yesterday. My mommy told me that I didn’t need to be scared because she would be with me, right in my heart.” He drifted into the morning classroom chaos happily. 

     “What a wise mom,” I thought thankfully.  

Now this sweetheart was a little boy, and I mean little. He was significantly smaller than his classmates, about the size of a kindergarten kid. But he had a big spirit and wasn’t afraid of a challenge. The heart he shared with his mother filled our classroom with joy.

Isn’t it funny how one spirit can change a place? One Gloomy Gus brings down an entire party. One Harpy Hannah destroys everyone’s confidence. One Happy Camper causes everyone to smile. And even more amazing, a spirit of cheer, despair, or hope can be caught – or taught. This little guy’s mother had taught him not to fear. She modeled fearlessness too. She had also moved to a new place and a new job, and she needed to face the unknown with a smile and confidence.

Now as I mentioned, this student was much smaller than his peers. He was sometimes teased about his short stature or called a “Kindergarten Kid” by the other students.  I worried about him until one day during a reading assessment.

In these reading assessments, students were asked to “cold read” a text. That is they don’t see it beforehand but must read it aloud so that the teacher can assess their fluency. After the reading, the students answer questions as a comprehension check. Today, our text was “The Lion and the Mouse” a fable by Aesop.  

In the fable, a lion catches a mouse. The mouse begs to be set free promising to help the lion out someday. The lion thinks this ludicrous and laughs. How could a mouse help a great lion? But he lets him go and forgets him. Until the day the lion falls into a net and is trapped. The mouse gnaws the rope and the lion is freed.

Our little guy was reading this text.  He got to the part where the mouse frees the lion. He stopped before he read the last line of the fable. He looked me right in the eye and read out confidently, “I may be little but I can do great things!” 

I never worried about him again. In fact, in my heart, I changed his name that day. Forever for me, he will be “Nicky the Lionheart,” the little guy with his mother in his heart who taught me what a great spirit can do.