The 17-year-old senior boy that I tutor came in very excited today. Some kids had started to tease him that the couldn’t spell a long word, but he proved to them that he could. He shared that he had tapped the syllables on his leg that was under the desk.

His whole world is opening up now that he can read. He told me that he is thinking about being a builder now that he can read. Before, he was just going to try to run a yard work business.

He passed the Science portion of the High School Exit Exam, after failing it last year because, as he put it, he could read the words this time.