“My parents made me a really good disciple and I transferred that energy to the world of moral action,” says Michelle Kuo, author of a fascinating book titled “Reading with Patrick: A Teacher, a Student, and a Life-Changing Friendship”.
The story is simple. Michelle Kuo, an idealistic college graduate finds herself in a school in Arkansa which has students expelled from other schools…basically a dumping ground. But, she believed that this is where she could make a difference and sure enough she spots a boy called Patrick in her class who seems shy but interested. She says: “Patrick was introspective, never bullied other students. He loved to read and write…he had only one problem…sometimes he just would not show up to school. I would go to his home and ask, ‘Hey why did you not show up at school?’ That would make him come for the next two weeks.”
The story moves on to how Kuo left the city to study law. Her reasons for moving out not only involve betterment of one’s prospects but is also a telling comment on the lack of opportunities in poor areas, the story of how coloured people have been left out of much of the so-called progress in the world. Kuo says: “1 out of 5 rural Americans are people of colour and half of them are African Americans. I also wanted to get out because 3% were Asians and so everybody was staring at me….I realized how much of a privilege I had because of my skin colour…that was a real collapse of moral confidence.” The import of this striked her even more deeply when returned after hearing what had happened with Patrick.
Continues Kuo: “In my third year of law school, I got a call from a friend asking if Patrick was my student. My first thought was that he had died. I heard he was in jail..he had got arrested for killing someone. I was shocked…I did not believe it…flew back to visit him. He told me the story of what happened…the book is a lot about trying to understand what my responsibility was towards him… what do you owe somebody you have met in a fleeting context but in an idealistic context?”
Waiting for justice
Kuo talks of delayed justice and how Patrick sat waiting and waiting in jail, for justice. Kuo gave up seven months of her career and spent that time reading with Patrick. At one level, Patrick drew inspiration and found role models in the stories he read. At another, says Kuo: “I did not know what was happening or was to happen. All I knew was that he was really alone and when a person is alone , it does matter when a person shows up….even if nothing comes out of it.”
Kuo says she has no answers but does feel to care and fail is still better than punishment and shouting. And reading helped broaden the vision.
