"I wish my parents had you when I was in school." I hear that phrase a lot and everytime it breaks my heart. That is right up there with, "I wish I knew what dyslexia really was when I first started teaching". I wish both of those things too.
Yesterday my new furniture was delivered to the office and one of the two delivery guys saw my name plate outside my door so he asked me, "What does The Dyslexia Spot do?" I told him I do mostly advocacy work for kids in school, and explained what that involved, and told him I also did tutoring, screening and consultancy work. He asked me a few other questions and then talked to me about Albert Einstein and some other famous dyslexics. I was wondering what made him so curious about my business and then he started talking about school when he was growing up and how he was called lazy, and how stupid he felt, and then said those 11 words, I wish my parents had you when I was in school. My heart started to break. Stories like that are all too common and I know each one of you reading can relate. The good news is, things are changing. Teachers come up to me often and ask me how they can learn more about dyslexia and that is a big first step.
One of my major resolutions for 2017 is to hold more teacher trainings. My new office has a great new training area so be on the look out for those and some parent trainings as well.
Hopefully together, no other generation ever needs to say, I was told I was lazy and I felt stupid ever again.
Yesterday my new furniture was delivered to the office and one of the two delivery guys saw my name plate outside my door so he asked me, "What does The Dyslexia Spot do?" I told him I do mostly advocacy work for kids in school, and explained what that involved, and told him I also did tutoring, screening and consultancy work. He asked me a few other questions and then talked to me about Albert Einstein and some other famous dyslexics. I was wondering what made him so curious about my business and then he started talking about school when he was growing up and how he was called lazy, and how stupid he felt, and then said those 11 words, I wish my parents had you when I was in school. My heart started to break. Stories like that are all too common and I know each one of you reading can relate. The good news is, things are changing. Teachers come up to me often and ask me how they can learn more about dyslexia and that is a big first step.
One of my major resolutions for 2017 is to hold more teacher trainings. My new office has a great new training area so be on the look out for those and some parent trainings as well.
Hopefully together, no other generation ever needs to say, I was told I was lazy and I felt stupid ever again.
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