When I was twelve years old, my family were the first black people to move into an all white part of
Grand Rapids, Michigan. Many of our new neighbors weren't very welcoming. Some of them said angrily
that we should return to where we came from. The children sometimes threw stones at me or drove me
home from school.
Most of my teachers simply took no notice of me, but not Dorothy Bean, my history teacher. Miss Bean
was angry at how badly I was being treated, but she didn't say this to me. Miss Bean showed her respect
for me by teaching me just like anyone else. Instead of being unnoticed, I was given a chance to show that
I was clever. Miss Bean was the first teacher who ever made me think for myself. She always wanted to
know what I thought about difficult questions. Was Thomas Jefferson right to buy Louisiana from France?
Why? She expected me to have my own idea. Miss Bean was teaching me that thinking for oneself was the
real key to education.
One day, when I was not paying attention in class, Miss Bean suddenly threw an eraser at me. The eraser
hit me right on the hand and sent my pencil flying. The whole class were very surprised at first, then started
laughing. This event became famous in the school and, because it happened to me, the students wanted to
get to know me. So that's the story of how Dorothy Bean made me her target (靶子), and how I became
just another kid in school.