Friday, August 7, 2015

They survived it...I wanted to barf

The 6th grader and the 9th grader had their orientation days today. The hub accompanied G to middle school. We wanted to make sure the teachers she had were going to be the right ones to deal with her learning differences. More on that later. S wanted ot go without a parent like lots of her friends, so we let her. I saw the friendly faces directing traffic towards the drop off area and I felt a little better. Then I wasn't sure quite where to stop and drop her since there were a couple different faculty waiting with umbrellas. "Just let me off here...Mom, let me off here...please just stop the car and let me off here." So I did. I chuckled a little and had a few tears also. No boohooing, just melancholy. She was quite excited when I picked her up. Pleased with teachers and with the amount of friends in class. G seemed to be pleased enough. She was reunited with a good friend who changed schools their last year of elementary school. For the most part, all of her friends are on other teams. It is hard for her and hard for me although I have to fake excitement and enthusiasm.

Now is the part of the post where I step on my soapbox for a minute. I have to clear my chest about something before I hit the red and explode like an a-bomb. I have an acquaintance in my life who has it in their head that dyslexia=dumb...dumb as a box of rocks and someone to be pitied. They know about as much about dyslexia as I do about nuclear engineering, which is nada. The sad thing is that the majority of the educators in our schools only have the basic knowledge of what it is in terms of stereotypes: poor spelling and letter reversal. It is not their fault. Until recently, our state has not even recognized it as a problem even though it effects 15-20% of students. That is not a small number. It is so much more complicated than that. What it also can be categorized as is a gift. A unique way of learning that most regular brains are not completely capable of. Now ask G right now if she thinks it is a gift and I imagine you'll get a big sigh and a "Who told you I have it?". We are not ashamed of it. At this time in her life, she has yet to embrace the fact that there are good parts to it. That part will come soon enough. We have made it our job to educate ourselves on the subject and be as knowledgeable as we can to get her the best education possible. This first year in middle school is going to be a struggle. Not because she isn't intelligent...couldn't be farther from the truth. She is as sharp as a tack and so very gifted. She just has to learn in a completely different way. So, if you hear someone speaking out of ignorance on this subject, tell them to educate themsleves. My daughter doesn't deserve special treatment. She just wants an educational system that understands her. That isn't too much to ask.









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