The Good Teacher

Guy never held any wild expectations when he began training Kano. He didn't believe that the boy would just magically become a proficient academic or a literati after a day of work. It was a gradual and strenuous process, and Guy had learned that it was important to maintain a measured approach. In a lot of ways, the success of the training depended heavily on the student's enthusiasm and level of involvement.

It was often the case that children would just give up after a few sessions after experiencing the difficulty. And for children with dyslexia, the difficulty was significantly amplified. So it was equally important for the teacher to motivate the students to grind through the difficult early stages.

Thankfully, with Kano, Guy hadn't yet seen any signs of the boy's motivation diminishing. In fact, after the kid successfully read through the first children's book - spending the whole day on it - his excitement rose to another level! Guy wanted to keep the momentum rolling forward and readily provided the kid with another book. After all, his RoK was filled with these illustrated books catering to pre-schoolers and kindergarteners that would be originally slated to never see the light of day.

However, Guy recognised that simply acquiescing to the child's whim would result in the motivation fizzling out early. To refer to the principles of impulse, in order to reduce the damage inflicted by a sudden change in momentum, it is best to elongate the duration over which the change takes place.

Thus, Guy didn't miss the opportunity to foist Kano with an assignment that most middle-schoolers and high-schoolers found annoying - writing book reports. Of course, Guy wouldn't expect Kano to write pages worth of insightful commentary on a book that barely contained two hundred words. On top of that, Guy knew better than anyone how easily having to write a report on a piece of literature can suck the excitement from the process. Yet, Kano's willingness to persist without the need for Guy's involvement offered an opportunity!

Language is a medium to transmit information and knowledge. To do that, people are generally faced with two possible methods: Text and Speech. Of course, in Modern Earth, knowledge has a multitude of media to facilitate its transmission, yet they can also be boiled down to the aforementioned categories. We can further divide these two categories by how the information is expressed, and how it is received.

Kano did not face much difficulty in expressing himself through speech. Barring his stutter, Kano didn't struggle with speaking his thoughts or comprehending others. His problems lied with texts. While practising reading different literature could slowly alleviate this difficulty, Guy determined that it would be more efficient if he could also address the issue of writing in parallel.

Therefore, for the next book, Guy provided Kano with an additional sheet of paper, with a few questions written on it.

"After you finish reading this book. I want you to write answers to these questions about the book," Guy said.

Kano's smile quickly diminished as he grasped the piece of paper.

"I've drawn lines on the page to indicate how large I want your font to be. I have hung up the additional letter's you moulded, with lines indicating how they need to be drawn, in the classroom. You should write while referring to them for now," Guy added. Through his past experience, Guy found that using four-lined notes worked best in training kids on how to write. The central two lines defined the general size of the letters, while the line above and below them indicated how high or low the letters could reach. Although Guy had to tweak the distances between lines to meet the requirements of the common language in this world, the general principles still carried over.

"I know it will be hard at first. But if you read the questions, you will see that their answers require at most two sentences. It's okay if you make mistakes. If we don't fail, we can never improve!" Guy said as an encouragement.

Kano nodded with a serious expression, took the book, and began reading it. Guy observed as the kid followed the method he taught, by following the word being read with his fingers and sounding the letters out loud.

"The... buh-ih-guh... big- The big, buh-ah-duh, bad- The big bad woh-oo-luh-fuh, wooluhfuh... wooluf? Ah, wolf! The big, bad wolf!" Kano muttered along.

Guy smiled endearingly as he observed Kano. Surprisingly, the kid turned out to be a voracious reader. Even though attaching the additional task stifled his pace, Kano did not let out his enthusiasm. At first, it would take him two days to finish the book and answer the questions. Within a week, it was reduced to just a day and a half with a clear reduction in errors and spelling mistakes. Within another week, Kano reduced the duration to just a day. By this time, Guy increased the difficulty of his questions, warranting longer answers.

Gradually, Kano's reading level began rising. Within a month, Kano managed to raise his proficiency to a first-grade level. His writing had improved as well! He wasn't fast, but his spelling and grammatic accuracy had risen to a stable 70%, which was much higher than Guy expected to achieve within the time frame.

"Maybe the kid's some kind of a hidden genius?" Guy said to himself as he finished drawing the final number on the steps leading up to the orphanage, using white chalk.

Although Kano's literary skills were catching up to his peers, he was still behind in other fields. Especially arithmetics. While most of the villagers had menial jobs, having a good grasp of basic arithmetics was a dire necessity. It was the only way these folk could avoid getting cheated off of their rightful earnings following their sales.

Most of the kids in the village had a basic grasp on the subject, however, Kano was still behind. Guy felt that it was about time to bring the boy up to speed. Yet, Guy realised that this could also act as an opportunity to accomplish something that was gravely lacking in Kano's life - companionship.

Sure, Kano had his twin sister, Markus, Grace, and the elder sister Marie, however, that was not enough. Kano's biggest problem was his self-consciousness. His feeling of inadequacy, borne of the bullying from his peers, was a constant thorn in his psyche. And as long as that thorn remained in his heart, Kano would never be able to advance beyond a certain point. Guy also posited that the kid's stuttering could also be reduced by improving his interpersonal relationships.

As an adult, Guy couldn't force kids to become friends. Yet, he could nudge them in that direction. Social dynamics in children was generally easier to manoeuvre around. Teenagers, though... that was a whole other ball game. Those hormone-fueled monsters were the worst!

Guy chuckled as he straightened his back and sighed in relief. The preparation for the upcoming task was painstaking. He had to wake up early in the morning and begin counting the number of steps leading to the orphanage. After that, he had to individually write numbers, in order, from the bottom all the way to the top, all the while walking hunched.

Right as he finished, he heard Kano coming down the steps with an exciting spring.

"T-T-Teacher Larks," the boy called out. "I've finished the b-b-book, and answered the questions," he said as he handed a book and a filled-in sheet of paper to Guy.

"Good job! You finished early?"

Kano smiled wryly and answered, "I read through the night."

Guy frowned and warned Kano, "I've told you many times not to do that! It will ruin your eyes."

Kano bit his tongue apologetically, "I'm sorry. It's just, the s-s-story was very compelling."

Guy sighed, "Forget it! I'm not going to keep telling you this anymore. If not for your own good, at least think about your sister. She's complaining around that you aren't letting her sleep with all the loud mumbling as you read!"

Kano scratched his head in embarrassment. Just as he was about to reply, he heard the voice of a few children approaching them.

"Teacher Larks, you called us here today?" A jovial and outgoing boy, around Kano's age, shouted out while jogging. Behind him, there was a small crowd of children around the same age.

"Durkas! Good, you brought everyone. Alright, class, settle down," Guy said with a stern tone. Unfortunately, his voice was drowned out by the chatter amongst the children. Guy wore a serious expression and clapped his hands in succession.

CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! "One. Two. Three. Eyes on me!"

In unison, everyone stopped talking and directed their gaze towards Guy.

"Alright everyone, I've called you here today, instead of the classroom, to play a game!" As he finished the statement, the eyes of the kids sparkled with excitement.

"A game?" Durkas asked elatedly.

"That's right! But before we start, I want everyone to get into a team of two," Guy instructed. Right as he said so, the kids in the crowd split up and formed duos. Almost coincidentally Durkas was left without a partner.

"Umm, Teach. Who do I partner with?" Durkas asked.

Guy rubbed his chin and feigned contemplation. Then he snapped his fingers dramatically and suggested, "Why don't you partner up with Kano?"

Durkas frowned and looked at Kano, who was hiding behind Guy.

"Him? What's he doing here?" Durkas snorted.

"I completely forgot! From today onwards, Kano will be joining our class. Why don't you all welcome him?" Guy declared softly while pushing Kano forward.

Kano inched up with a lowered head. Right as he stood before Guy, Durkas commented, "Why's this idiot back in our group?" causing Kano to visibly flinch.

Guy's smile faded, and his expression turned stern.