So this might seem a bit ambiguous but we are pursuing getting an IEP (originally it was going to be for the scholarship money) but really mostly people need IEP's for their public school. We aren't ever planning on attending public school in our city.
My public school experience, as I reflect, was, to say the least, rather horrendous. I had a great deal working against me and I think, in retrospect, that I'm lucky in a sense that I wasn't ever put into a learning disabled class (which also probably would have worked against me). It's not that I had a learning difference or disablity (dont know). But I flat out didn't care and no one ever made me care about school. Nobody gave me the least bit of notice unless I was doing something I shouldn't have been. If I think about all those days, all that time lost where I could have been enjoying learning instead of just trying to get through another day--it all seems so wasteful.
Luckily, I finally taught myself to read the summer before fourth grade. Before that I didn't care and didn't want to try. That summer before fourth grade I was staying with my grandparents. My grandmother had retired from teaching elementary school (fourth grade?) the year before and had many books in her garage. My grandmother was taking a nap and I was bored so I went out to look for a picture book.
I searched all over the garage but there were no picture books in any of the boxes. The only book I could find was what I considered to be a big-kid book (boring old words and few pictures). But that book had a beautiful horse on the front and I loved horses. So I settled for that one. I took it and laid on the bed and did the best I could to read it all because of the beautiful horse on the front.
It was a good book and I couldn't put it down. It took me about four hours but I read the whole thing (it was probably 30 pages or so). The words made pictures in my head and it was a wonderful experience. From then on I was a reader.
Yet school was still ridiculous to me but in fifth grade I finally had a good teacher (bless you Mrs. Jackson).
So that was a good year and then in sixth grade I went to middle school and by the end of seventh grade I had read every biography about girls and women and many other books in the whole school library. That's all I wanted to do - read read read.
I realized at some point that I read more than most people. I still do. I regularly max out my library card and that isn't to say that I read every book word for word (there are a lot of amazingly bad books out there). I do use a lot of books for reference. I favor non-fiction and I like things that inspire me artistically. I do read fiction on occasion but it has to be well written. If it is well written- it changes me.
I have been told by some that I'm a good writer. In a sense this makes it even harder that my kid has dyslexia. Language is an area that I consider myself to be successful. It's something I want to share. I just hope one day that we will be able to share it in a meaningful way. If not, then there are still other things we can share.
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