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I had Ellen for the first time in English IV. As usual, we spent the entire first quarter writing in anticipation of the October Exit Exam. We wrote in all modes for a variety of readers. When October came, Ellen and the other seniors who had not yet passed took the test again. Ellen failed writing for the third time. For the remainder of the year, we concentrated on reading comprehension and wrote in connection with the books we read. However, Ellen did additional assignments in an effort to correct her language problems. When the school year ended, Ellen failed not only English IV but the Exit Exam for the fourth time. She could not graduate. I do not know when I have felt worse about a student's failing.
In August, Ellen was back in school. This year, I had her for remedial writing, a class composed of students in grades nine through twelve. Ellen became the mother for the younger students. She encouraged them when they were discouraged, and when they talked of dropping out of school, she reminded them of the importance of a high school diploma. By that time, I had begun to wonder if she would ever get a diploma.
Once again, she and I tried. We worked assiduously through September and the first few weeks of October before the Exit Exam. While she did everything I asked as well as she could, her writing got no better. She failed again. By this time, we were both totally frustrated. She had only one more chance that year. For the remainder of the semester, she wrote; I read and corrected. She rewrote; I read and corrected. For all her practice, she still wrote almost completely in sentence fragments and seemed unable to understand what she was doing wrong. However, when it was time for peer evaluation, all the other students wanted Ellen to read their papers because no one was better at constructive suggestions for improving content. Still, I could find no successful strategy that enabled her to write complete sentences.
In desperation, I asked the district psychologist to test this nineteen year old because I was convinced that she had a learning disability. Otherwise, surely an individual who was such a good citizen, who had so much common sense, and who possessed such a finely tuned sense of responsibility could pass this basic writing exercise. Though the district does not commonly test students who are only a few months away from graduation, I begged and the district made an exception. I believed that the text would provide me with the key I needed to reach Ellen.
However, the answer I got was not the answer I expected. Ellen had an IQ of seventy-five. By virtue of this testing, she was eligible to be placed in the Educable Mentally Handicapped program, not in the Learning Disabled program. The only thing I had acquired for Ellen was a label that said she could not succeed. Ellen would never be satisfied with a certificate; she would settle for nothing less than a diploma. Because the psychologist was as impressed as I by Ellen's determination, she petitioned the assistant superintendent in charge of special services to let Ellen enter the LD program for her last semester. Thus, she spent two hours a day writing and took the Exit Exam orally as part of a special administration. She passed easily because her problem had never been composition; she always had something worthwhile to say. She simply could not recognize where a sentence ended.
One might think that this young woman with her high school diploma had reached the end of her education. However, she has gone to Tech and completed a two year program in accounting. The last time I saw her, she was about to be married and was entering a technical school in Georgia to continue her education. Ellen is proof that the will to succeed is an important—if not the most important—aspect of learning.