A Flamingo in a Polar Bear World

Flannery Flamingo hated school. He hated standing in a single file line for the drinking fountain because his bill didn’t fit under the faucet. He hated sitting at his desk because his legs didn’t bend that way. And he hated learning what the teacher taught because none of it seemed to have anything to do with him. 

His teacher was very nice, but yet, she didn’t seem to understand what was so obvious to him: that he just couldn’t do all these things he was being asked to do, unless he tried with every fiber of his being. And even then, trying that hard caused so much discomfort, all he wanted to do was cry or get real mad or go home and sleep or play his favorite games.

As for the other kids at school—he wished he could call them his friends, but he could never think of the right thing to say and nobody ever seemed to say the right thing to him. Even at recess, it seemed impossible to join in all their fun activities, whether it was stalking seals or digging shallow snow pits for nap time. He was always lagging behind or making a mess of things on accident. 

Then one day during football (after being picked last, as usual) he decided he was going to catch the ball once and for all. He wasn’t supposed to fly at school, but when Eddie Bear kicked the football high into the air, Flannery Flamingo couldn't help himself. He soared across that field and captured the ball securely in his wings. Only, he held on so tight, his bill punctured the center of the ball, and down it fell, deflated.

Everyone was so mad.

The teacher blew her whistle. “Flannery! On the bench. Now!”

“I didn’t do it on purpose!” Flannery cried.

But no one believed him. 

The gym teacher wrote a note for Flannery’s mom:

Dear Ms. Flamingo, 

It’s one interruption after the next with your son! If Flannery isn’t causing confusion and delay, he defiantly refuses to do a single thing! He needs to work harder if he expects to be part of this community!

Signed,

Edna Bear

The following day, Flannery decided enough was enough. He just couldn’t take it anymore. 

“I just don’t belong here,” he told himself. 

And so he told the teacher he was using the restroom, but instead, Flannery opened a hallway window and flew over to the playground and hid behind the slide. It took the police an hour to find him!

When his mama arrived in a panic, the principal asked to speak with them both.

“Flannery is having trouble meeting expectations and doing what he's told. He is very bright, that’s for sure, but he’s not thriving. And today, this flying out of the building was unacceptable, not to mention extremely dangerous.”

Flannery looked down at his webbed feet. He felt so ashamed. But more than that, he felt sick with worry that he’d disappointed his mom. What if she secretly wouldn't love him as much anymore?

On the drive home, his mama looked at him through the rear view mirror. “I love you, Flannery. No matter what. Do you know that?”

Flannery started to cry.

“The truth is, honey, none of this is your fault. You’re a flamingo in a polar bear world. I was the same way. But what’s also true, is if you want to be successful, you have to push through…think like a polar bear!”

“But I’m not a polar bear, mama!” Flannery cried.

“Oh, honey. I know you’re not. But if you try hard enough, you can learn how to be just like one.”

“But I want to be me!”

His mother sighed. “You’re right. Of course you want to be you. And I don’t blame you. Because you know what, who you are is wonderful. And I’m proud of you for realizing that. Sometimes I think you’re a lot wiser than I am.”

“Thank you, mama.”

At his principal’s request, Flannery’s mom brought him to a special counselor to assess his skills, to determine if some extra accommodations might make school less stressful for him.

The woman asked Flannery many questions:

“Do you have difficulty reading books in English class?”

“Well, I can’t read the letters because my bill is too big to get close enough to the pages.”

“Do you have difficulty writing?”

“Well, it’s really difficult to hold the pencil in my wings. My wings are great for flying though. Except I’m not allowed to fly at school.”

The next day at school, Flannery’s mama explained to the teacher all of his new accommodations:

• A portable heater during class.

• A special shrimp lunch instead of seal blubber which always hurt his belly. 

• A down jacket during recess.

• Audiobooks instead of reading. 

• Speech-to-text instead of writing.

And though all of these accommodations did help, they really didn’t fix the whole problem.

“Why can’t I just go to a school that’s made for creatures like me?!” he cried one morning at drop off.

“I wish you could. So much, honey. But, what can I do? I can’t homeschool. I have to work! And I can’t just pack up and move down to Florida. My job is here! I’m afraid for now, this is what we’ve got to work with. But… maybe… there’s something else we can do!”

“Did you just have one of your great ideas, mama?”

“I did indeed!”

Later that day, Flannery’s mom called the teacher to ask if she could attend class as a guest to teach the kids all about flamingos: their strengths and weaknesses, what they like to do and eat, what their homes are like. 

“I think that’s a wonderful idea,” the teacher said.

On the day of the big event, Flannery and his mom turned the classroom into a tropical paradise! They set up a wading pool with heat lamps and stocked it with enough shrimp so that every bear could learn to fish like a flamingo!

Flannery and his mom were so excited. And when the bears entered the classroom, they couldn’t believe their eyes.

“Wow!”

“This is amazing!”

“It’s like we’re on a different planet!”

But, it didn’t take long before the polar bears began complaining. 

“It’s too hot in here!”

“My fur is roasting!”

“I’m gonna pass out! I’m not doing this!”

Then one of the bears started yelling: “These shrimp are impossible to catch! I scraped my nose on this rock!”

“I hit my head!”

Another bear pulled his neck learning how to preen. “I need the nurse!” he screamed.

Then another bear started yelling that her legs weren’t long enough to wade. “I’m up to my waist in this water! I wanna go home!”

Flannery and his mom felt terrible. They hadn’t meant to cause so much upset. 

Flannery’s mom was about to apologize to the teacher when the teacher looked at Flannery with tears in her eyes. “Oh my goodness, Flannery. Is this what you’ve been going through all this time? Trying to act like a polar bear?”

Flannery nodded.

Suddenly everyone stopped their complaining. Because for the very first time, they finally understood what Flannery had been going through.

“Wow. I’m so sorry, Flannery,” all the bears said.

“We had no idea you’ve been suffering.”

Turned out, Flannery’s mom taught the bears a lesson she hadn’t intentionally meant to teach.

“Let’s all gather together in a circle,” the teacher said, before turning down the heat. “Now that we’ve gotten a taste of what Flannery’s been dealing with, let’s talk about what we can do differently to make our school easier for him.”

“Well to be honest,” Flannery said. “I’m just so happy that you even cared to think of such a thing. I really didn’t think you cared. I didn’t think any of you cared.”

“Of course I care,” his teacher said through teary eyes. “I just… really didn’t understand what it was like for you.”

“None of us understood,” the other bears said. 

“Hey! I have an idea!” said one of the bears. “How about from now on, you let Flannery fly at school!”

“Yeah! You could use your flying to scout for seals!”

“And we could dig under the ice to find fresh shrimp for your lunches!”

"Those are great ideas. But I wish there was also something we could do all together,” Flannery said.

“Like what?”

“Like get to know each other better,” said Flannery. “We could start a brand new class at school! Just to share with each other, so we get to understand each other! After all, whether we’re flamingos or bears, we’re all unique, and I bet we all have different concerns and different ideas about things.”

“That’s a wonderful idea Flannery!” said his teacher. “How about we devote an hour every day just for sharing!”

And so they did.

They called their new class The Bridges of Understanding. And it quickly became everyone’s new favorite subject.

Every day before recess, they all gathered on the rug and one at a time, shared an upset or a victory or anything in between and then each student picked one person to listen out loud to what they heard, before taking a turn of their own.

The students learned how to listen-to-understand and communicate-to-be-understood. And everyone got along a whole lot better. And everyone began caring a lot more about each other too. In fact, Flannery’s class turned into a real community.

School still wasn’t perfect for Flannery. There were still many things that didn’t work as well as they could. But in the meantime, he was learning how to express which things were working and which things weren’t. And because he had a community that cared enough to listen, he felt connected and understood, and much happier, even in a school for bears.

-JLK