Adieu Rylie Lou

As a public school educator in America I have the opportunity to interact with some hard-headed children. I swear, every year I get a "project" or some child that somehow plucks on my heart strings and I usually want to kick them to the back alley and then I get reminded that God has given me an opportunity to share some of my light.

I have one this year and today I learned that he's moving on down the road. NOOOOOOO. I'm not done with him yet. He can draw. This is a kid who has been knocked around and not been parented and he's been in trouble with the law and he is lazy, but has some honor and is just a hot ghetto mess. He can draw. I don't think he knew that. I think that he is astonished on so many levels that he has actually been praised for a good thing.

My nephew is Riley. Riley Louis actually and I've heard my sister call him Riley Lou and so I love this affectionate name and have liberally applied it to this student. I told him that this is something that we call my youngest nephew because we love him and this student doesn't seem to mind that he is called anything with affection.

I fortunately have the opportunity to keep up with Rylie Lou and have already contacted his new art teacher and told her that THIS child might be one that we can pull out of the depths of ignorance and drug abuse and give some glimmer of hope. I know he loves football, but he's not really likely to play pro ball. He can draw and hopefully we can give him a sense of accomplishment that will help him feel worthwhile as he goes forward.

Adieu Rylie Lou, until we meet again.