Chapter 71 Summary

Christopher boldly states that all of the other children at his school are stupid. He is not supposed to call them stupid, even though that is what they are. He is supposed to say they have learning disabilities and special needs. That statement is stupid in its own right, though, says Christopher, because everyone has learning disabilities—such as learning French and understanding relativity—and everyone has special needs, such as Father, who must carry around little packets of artificial sweetener to put in his coffee. Siobhan says that Christopher must use those terms—special needs and learning disabilities—because people used to call the students at his school “spaz,” “crip,” and “mong,” which are nasty words. He doesn’t see how changing the words has changed anything else, however, because when the students get off of their special bus, children from the...