(story review)

Anna Khoma’s short story ‘Light’ was awarded a special distinction of inclusive short stories ‘Terra inclusion.’

The main plot line is a story, from the first person, of a chemistry teacher about one of his students. It is clear from the first lines that the student is a girl with a disability; she studies separately from her peers (the teacher conducts lessons only for her). The girl’s name is Anna. She is twelve years old and hardly ever speaks. But, as it is true, the teacher notices that it is not necessary to talk and hear to communicate, but listening is a must.

Although the teacher spends only one lesson with Anna (only forty-five minutes) a week, he is obviously very attentive to his student and understands her very well. He constantly compares her with his children and this also suggests his benevolent attitude towards Anna. The teacher understands very well how to communicate with Anna, how best to give her tasks, notices any of her reactions. And although the line ‘I’m just a teacher’ is constantly found in the text, in my opinion, he is a very good, sensitive teacher, a real professional.

From this rather short story, we learn about how he got to the school where he used to work, and how he was treated badly at his previous job, although he behaved very humanely and professionally in that situation. This fact shows us once again that he is a very good person.

Short dialogues, memories, some facts allow us to see a whole segment of life, and to understand how people treat children with disabilities and inclusive education at school. I liked, first of all, that any line of the story conveys an emotional atmosphere. These are not dry facts. While reading, you don’t notice that the story is coming to an end. It’s as if nothing particularly happens, and reading is not boring at all, but, on the contrary, very interesting.

Erich Fromm’s statement is very aptly used in the text, which says that “Cruelty is an attempt to find out what a person is made of, especially such a special person. An attempt to disassemble it into parts, because there is no other way. Apart from cruelty and love.” The author notes that it is difficult to love, it is easier to be cruel. The world chooses the second, mostly the second, but the main character, as a light knight, opposes this world, he simply loves his students.

In my opinion, the story ends both strangely and not. It seems to me that the author conveys the entire spectrum of Anna’s feelings and emotions, how she perceives the world around her. It is very difficult for her, but she still reaches out her hands to this world and. step by step, overcomes her fear and moves forward. I really wanted the world to reach out to her and hug her.