I Hated School

My last post got me to thinking about my experience in school, one instance in particular.  Before I share that story with you, I have to tell you I hated school.  I don't remember starting out that way, but eventually I ended up hating school.  My concern for Katie was she would end up not liking school either.  I obviously wanted her to learn, but I wanted her to be happy.  I also wanted her to feel safe and be free to be herself.  I wanted her to be understood for whom she is, which is why we chose to send her to Summit Academy.

I have a lot of stories I could share about my education.  One particular situation stands out in my mind and to this day still burns me up.  When I was in the second grade we were working on our writing.  I was writing on the last page in my tablet of paper.  Behind the last page was the thick piece of cardboard.  I was sitting in the back of the room and behind me was an oscillating fan.  Every time it passed by me, my paper would blow forward and I couldn't focus on my writing.  It just kept blowing.  I started to anticipate it and I would hold my paper down.  Now I wasn't working on my writing at all.  I was focused on the fan. It wouldn't stop blowing my paper.  I wanted to get my writing done so I came up with an idea to fix the problem.  I got out my Elmer’s glue and applied a thin line around the card board backing and pressed my paper into the glue.  Problem solved.  I was proud of myself for fixing the problem.  However, I spent all my time fixing the fan problem that I didn't finish my work.  The teacher came back and saw what I did and that I didn't finish my work.  To my surprise she yelled at me for playing around.  I tried to explain why I glued my paper down, but she was too furious to listen.  All of the other kids were looking at me and I was embarrassed.  She wrote a note to my parents, on my paper, that said something to the effect of look what your son did in class.  She then folded the paper and cardboard up and put it in my front shirt pocket.  Have you ever tried to fold a piece of cardboard up?  My shirt pocket stuck out about 6 inches and she made me keep it in my pocket all day. Again, I remember all the kids looking at me laughing because I had this piece of cardboard stuffed in my pocket. 

My entire education experience is full of stories like that.  School wasn't fun for me.  Learning was difficult.  What I did learn was nobody understood how hard it was for me.  I also learned it was easier to be in trouble by being a class clown, than for everyone how dumb I was. 

Even when I was diagnosed with learning disabilities in college, learning was challenging, but I least I knew what the problem was.  I was able to change the way I studied to adapt to how I learned.  I started to have success and I really enjoyed business school.  If only we could have figured it out sooner, how different would my education have been and how different would my life be.  That's my wish for my daughter, that her educational experience will be different than mine.  I already know it is better because of Summit Academy.