Turtles Aren’t Slow They’re Special
I was never really an honor roll student. Bringing home C’s was an accomplishment.
My parents finally accepted the fact I was average early on and learned not to expect much of me. I think they were just relieved the short bus wasn’t pulling up in front of our house every morning and my mom didn’t have to take responsibility for smoking while pregnant (or that time they dropped me on my head).
They tried though. My mom always worked with me on homework, even when she wanted to beat her head against the wall because I didn’t understand that the word “sale” and “sail” were different.
I clearly remember our reading group names in second grade. Mine was the “turtles.” The better readers were in the “cougars” or the “jaguars.” See anything wrong with those titles? Nothing like labeling a kid slow in the second grade. Ever heard of self-fulfilling prophecy?
Story of my life. I was always in the lower class no matter what the subject. I had some pretty poor teachers along the way and some pretty good teachers. The poor ones let me slide through, which hurt more than it helped in the end. You would have thought the good ones would have noticed something was wrong, but most of them were too busy making sure all the students liked them.
College was a very different story. In some ways I excelled and in others I failed. When you are presented with subjects you truly enjoy learning it’s amazing how well you can do. But then came that one requirement I dreaded…college algebra.
I successfully failed 9 times, but before I made it to lucky number 9 there was a revelation.
One of the other general education requirements was an intro Economics course. It really was an interesting class and I did fine until I turned in a workbook full of hand-drawn graphs, which apparently were totally backwards. I didn’t see it, but the professor did. The next thing I know I’m in the learning center getting tested for dyslexia.
Most cases get caught early on, but I squeaked by. It just took me longer than most students to comprehend what I was learning. My brain sees something one way and I have to arrange it into the way I’ve memorized as being correct, before I can do anything with it.
Turns out I’m not slow, I’m special.
As you can imagine this has turned into quite the family joke. Anytime I mix something up it gets referenced. Like abdominal snowman instead of abominable snowman.
Turtles and Cougars? Damn! We had a colour system at our school… so I don’t think that was so bad, but then again, I was at the other end of the spectrum you’re describing, so who am I to say?
Education is such a complicated issue. For every kid who is squeaking by because they just don’t care enough to try harder there’s some like you who are being missed, and others who aren’t being challenged nearly enough. I don’t know what the solution is, short of a massive increase in the number of teachers (to get ratios in the 1:5 or maybe 1:10 range) and a shift to IEP (individual education plans) for each kid.
(And, if you were my sister, I’d say “your ride is here” every time I saw a short bus, FYI.)
IEP’s for every child is really the Montessori way. Each child works at his/her own pace and moves ahead when ready. Sadly, I can’t afford to send my kids to Montessori so I struggle to bite my tongue while my kids just sort of coast along, doing what’s required but never selected for enrichment or recognized as brilliant. Ohhh, I feel a post coming on….
It’s a shame it took someone so long to figure out. I’m surprised you were even able to pull off C’s.
I was kidding about the drinking while my mom was pregnant with me. So I edited that part and instead included that time she dropped me on my head!
Is that better mom?
I loved the way you wrote that. It could have been really sad but was totally funny instead and yet still made the same point. Now that’s talent!
Great writing! The animal group names just boggle my mind, I remember those groupings from when I was in school too.
I think is is mind-blowing that it took so long for you to get a diagnosis, wow.
Sci-fi Dad said:
(And, if you were my sister, I’d say “your ride is here” every time I saw a short bus, FYI.)
man he cracks me up! but he is so right about the IEP’s, one of the best parts of home educating for me.
You got me with this one. As a teacher, how many Fenicles did I let slip through the cracks?
Wow. All those years, struggling? Poor young you. I do admire your humor (now) in dealing with it.
Oh, and don’t all parents drop their kids on their heads?
Go, Turtles. *snort*
Wow. Yep, I dropped one of mine too. They don’t call him a turtle though, at least I don’t think they do, I guess I should look into that.
Thank goodness some prof figured you out though. How the heck did it take so long though? Poor you. But look how proud of yourself you should be! It’s very very very impressive.
Sorry about that, I didn’t mean poor you, I sorta meant poor children who are so good they get through the system when they should be getting help….and why the heck aren’t all kids getting the help they need? So I guess I meant poor kids, instead of ‘poor you’. Sigh. This is getting worse, sorta like one of those voice messages you wish you could go back and erase.
Damn. They should have caught that earlier. They really should have.
Daggum, you think the system will figure that out. So sorry it took so many years for you. And now you’re a writer!! Ironic. Loved the turtle, cougar descriptions!
Maybe they should institute econ into all pre-k classes!!
Can’t believe no one noticed! But now what is MY excuse for being crap at math?
Poor You… I can not beleive the audacity to make reading groups such as the jaguars, the cougars and the turtles… What a smack in the face to a child…What lousy educators…
My daughter takes school to heart … And she feels she is letting us, the school and her teacher down when she does not undertand something…
I make a point of telling my daughter, that it is a teacher’s job to teach you… and if you do not understand it is their fault… as they have to reach every child….
I am so sorry that it took so long for the system to realize how it failed you…
Thankfully somebody finally did catch on. I was in my 40s before finding out why I ’spelled funny’ and read ’strangely’:)
It makes me so angry. If children aren’t good at written language or math in school, they don’t do well. Yet these same children often have other skills - motor skills, social skills, artistic talents - that will serve them well in life. My brother was dyslexic and did terrible in school. He felt so bad about it. I KNOW he has always felt stupid. Yet because he has a great mechanical aptitude and is one of the most reliable, hardworking people, he always has and always will make more money than me, his college-educated sister. Argh.
This is great…makes me and my sister Marge feel better..both of us suffer from learning issues. I’m glad there is a better system in place, which get the problems identified and addressed sooner.
This is a true and funny story even now for my sister Marge age 60 and me 61…we can rarely get out of a parking ramp the first time…and I’m not kidding..then we laugh so hard we really get confused and it goes down from there..oh well, if you can’t laugh you’ll cry and I’ve done enough of that in my life. So when we see parking in a ramp we already know what to expect and just enjoy the giggle….
Dorothy from grammology
call your grandma