And a One . . .

I had managed to get Hudson up on the platform. It was a start. All I needed was one.

For the better part of the afternoon, I had been cajoling our eighth-grade boys to jump from the 18-foot platform. I knew that if I could get one kid to jump, the rest of the boys would feel compelled to jump as well. I am not afraid to use a little shame and embarrassment to motivate students –well, at least when we aren’t in the classroom.

Hudson is not the most athletic boy in eighth grade. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that he was the first one to venture onto the platform. I figured it would have been one of our soccer or basketball players.

But here was Hudson up on top of the deck trying to decide if he had the courage to jump.

I was giving him the old Coach VanNoord pep speech. “You can do this. Dig deep. Courage is not about not being afraid, it’s about overcoming your fears. The pain will only last a moment, but the glory will last a life time.” I quoted every hackney halftime locker room scene from every hackneyed sports movie I had ever seen. I was on a roll.

I was trying to read Hudson. I figured I would have to go on like this for several more minutes before he had himself psyched up. But right when I was in the midst of channeling Gene Hackman from Hoosiers, Hudson backed up ten feet and made a mad dash for the end of the platform all the while yelling “I am Poooooooookeman!”

Typical Hudson: goofy, lovable and –as it turns out- pretty darn courageous.

Atta boy, kid. I knew you had it in you. I couldn’t be more proud.

And I was right.

Once Hudson broke the ice, other students started to make their way onto the platform. But to my surprise, it wasn’t the hotshot boys; it was several of our eighth girls who made their way onto the platform.

Finally, after Grace had made her third jump, the rest of the boys decided they had seen enough. They were not going to be outdone by Pokeman-boy and the girly girls.

Finally, the rest of the eighth grade boys made their way onto the platform. To my knowledge, one of the boys Quentin only made one jump all afternoon. After a running leap, he did a mid-air spinning 720. I guess if you're only going to do one jump, you might as well make it count.

My students spent the rest of the afternoon jumping of the platform.

Meanwhile, I retreated to a nearby hammock knowing that my work here was done.

-Jack

(I’m sorry, what’s that? Did I jump? Well, how do you think I got Hudson to jump?)