nt is the gym scene. This happened when Sheila had gone crazy in class, stabbing the eyes out of goldfish, and then running away from class. When Ms. Hayden finds her in the gym she slowly manages to calm Sheila down by speaking to her calmly and without anger or reproach: "I'm not going to hurt you, Sheila. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just going to wait until you're not scared anymore and then we'll go back to class. I'm not angry and I'm not going to hurt you" (35).
By this point in the story it is easy to be convinced that Sheila is so damaged that she will never be taught anything. Yet the third event to be described makes the reader aware that this is not the case -- the scene with the picture recognition. Ms. Hayden would place a series of pictures on a table, say a word, and then wait for Sheila to point to the correct one. It begins as a simple exercise which turned almost magical. Hayden writes: "As I read each word, Sheila would point to a picture, hesitantly at f
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