I was diagnosed as LD when I was a pre-teen. I had never like school and had a great deal of trouble paying attention. That being said, I read at three and always was hungry for knowledge. Once I was diagnosed I was immediately placed into a classroom filled with drug addicts, and people with major mental problems. There was also a young man in my class with Downs. I don't look down on these people, but failed and still failed to see where I fit in. I was branded with a label of intellectual inadequacy that has haunted me my entire life. In so many words, our teachers told us to be prepared for working poor type jobs. I'm all for supporting the working poor, but I found it hurtful being told I was too dumb to do anything that required schooling. I remember at one point being shuttled somewhere on the good old "short bus." I finally said to my teacher," this is humiliating." I refused to get on the bus again.
Because my parents saw I was artistic and supported that,I ended up with a scholarship to a conservatory. I didn't last however because I walked into class every day believing I was the dumbest person there. I left class and cried in my bed nearly every day if I made the smallest mistake. Perhaps I could have reacted differently, but at 18 I only knew what I had been shown by my school and that was this: out of 700 kids in my class, I was one of the least capable 10.
I think the worst moment though was after my college try. I decided to attend trade school and the school required a Test of adult basic education. For the first time, I learned how to use certain punctuation that I should've been taught years and years back. There was a math section and I've always been horrible at math, so my parents hired a tutor. After, she taught me for six months,( and I was actually ABLE to learn), she shared with me that I had learned 8 years of math in six months. "What do you mean?" I replied. To which she responded by telling me that I had graduated high school on a fourth grade-A FOURTH GRADE math level.
I supposed the moral of my story is please be an advocate for your child by not trusting the school system so easily. Being "classified" can be damaging.
Last edited by missyT; 12/21/11 04:41 AM.