The Perfect Child
David was a perfect child. Just ask his mother. “If you have a perfect child,” she once said, “then you have a problem child.” David was a quite child and did everything he was told. Such as sitting just outside the fitting room at Sear Department Store’s brassiere section while David’s mother tried on countless bras. People would comment on David’s behavior. “What a well behave boy you have there,” some would mention. “I can’t bring my child shopping, let alone to the women’s undergarment section. He would just die. Knocking over everything around in the store while running all over the place. ” This made David’s mother very proud of her middle child. She would bring David along to many adult functions like her doctor’s appointments. One could say it was for the company. Others might say it was her showing off her favor and well behaved child.
David did not talk until he was seven. The doctor that David’s mother took him to numerous times, expressing her fear that something was not right, always answered, “Some children just take longer than others.” At six years old, David’s father figured out that David was deaf. When David’s mother entered the house after a long day at her job, David’s back was to her. David’s father asked her to stay by the door and call out his name. She did and no response came from David. David’s father tapped on his shoulder and pointed to his mother by the front door. David jumped up and ran towards her with a smile while making a joyful yelling noise. “I think David is deaf,” David’s father declared.
Surgery was performed at Chicago’s Children’s Memorial Hospital, where it was found wax packed the whole inner ear. So much so, that the wax was pushing against his eardrums causing scar tissue. The Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor was amazed that David showed no pain from the pressure on the eardrums and even after the surgery. "He's lucky that his eardrums did not rupture," the surgeon told David's parents. After the surgical procedure, tests were perform to see how much of a hearing lost occur. All David did was cry out of fear from the hearing test. These sounds scared him that his test was label indeterminate.
David’s parents moved to Evanston, Illinois shortly before he was born. Their main reason for moving to this town was its school system that enjoyed an especially good reputation on education. So much so, that many teaching colleges throughout the U.S. were using Evanston’s school system as a model1. It was to David’s fortune being in the Evanston schools system. He received private English tutoring in both speech and spelling till his freshman year in high school. The tutors used methods such as putting his hand on their throats so he could feel how their vocal cords vibrated when pronouncing a vowel or a word. “See how my throat feels when I say the letter ‘P’,” as the tutor held David’s hand against their neck “Phha , Phha, Phha,” the tutor repeating the letter P. “Now you try,” putting David’s hand against his neck. “Fhha, Fhha, Fhha,” said David trying to duplicate the feel and sound. In his mind he was hearing “Phha,” when he said “Fhha.” As David grew frustrated, few of his tutors were perturbed by him not getting the sound correct. Most gave needed encouragement. The "good-boy" David only wanted to please the tutors and make them feel proud of their work. Most tutors were more professional and unruffled. This is when David achieved the most in his tutoring.
He rarely spoke outside his home. He quickly learned how cruel children can be by making fun of the way he pronounced his words. He was use to “the look” that a person would give when he mispronounced a word. Once, coming home from a horror movie with his younger brother, his grandmother asked, “What kind of movie did you two see?” David answered, “A whore movie.” David's grandmother gave David “the look.” "The look" is like in comic books, it was as if David could see the bubble above his grandmother’s head written, “Did I hear that correctly? Did he say whore? Why would two children see a whore movie? No, no. I must have mistaken what he said. He said, 'horror movie.'”
Not only was his speech poor, so was his spelling. In six grade, he was put with the all the “slow” kids in class, using a third grade spelling book. However, his comprehension skills were above normal. Other school subjects were easy for him, as long as spelling or reading out loud were required.
David’s only childhood playmate was his younger brother which forfeit his brother's friends as well. David had no friends, just his imagination. He climbed trees to their highest limb and sit there for hours either drawing, reading, or daydreaming. Daydreaming was a key to his life. Sitting under the card table in the living room that his mother had left out from the previous night for her bridge card group, David would put a bed sheet over it, and pretended he was out camping in Lawrence Olivera’s desert. Or David would put the four folding chairs in a line outside the card table where the bed sheet did not cover and visualized the chairs as horses and under the card table as inside a stage coach.
At times spent in the trees, he would draw out many stories on to a pad of paper. When alone in the bedroom that he shared with his brothers, and using his brother’s Matchbook toy cars, he lined up the cars in three or four rows all facing his drawing. In the darken room, he would spot his drawings with a desk lamp imagining a drive-in movie lot, telling the story to all the little cars and their envisage people inside them. Where most children got tired and more on to their next game to entertain themselves, David’s stories were very articulate with endless drawings.
David always pleased everyone else. He knew nothing of his needs. His world was what his family set in front of him. He sat in the middle of the backseat of their green Ford Fairlane car. Most thought he did this because he was the middle child or was well mannered. When in fact; he did it because his brothers wanted the window seats. Everyone else’s needs before his as David had no needs. He just went along the ride of life. Numerous car rides, David’s parents would ask if David was in the car or asleep. He was so quite that one could easily overlook him. The only sounds from the backseat of the car were his two brothers. David was in his own world of escapade. He loved finding a smudge or dot on the car’s window and focuses one eye on it, moving his head, making the smudge jump from item to item that passed by the window, jumping from top of a telephone pole to telephone pole, or building top to mountain top. As long as there was a place the smudge could bounce off and not fall to the ground. It had to fly above the ground. Many adventures and smiles took place with his mind’s eye.
A perfect child: who is quite, has no needs or complaints, good-manners, stays out of the way, and does not cry.
A perfect child: David Gunnell
David did not talk until he was seven. The doctor that David’s mother took him to numerous times, expressing her fear that something was not right, always answered, “Some children just take longer than others.” At six years old, David’s father figured out that David was deaf. When David’s mother entered the house after a long day at her job, David’s back was to her. David’s father asked her to stay by the door and call out his name. She did and no response came from David. David’s father tapped on his shoulder and pointed to his mother by the front door. David jumped up and ran towards her with a smile while making a joyful yelling noise. “I think David is deaf,” David’s father declared.
Surgery was performed at Chicago’s Children’s Memorial Hospital, where it was found wax packed the whole inner ear. So much so, that the wax was pushing against his eardrums causing scar tissue. The Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor was amazed that David showed no pain from the pressure on the eardrums and even after the surgery. "He's lucky that his eardrums did not rupture," the surgeon told David's parents. After the surgical procedure, tests were perform to see how much of a hearing lost occur. All David did was cry out of fear from the hearing test. These sounds scared him that his test was label indeterminate.
David’s parents moved to Evanston, Illinois shortly before he was born. Their main reason for moving to this town was its school system that enjoyed an especially good reputation on education. So much so, that many teaching colleges throughout the U.S. were using Evanston’s school system as a model1. It was to David’s fortune being in the Evanston schools system. He received private English tutoring in both speech and spelling till his freshman year in high school. The tutors used methods such as putting his hand on their throats so he could feel how their vocal cords vibrated when pronouncing a vowel or a word. “See how my throat feels when I say the letter ‘P’,” as the tutor held David’s hand against their neck “Phha , Phha, Phha,” the tutor repeating the letter P. “Now you try,” putting David’s hand against his neck. “Fhha, Fhha, Fhha,” said David trying to duplicate the feel and sound. In his mind he was hearing “Phha,” when he said “Fhha.” As David grew frustrated, few of his tutors were perturbed by him not getting the sound correct. Most gave needed encouragement. The "good-boy" David only wanted to please the tutors and make them feel proud of their work. Most tutors were more professional and unruffled. This is when David achieved the most in his tutoring.
He rarely spoke outside his home. He quickly learned how cruel children can be by making fun of the way he pronounced his words. He was use to “the look” that a person would give when he mispronounced a word. Once, coming home from a horror movie with his younger brother, his grandmother asked, “What kind of movie did you two see?” David answered, “A whore movie.” David's grandmother gave David “the look.” "The look" is like in comic books, it was as if David could see the bubble above his grandmother’s head written, “Did I hear that correctly? Did he say whore? Why would two children see a whore movie? No, no. I must have mistaken what he said. He said, 'horror movie.'”
Not only was his speech poor, so was his spelling. In six grade, he was put with the all the “slow” kids in class, using a third grade spelling book. However, his comprehension skills were above normal. Other school subjects were easy for him, as long as spelling or reading out loud were required.
David’s only childhood playmate was his younger brother which forfeit his brother's friends as well. David had no friends, just his imagination. He climbed trees to their highest limb and sit there for hours either drawing, reading, or daydreaming. Daydreaming was a key to his life. Sitting under the card table in the living room that his mother had left out from the previous night for her bridge card group, David would put a bed sheet over it, and pretended he was out camping in Lawrence Olivera’s desert. Or David would put the four folding chairs in a line outside the card table where the bed sheet did not cover and visualized the chairs as horses and under the card table as inside a stage coach.
At times spent in the trees, he would draw out many stories on to a pad of paper. When alone in the bedroom that he shared with his brothers, and using his brother’s Matchbook toy cars, he lined up the cars in three or four rows all facing his drawing. In the darken room, he would spot his drawings with a desk lamp imagining a drive-in movie lot, telling the story to all the little cars and their envisage people inside them. Where most children got tired and more on to their next game to entertain themselves, David’s stories were very articulate with endless drawings.
David always pleased everyone else. He knew nothing of his needs. His world was what his family set in front of him. He sat in the middle of the backseat of their green Ford Fairlane car. Most thought he did this because he was the middle child or was well mannered. When in fact; he did it because his brothers wanted the window seats. Everyone else’s needs before his as David had no needs. He just went along the ride of life. Numerous car rides, David’s parents would ask if David was in the car or asleep. He was so quite that one could easily overlook him. The only sounds from the backseat of the car were his two brothers. David was in his own world of escapade. He loved finding a smudge or dot on the car’s window and focuses one eye on it, moving his head, making the smudge jump from item to item that passed by the window, jumping from top of a telephone pole to telephone pole, or building top to mountain top. As long as there was a place the smudge could bounce off and not fall to the ground. It had to fly above the ground. Many adventures and smiles took place with his mind’s eye.
A perfect child: who is quite, has no needs or complaints, good-manners, stays out of the way, and does not cry.
A perfect child: David Gunnell
1 From What Shall I Tell My Children Who Are Black? An Overview of Parent Education Research during the Civil Rights Era and Beyond by Diana T. Slaughter-Defoe, Ph.D., Clayton Professor of Urban Education, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania. Article found on Penn University’s site: http://www.urbanedjournal.org/archive/ClaytonLectures/clayton_dsd.html