When Charley asked Richie what brings joy to his life, he never expected the answer he got. Richie handed Charley his phone. On it were a series of drawings. As Charley scrolled through them, he asked, “Who’s the painter? These are beautiful.” He could tell from the smile on Richie’s face that Richie was the painter.
Charley never realized the talent that Richie had until that moment. When he asked if Richie ever sold any of his paintings, he discovered that Richie had not. “I’d like to buy some for the Learning Center,” Charley responded.
Charley asked an artist friend of his what would be a fair value and he was able to purchase five of the paintings. The money Richie received was a great boost to his family, but also provided Richie with the art supplies he needed. Little did Charley know how those paintings would transform Richie’s life as well as others.
When one of the volunteer teachers saw the paintings, she asked Richie if he would give private lessons to her daughter who wanted to become an artist. Richie had never thought of teaching before, but he agreed. That led to another learning connection that Charley had never expected. As Richie was helping Edith’s daughter, Edith was also helping Richie with his own learning.
Edith met Richie’s siblings and was able to help them as well, especially with school supplies. As fate would have it, Edith’s husband was a doctor and was able to examine Richie’s mom. While her health was not good, he was able to provide her with some relief.
As valuable as the connection was financially, it was even more valuable in lifting Richie’s self-esteem. Richie began to smile. His learning advanced remarkably. Richie was able to take classes at his grade level. Richie was on track to graduate and had possibilities in his future he had never dreamed about before.
Charley had learned two valuable lessons from both Sam and Richie:
- You need to develop joy in a person’s life to stimulate learning
- Everyone needs to become both a learner and teacher to fully value how learning can lift up your life.
Charley couldn’t wait to see what he could learn from Missy.
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“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” – Ben Franklin