| Dyslexia Parents Resource |
Committed
to providing information and advice for parents whose children are, or may be,
dyslexic.
Editor:
John Bradford
 |
| |
 I
am in one of those one-person desks made out of metal with the wooden top and
seat, some still have the hole in the top right corner for holding ink bottles.
It is hot, there is no air conditioning in this small Central Texas
school.
The windows are open and the chirping birds outside are interrupted
by the chalk squeaks on the black board as the teacher spells out the writing
assignment.
"One page before the bell."
I know the topic but,
it doesn't really matter, I know I won't do well.
My pencil has only
been sharpened a couple of times but the eraser is all but gone and the metal
end has been squeezed together to force what little eraser is left, to bulge past
the metal edge.
I am concentrating hard very hard.
I start
the first sentence but I know I can't spell some of the words, even some simple
ones.
I reword the sentence and try again several times but know some
words are still wrong.
By now I have erased some places to the point
the paper is about to be torn by the metal on the pencil.
I peel the
metal edge back on my pencil with my teeth to expose more eraser.
If
I am careful it may last through the class...
I reword the sentence
over and over in my mind, somehow I have to make this work.
I bite the
knuckle on my right hand hard, sometimes the pain will make the confusion go away...
The teeth marks will last for days.
I concentrate even harder as I do
I grip the pencil harder and harder till cramps fill my hand.
Still
I continue on...
The ringing bell does not bring the normal relief I
feel when class is over.
My hand is aching, I have completed almost
half a page...
I try to read over the sloppy writing quickly to look
for mistakes...
I know what I wanted to say, I knew the subject, probably
better than the teacher, but I now realize this paper makes no sense, even to
me.
Head down, I turn in my paper, glancing up only to see the teacher
frown in disgust at the look of the messy page.
I want to scream and
do, only it is a silent scream of anguish and despair...
Daniel
Willemin
E-mail: danwill1@mail.ev1.net
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