In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, a novel taught in Mr. Connell’s AP Language and Composition class, there is a character who is born with a cleft palate and later undergoes a successful surgery to correct the disorder. During a discussion of the novel, a student asked what a cleft palate was. Mr. Connell explained it and discussed how it can be surgically corrected at an early age. Later that day, while he was flipping through an issue of Time, he came across an advertisement for Smile Train, an organization that serves to correct cleft palates in children across the world. The ad claims that for $50 one can sponsor medications for a child, and for $250 one can sponsor a surgery for a child. The next day he shared the ad with the class. Immediately, they asked could they sponsor a child! Even though The New York Times calls Smile Train “…one of the most productive charities—dollar for deed—in the world…,” the class decided that it would be prudent to vet the ad’s claims before donating any money. (After all, they have been studying claims and warrants and argumentation and rhetoric for half the year now!) Their research revealed that Smile Train is an accredited charity that has been reviewed and deemed a legitimate organization by the Better Business Bureau. Furthermore, they discovered that the charity uses only 1% of its funds for administrative costs with the rest going toward improving the suffering among children with cleft lips and palates.
As there are nineteen students in the class (Mr. Connell makes twenty), they decided that if each would bring $15, they could both sponsor a surgery AND medications for a child. It is most impressive that through the power of literature, coupled with the magic of sound parenting, that these young men and women have been moved to make a small difference in their world and a life-changing difference in the life of a child. How often does literature move one to act? Hosseini has written a book that has changed a life. Not only have these students’ lives been affected, as they have been introduced to a new world of suffering, conflict, but more importantly, REDEMPTION and ATONEMENT, but this book has moved them to make a small sacrifice that will change a life forever.
Furthermore, upon hearing the news of the class’s sponsoring a child, a grandmother of a student has also sponsored a child! Smile Train has sent the class a thank you letter and a DVD of the Academy Award-winning documentary Smile Pinki, which the class edited and shared with the student body during assembly on Monday, January 30, in an effort to not only spread the good news of the transformative powers of literature but hopefully inspire others to give to this worthy cause. Way to go, students!
