Looks Are Deceiving (April 4, 2018)

With each deleted letter

She typed

On the computer

Her ire does grows

As the bitter flow

Of self-anger

And hatred course

Through her soul

Like a corrosive acid.

Destroying

Whatever self-confidence

And self-esteem

With each recalled

Memory.

Relentlessly teased

And ridiculed

On her writing skills

And spelling ability

By teachers and students.

Labelling her

Slow and lazy

At her incomplete answers

To her assign

Written core work.

And yet

If they asked

The same question

Verbally.

She dazzled them

With her detailed response

To the questions

Before her.

A faint ghost

Of a smile

Graced her face.

In recalling

One particular conversation

With a high school teacher

Regarding her planned

University study.

Questioning her ability

To understand and process

An entirely new language

And grammar system.

The teacher’s words

Waved before her

Like a matador’s cape

Inciting the hurt bull

As it charges forward.

Refusing to believe

Or to listen

To the words

That have boxed her

Inside a protective

But restrictive bubble.

Ironically

The truth is

It was English

And not Russian

That tripped her up.

As she struggled

With the essay

Driven courses.

Earning her dad’s

Undivided pride

And love.

In accepting

From the university president

Her B.A. degree.

Therisa © 2018

Author’s note: For the record, I have been moved in and out of special education classes, starting in the fall of 1975, when I started kindergarten, in a rural southern Ontario village. Until the end of my university classes, in August 1994, when I wrote my last exam to gain my BA, from Carleton University. During the school year of 1983-84, I was officially diagnosed, as having multiple learning disabilities, which affected all aspects of my life. The irony here, is the school officials told my parents, not to share the content of the education assessment with me.

Afraid, I would use it as a justification to slack off, in my studies. Never realizing, the validation that the report gave me, in regards to the earlier report cards and experiences, which scarred me. I wasn’t a lazy student, but one that the school system was failing to meet my educational needs.

If you asked me, what does a typical person with learning disability looks like, I would have to give you, a blank look. As there is no one look physically to describe a person with a learning disability.

For more information about learning disability, please click on the following link: https://ldaamerica.org/types-of-learning-disabilities/