THE NARRATIVE ARC | PSYCHOLOGY | LIFE LESSONS

My Earthquake-Survivor Student Found Hope Again

How a classroom game changed his life

Lisa Duffy-Korpics
The Narrative Arc
Published in
10 min readJun 4, 2024

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Back of African American Haitian teen dancing in street
Photo by Andre Hunter on Unsplash

Henry arrived suddenly in mid-senior year and was taller than anyone in our class. He was funny, full of joy, popular yet self-deprecating. Kind and respectful. Something happened when he joined our class. Everyone became a little happier. I was happier.

He was everything you’d want in a student except for one thing.

Henry could not pass a test.

Everything he could tell you when you asked him was magically erased from his brain the minute he sat down in front of one.

This Is Not A Test

I finally stopped using the word test. He’d panic immediately even when we’d spent the entire week reviewing for it and he knew it was coming.

“Is this a test?” he asked.

I could see the sun already setting behind his eyes.

No Henry, I said, it’s an educational assessment, that’s all.

“I can’t. It’s a test. It will not work. Everything in my head is there and then it is gone. I give up.”

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