Manifestation of the potential

It was the 18th of February, 746. Theodore's birthday. Of all the classmates studying at the CEC with him, he was the third oldest. Therefore, studying in his second year, he was already five years old. While many of the other kids were only four. On the one hand, he looked a bit bigger and older than the others, because he had finally started eating a lot of food, several times a day, and had gained a decent amount of weight. On the other hand, Ted was somewhat behind in intellectual development from the overwhelming majority of children due to the fact that in home conditions he was mostly left to himself, both before and after the CEC. Therefore, there was no consolidation of the knowledge the boy had learnt. That is why he was considered to be an average child with no predispositions to any knowledge.

Of course, Theodore had already learnt to read children's literature, specially selected by the tutors to suit his age, although his reading speed was almost the slowest in the course. He was also writing a little, although his handwriting was hard to recognise. Even though the CEC taught him to write in block letters, some of them, such as ‘G’, ‘W’ or ‘Z’, he could not reproduce on a piece of paper. In drawing classes he made some progress, but only in relation to his previous works. Such as ‘Family’, ‘Future Work’ and ‘Nature’. Now his drawings did not consist only in painting a rectangular sheet of paper in one colour. The boy learnt to draw little people, clouds, sun, moon, car and other simple associative images made up of simple lines and dots. It was difficult to call it masterpieces of children's painting, but in the attitude of the pupil himself obvious progress was present.

Theodore did not do well with dancing and singing. It even got to the point that the boy absolutely refused to participate in everything that was connected with these lessons and the teachers had to transfer him to another group for a while during the singing and dancing lessons. The obvious advantage was that Ted had an additional opportunity to socialise with other children while learning with other groups. Thus, he became more liberated and outgoing. Sometimes even too much so. In terms of communication, there was a feeling that he had no equal. The boy changed in front of my eyes, compared to how he came to the walls of this educational centre stiff and silent. And by the way, communication skills were one of the additional characteristics for admission to the school. That certainly added one point to Theodore's score.

As for other classroom activities, the preschooler did not have any high successes there. He was not uninterested in many of them, but he was not particularly fond of them either. Something he did something, for example, modelling from plasticine, and something – just to do. For example, in the lessons of constructor, the boy did not try to build some construction. But some of them turned out really unusual for their age structures. Ted most often chaotically picked up parts and connected them by putting them on top of each other. In the end, the result was a mess.

But what the second-year student was definitely addicted to was sports activities. He was one of the first to find a common language with the coach in the shortest possible time and understood exactly what he required from him. Despite the fact that fiddling with a football at the end of the lesson had a competitive effect, which added enthusiasm to the young pupil, Ted had no love for this sport. He behaved peculiarly on the court, and most often played not according to the rules, despite the large number of warnings and remarks from the coach and Mrs Donova. During the game, the boy always tried to be the first on the ball, forcefully pushing away his opponents and teammates. Yes, it still didn't look like a full-fledged football game, but the coach tried his best to instil the basic rules of football in the preschoolers. He explained to them how to act on the court is possible, and how categorically forbidden.

The situation was different for the boy when it came to playing in the red circle, which was in the centre of the sports hall. In order to instil in the pupils such useful qualities as perseverance, fighting to the very end, and endurance, there was a children's game that allowed to show and develop these strong-willed character traits. It consisted of the following:

The group was divided into three subgroups, each with an equal number of people, plus/minus one additional participant if the children could not be equally divided. Each member of the subgroup stood on the outline of the red circle in any free place and stayed there until the coach's signal, which was accompanied by a whistle or a loud clap of hands. After receiving this signal, the competition began. It consisted in keeping only one of its participants in the centre of the red circle. The permitted techniques were thrusts and arm grabs, with the help of which one could push his opponents out of the designated area. The circle was quite large and occupied almost 1/3 of the site, if we take into account its total internal area. Therefore, there was enough space for all the contestants. After the player's body completely left the red circle, the child was considered a loser and dropped out of the game. When trying to return and continue the competition, the coach or tutor would calm the child and explain to him that the game was over for him, so he had to wait until it was over so as not to disturb the other players.

Today, on Theodore's birthday, it happened to be the second day of physical education. It would be followed by a couple more classes, and then in the dining room Ted would have a little surprise prepared by Mrs Donova in honour of his birthday. In the meantime, the boy was focused on the upcoming competition, which had already become a routine for him. Theodore was most looking forward to this particular game, in which he outclassed everyone in strength and perseverance.

Ted's subgroup of three boys and two girls took their place around the red circle. Each of the children prepared in their own way for the start of the contest. Some simply stood erect, others bent forward a little and redistributed most of their weight onto their supporting leg. One of the girls looked around unhappily, clearly not understanding the meaning of the game and not really wanting to participate. Despite her very ordinary origin, she looked and behaved like a real princess. Therefore, she was extremely capricious and disobedient. She never did what she did not want to do at the moment, which many times upset her tutor, who tried hard to instil in her the desire and interest in various kinds of activities.

As soon as the coach's whistle sounded, simultaneously acting as an incorruptible and fair referee, the four boys (including Ted) rushed from their seats into the centre of the circle, simultaneously pushing and trying to pull each other by the arms beyond the permitted playing space. Only one girl remained standing in one place, crossing her arms over her chest and looking away contemptuously. Her teacher jumped up to her, offering her to join the common game, telling and explaining on her fingers how much fun she would have. The princess, however, would not listen. She turned her back to Mrs Donova and headed in the opposite direction, snorting her nose and rolling her eyes.

Meanwhile, the confrontation on the court continued and tension was building. No one wanted to lose, but they were stretched to the limit. Ted stood exactly in the centre of the circle, holding the hand of the two boys on either side of him. Each of them was trying to pull the boy towards him, so that he would leave the place of the unqualified winner. From afar it looked as if they were about to tear him in two. But they were not strong enough to do that, and Theodore himself was much stronger than they were. Ted knelt down, continuing to hold back his opponents and forcing them to do the same to him. At the moment, he felt a pull both to one side and the other from himself. Suddenly, something happened that neither of them expected. Ted seized the hand of the boy in front of him and began to pull him towards him. The result was an irresistible force that he could not resist. All three moved from their seats. The boy who was behind Ted was outside the circle and instantly became a loser. Theodore himself fell on his back, lying half inside and half outside the circle. And the boy who had been standing in front of him, thanks to the power of the joint pull, left the playing field, doing a couple of somersaults, like a brave acrobat. Thus there remained two contenders for victory. Theodore and another girl, whom he had completely forgotten about, concentrating on the stern male rivalry.

Satisfied but tired, the boy began to rise, looking at the spectators, coach and tutor sitting opposite him. Many of them started waving their hands and actively showing something. The little wrestler caught himself thinking that he had won, and that he would soon be facing the finals, including himself and the two other winners of the other subgroups. Suddenly Theodore felt a nudge directed at his back, which was enough to throw the boy off balance once again and cross this contestant's name off the list of future finalists. With an extremely surprised expression on his face, which was made even more comical by his wide-open mouth, which had taken the shape of an oval, and the scream he emitted from surprise, the kid flopped down on the soft rubber surface that cushioned his fall.

The coach loudly announced the winner of the current contest. Theodore fell over on his back and looked at the girl who had pushed him out with flapping eyes. She was jumping with joy on the spot and smiling, waving her little hand at him in a friendly manner.

– Lucy, let's go! You won! Wow, look at that…’ her friend said, walking over to the finalist and taking her hand. The two of them disappeared behind the backs of the children sitting on the floor. Ted continued to sit on the floor looking around. Mr Petrie came over to him and helped him up, saying: ‘It's all right Theodore. Losing happens. You can't win all the time. It's normal. Don't worry!’

For the rest of practice, Ted sat and watched the finals along with the rest of the eliminated boys. There were two boys in the finals and Lucy, who had somehow miraculously made it in because all the contestants had forgotten about her at the time of the fight. However, now that there was no crush in the circle and everyone could see each other well and clearly, there was no one to hide behind. The two boys quickly enough pushed the weak Lucy outside the circle and continued their confrontation. The coach helped her up and patted her on the head, praising her for her persistence and courage. The girl returned to the others, not feeling sad about the victory that had eluded her. Inwardly, she was proud of herself for just being in the finals for the first time in a while, and that was enough for her.

There was not much time left before the end of the class, but it had been calculated in advance by the trainer and the CEC teacher. Mrs Donova's assistants flew into the hall with quick seven-mile steps and began to prepare the washbasins for boys and girls. They were tall square folding screens with small entrances on one side and were placed at different ends of the gym. Each of the assistants sat down on a stool inside, taking with them antibacterial disposable baby wipes to wipe each child thoroughly after sports activities. They also had with them several sets of clean white clothes in the form of T-shirts and shorts to change the kids. There were exactly as many sets of clothes as there were children in each group. Improvised changing rooms, aka washrooms, for girls and boys were ready. The coach and the tutor lined up the children in two rows, according to their gender. Washing and changing clothes took some time, so in order not to let anyone run away during the waiting period, the adults kept the children busy talking and playing with them.

Finally, clean and tidy, the children were ready for the next class, which followed physical education. In a tight group of two, they went to another room prepared for a new lesson.

The last class before lunch was devoted to the study of plants. For each of the pupils there was an interactive book on the floor, each page of which had basic textual information about a particular plant, as well as a 3D model of it, attracting the children's attention with its beauty. The room was equipped with a spotlight projecting an informative cartoon about the plants mentioned in the book. Of course, the vast majority of the information provided was about those flower crops that existed in the area, but the textbooks also contained a fair amount of material about the most common plants that exist around the world. This was by no means the first or the last children's botany class. After all, nature was so diverse that it was difficult even for an adult to memorise everything at once. However, this did not mean that the class repeated the same material from time to time and watched the same cartoon film. The city authorities of large cities prepared a special development programme on this discipline in such a way that it was easy to be perceived by children's immature brains. At the same time, it was not boring and uninteresting. While watching the informative video material, the children admired flowers and trees, having fun and watching how animations that came to life on the wall talked to them and told them about themselves, explaining how they should be cared for and how they should not be treated. Children's zoology classes were held in a similar way. However, the course about animals and insects was not as long as the one about plants, because the former existed much more than the latter.

The afternoon lesson was over, and all the pupils of Mrs Donova's group lined up in rows of two. Theodore wanted to stand at the end of the row, as was his habit, but this time the teacher took him by the arm and placed him at the head of the group. The teacher's assistant closed the row, making sure that none of the children deviated from the planned course. The class began to slowly ascend the escalator upwards, which leisurely endeavoured to take Mrs Donova's group to the top floor of the building. Since Theodore was at the very beginning of the row, he happened to be one of the first to see the welcoming group of cafeteria workers holding yellow balloons. These helium-filled balloons had written in large white letters on one side, ‘Happy Birthday, Theodore!’ and on the other, ‘5 years old.’ Two lunchroom workers, dressed in white aprons, with sanitary disposable white caps on their heads, stood on either side of the escalator exit, holding the balloons with their fingers, eager to float up into the air and close to the ceiling under the influence of helium. Anticipating the boy's surprise in advance, bringing him to a standstill, the staff pressed the escalator button and temporarily stopped its movement to allow Ted to enjoy the moment his holiday began. The escalator steps instantly froze, and with them the entire children's group.