Volume 3, Issue 8, page 7

O!J R By I-1 T)I)-F 1's
CH 113. BERTRAM SLAPS HIS LEFT WRIST
SiA
VE FOR a barking "Yanh!", accompanie
by the stamping of his right foot, Bertram doesn't vocalize. He laughs, anhis eyes shine, but he laughs at anything and nothing, and the teachers don
understand what the shining of his eyes means.
Bertram clearly understands some things. H
goes when he is told, sometimes. He comes whet
he is told, sometimes. He sometimes sits wh
he is told, sometimes rises. But there is n
rule, no pattern. In the midst of a recitatior
by someone else in his group -- the older gro
which is being taught to read the simples
words -- Bertie rises from his chair, stands. I
no attention is paid him he kicks backward an upward at the chair he has just quitted. II
the chair goes over backward with a grea
clatter, Bertie laughs. If it knocks over
table on which are blocks pans, anything the.' add to the clatter, Bertie, without looking around, will laugh even more.

It isn't good to push Bertie back down
his chair that the recitation may continue. H
is like a jack-in-the-box; he bobs right had
up, laughing. Yet he can't be allowed t
stand, and laugh, and make noise, and disrup
the class. He seems to know this, seems
know that he is making trouble.

He slaps his left wrist with his right palm
hard. But why? He doesn't tell anyone.

Bertie's eyes are green. He is 10. He doesn't read, not even his own name. He does kn
his name is Bertram, but doesn't know whethe
he has any more name, nor can it be explain
to him, largely because he won't listen. He'd
much rather entertain whoever tries to tea
him, with tricks of legerdemain, evolved by
himself. His tricks are not outstanding, consisting only of fingering a folded handkerchief before the eyes of the questioner. Possibly he believes his fingers are supple. On
doesn't know. But when he stands, others an
the class become excited, Both boys and girl
rise swiftly from their seats, though man
times they have been forbidden, to push Berts
back into his chair. Sometimes they are a lit
tie rough if the teacher can't return them
somehow to their seats before they get they
hands on Bertie. They may hurt Bertie, thoug
he apparently has no fear of being hurt. Whet
he is pushed back into his solid chair, i
always makes a noise which delights him, s
that he rises that he may be pushed back again
He leans forward, lifting the rear legs of h'
chair. Then he slams back, trying to shake th
room. He leans back and slams forward.

The teacher looks at Bertie when his nois
has begun to disrupt the class, and Berts
slaps his left wrist with his right hand.

Bertie rises, head down, staring at
teacher from under lowered brows. He shake
his head by shaking his body so that his hew
snaps. This isn't easy to do; it seems to
original with iiertie.

Sit down," says the teacher calmly. Gerti
shakes his head in the same way, stamps a foot
wriggles his elevated fingers which hold
folded handkerchief, tucks the handkerchie
dd t HE
~ o u I a H( ht
chair. th b
R J. BURKS Wiiaz Cyan. Se Baan
04a t, genetic
This is a continuation of the series in which Mr. Burks analyzes
life in the Child Guidance Center,
Lancaster, Penn. These are only a
E oof the estimated 4,000,000
you
'enetic tragedies', one or mare
of whom could be next door to to you