At first glance, Max seemed like any other fourth-grader—shy, a little scuffed up, but otherwise unremarkable. But his teachers soon realized something was deeply wrong. Every day after class, he would hurry to the back of the schoolyard, dig a hole, and bury something before smoothing the dirt over like nothing had happened.
When one teacher finally followed him, she was stunned to see him tucking his schoolbooks into the ground. “Why are you doing this?” she asked gently.
Max hesitated before confessing the painful truth: his father, when drunk, would destroy his homework and yell at him to focus on chores instead of studying. “But I love school,” he said softly. “I don’t want to stop.”
The teacher’s heart shattered. This child had been quietly protecting his education, one buried book at a time. She wrapped him in a hug, vowing to ensure he’d never have to hide his love of learning again.
