the helmet

(CH in front of her break-time artwork.)

This is my student Christine.

I've been lucky enough to teach her for the majority of the year.
She is by far one of the most unique human beings I have ever known.
She is a tomboy, so much that the girls can't stand her and the boys think of her as a chum. When I yell "Boys!" Christine answers, "Yes?".
She adamantly insists that I call her "CH" (her initials) and she signs her name as "Black" on her test papers.
She NEVER does her homework, never passes her tests, sleeps during class, and when she's awake, she's drawing fine-detailed pictures of lizards and dragons and snakes.
She has a deep dry voice and a witty sense of humor and somehow I loathe her and adore her both at the same time.

Well, when I said she NEVER does her homework. I'm seriously not exaggerating. Week after week I scratch X's across her paper and write "F" by her name. She giggles.

Last week as the bell rang, I walked into class and there was CH sitting sharply at her desk wearing her bicycle helmet. I laughed at her.
During homework check, she proudly displayed before me her fully completed homework. I was stunned! She even got all the answers correct!
After praising her in front of the entire class, she impressed me even more by scoring an A+ on her review test.
I looked at her in shock and asked "What is going on???"
She said calmly, "Teacher, it's the helmet. It keeps my smarts in."

So I said "Fine. You need to wear that helmet every week."
She wore her lucky helmet through the entire 3 hour class. I've never seen her work so hard. She took incredible notes. She scored high on her in-class quiz. It was incredible! Every once in a while she'd taunt me and say "Teacher...I'm gonna take it off..." and she'd pull it off her head and I'd scream "NO!!!! Save your brain!!!" and she'd laugh.

Okay. So if that alone isn't a great story, it gets better.
CH walked into class today, once again wearing her helmet. The principal told her "Take off your helmet" and CH said seriously "No, my teacher told me I had to wear it."

Haha. So she did. All 3 hours. And again, she scored an A on her test.

It's a miracle helmet!