One year a boy joined who did not match who you’d think would join a ballroom class. He rarely participated, his clothes were most often dirty, he wore the same hoodie over his head and tied tight around his face, every class period…I wondered every week why he even bothered to come. But as the year progressed we got him to participate a little, take off his hoodie and slowly he started to slowly come around. He was never a “star” student but I came to really appreciate his effort and tried to show that in words of praise. At the end of the year I gave our principal a picture of the class and as he choked back tears, he pointed to this boy and said to me “if you’ve only ever reached one kid, I’m so glad it was Ben. You have no idea how tough his family life is or how hard school is. The fact he joined this class is a miracle and might have saved him.” I was in tears.