Battling Dyslexia in Grade School (A turning point through reading)
Elementary school remained a challenge for me. Mrs. Smith had reinforced that the way I looked at things in life were not necessarily wrong, just different. It was both a comfort and a curse having your mother as a teacher where you went to school. When I was legitimately sick, the kids would oh and ah that I was trying to manipulate my mom out of doing my schoolwork. No matter the situation, kids are mean. Teasing and bullying can be worse when your mom is right there with you. Not to mention when she is urging everyone to act as though my educational challenges were merely a behavioral problem, instead of a diagnosable issue which needed accommodations. Educationally challenged students bear the brunt of much ridicule.
Please do not misconstrue what I am trying to communicate here. My parents did the best they could, considering the available resources at the time. My mom's only goal was to merely keep me in as normal a learning environment as possible. I appreciate how much trouble she went through to ensure I was not classified as learning disabled. There were no resources for kids like me at that time in our States educational history.
One of my biggest challenges during this time was reading. I hated it. Between battling double vision and dyslexia, my head always ached from the strain on my eyes and brain. The words rarely focused, and then the letters were never in the right order. I continued to see them differently from anyone else in the class. The teachers would spend as much extra time with me as they could spare, but they had classes to run. And don't even get me started on math. I hate math now. But attempting to learn times tables, long division, and then having the audacity to introduce letters and complicated equations to the mix? I hated math then too. I know mom wished these types of books and tools were available back then.
Mom decided to try yet another inventive approach with me. In the mall in Longview, Texas, there used to be a bookstore called Walden Books. It was a moderately sized shop. Nothing like Barnes and Nobles or Books a Million are today. It was just she and I. We had lunch and she led me into this shop. She knelt down next to me and said, "Go find something you are willing to try and read". My heart sank into my toes. But she was adamant. I walked around looking at different sections. Nothing got my attention until I saw a book with three figures surrounding an anvil with a sword plunged tip first into the center of it. Two men and a midget. I came to learn the midget was a dwarf. But the sword was shining, like it was made of pure light. I picked it up and thumbed through it. The only pictures were with the titles of each chapter. Mom said no comics. I read the back, and it seemed like a good adventure story. If you are trying to get your struggling kids into reading, what better way than with a swashbuckling adventure. Mom found me reading the back cover, snatched it up, and took it to the register. She decided if I would read the back, it was worth a shot.
This all happened on a Saturday afternoon. By Monday afternoon, I had finished it. Mom was skeptical. She flipped through the pages and asked me a few questions about parts of the story. She was satisfied I had read the book. I begged to go back to the store for the next one. The Sword of Shannara was the first in a trilogy. But Longview was an hour away, so I had to wait until the following Saturday to get the next one. I read every book of his I could find. I was enraptured with his story telling. After those books I discovered Tolkien. And everyone knows of his success. The movies are great, but if you really want the whole story, read the books. The movies are a good approximation, but as with every good book turned movie, much has to be cut out for time's sake.
If your find your kids are into these stories, introduce them to R. A. Salvatore. He has a series with over thirty books dedicated to a dark elf named Drizzt. I am re reading these books today.
Drizzt books by R. A. Salvatore
I think this was the major turning point in my education. It inspired me to embrace the possibility of learning other things because it helped me to train my brain to concentrate. Finding a genre which held my attention for more than a few moments at a time was a milestone for me.
If your kids are battling with learning shortcomings of any kind, finding a book capable of igniting their passion can turn their despair against education into a vessel of learning.
Take them to a bookstore or flip through the genres on Amazon. See if a cover jumps out at them and let them try to read the summary. The difference this one book made in my life has been profound. b
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