Lou
I brought my camera to every lesson. I went through the memory card and removed everything. I charged the battery. I zipped it up in my counterfeit Nike bag.
I gave the camera to Lou. I taught him how to take a picture. How to hold it steady. How to zoom in. How to move the angle of the lens so he capture different hues. How to view and image. How to delete an image.
I stressed, again and again, that we could take as many pictures as we wanted. Anything and everything that caught his eye. If it looked cool, take a picture. If it looked weird, ESPECIALLY if it looked weird, take a picture. If you didn't know the name for something, take a picture. It wouldn't matter, I explained, if it didn't come out perfect, if the image was blurry. Sometimes, we take the best pictures by accident, and the best pictures don't always resemble what the eye registers.
Now, I took a great deal of pride in teaching the kid how to do something useful. To my mind, learning to take a good picture is as essential to life in our time as learning how to use a telephone.
But it was a trick, really.
I had him taking pictures because I believed-and still do-that as many associations as he could make with the time we spent together, the more likely he was to remember the time we spent together, which is to say he would get more out of our time together in the long run.
He'd take a picture of the old fruit stand across the street from the Burger King, and he'd think of that picture, occasionally, whenever he caught a glimpse of the real thing. And that would bring to mind pressing the button. And that would bring to mind the questions I always asked.
"What are we standing on now, Lou?"
"The sidewalk."
"What are going to go do, Lou?"
"We are going to cross the street."
"Where are we now, Lou?"
"At an intersection."
"Good boy. What are we going to step off of, Lou?"
"The curb?"
And in that way, I tried to get him talking about Dahu. His town. His world. Noun by noun. It's not that I was drilling him, constantly. But I'd keep at the same questions. And, eventually, those nouns would work their way into his everyday speech.
