I have been meaning to write about this since long but wasn’t able to decide on the form of the series. Finally decided to start without much planning.
The trigger was a visit to my home at Shrirampur a couple of days ago.
While trying to find bits and pieces of childhood memories I found my Xth standard English notebook, it survived because I used it for writing cricket scores.
I studied in an English Medium school which a couple of friends confirmed messed both our English and Marathi. Anyway that’s not the topic, I have attached a couple of photos with the remarks by the teacher. “Very poor handwriting”, spelling was bad too and (essay) writing skills worse.
Parents, few teachers used to say I am clever/intelligent which I knew but that didn’t show up in normally acceptable ways (marks) which used to make me feel lost, insulted, confused. But one thing for sure was that I knew I was different, way different than everyone else around.
I struggled in school in certain ways, sailed 11th and 12th easily, and did pretty well in Engineering (with certain hurdles still).
That continued all the way in my following career, the feeling of being “different” bothered me until I was able to convert that in to my strengths. Much later in life I was able to identify what it was, again accidentally.
I am sure you must have seen many such people (school friends, relatives) who are like this, many are labeled lazy, dumb, or even worse. Usually they drop out of schools around 8/9th standards. Some get into bad company / develop bad habits.
I would be sharing such experiences, in an attempt to create awareness in my limited friend list - hoping this could result in helping even a single child - would be good.
The trigger was a visit to my home at Shrirampur a couple of days ago.
While trying to find bits and pieces of childhood memories I found my Xth standard English notebook, it survived because I used it for writing cricket scores.
I studied in an English Medium school which a couple of friends confirmed messed both our English and Marathi. Anyway that’s not the topic, I have attached a couple of photos with the remarks by the teacher. “Very poor handwriting”, spelling was bad too and (essay) writing skills worse.
That just brought back memories which I had buried down in dark corners of my mind; such remarks were not uncommon for me in certain subjects (Marathi/Hindi/English/History and even Maths). I was traumatized by English then and lived the year in constant fear of failing in a English and History), and anything that needed rote memorization of definitions.
Parents, few teachers used to say I am clever/intelligent which I knew but that didn’t show up in normally acceptable ways (marks) which used to make me feel lost, insulted, confused. But one thing for sure was that I knew I was different, way different than everyone else around.
I struggled in school in certain ways, sailed 11th and 12th easily, and did pretty well in Engineering (with certain hurdles still).
That continued all the way in my following career, the feeling of being “different” bothered me until I was able to convert that in to my strengths. Much later in life I was able to identify what it was, again accidentally.
Dyslexia, as it is commonly known, is actually one of several Specific Learning Difficulties/Disabilities (SpLD) that about 10% (or even more) children have. I had Dyslexia, Dyscalculia and Dysgraphia all with mild severity, I suffered a bit but didn’t break down as there was no social/academic pressure as in today’s times, but also saw a loved one severely affected by it.
I am sure you must have seen many such people (school friends, relatives) who are like this, many are labeled lazy, dumb, or even worse. Usually they drop out of schools around 8/9th standards. Some get into bad company / develop bad habits.
I would be sharing such experiences, in an attempt to create awareness in my limited friend list - hoping this could result in helping even a single child - would be good.
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