Manifesto for Those Who Learn Differently

I had the misfortune of dealing with "therapists" and "teachers" like Mrs Lauver beginning in the late 1970's. My second grade teacher who  was the poorest excuse for a Teacher abused me both psychologically and verbally and the only reason why any of that stopped was my reading therapist thought my right hand might be broken. Not only did my second grade abuse me but she did that to everyone including her own Husband each time he visited the classroom accompanied by her Dog.  

But my problem was not that I was lazy or stupid or retarded because it turns out I was a bor with a birth defect that made it impossible for 

me to bend my thumb and hold on to a pencil. My right hand used to hurt so badly that I felt like quitting elementary school because it brought me nothing but years of being sent from one therapist or specialist to another. The incident was a culmination of factors including the verbal abuse by the reading specialist I was assigned to because I was slow in writing answers to her questions. 

It wasn't until after a particularly vicious round of her calling me lazy and stupid that she discovered that the birth defect in my right thumb was the culprit not my lack of intelligence. In fact I will mention that I was already a reader of science fiction books, and I wanted to get into the study of Dinosaurs, especially because a valley of Dinosaurs were discovered during the 1700's. 

Author's Note

this story from my childhood is very true. i am not afraid to tackle this subject. i see my experience below as a way to reach out to those younger people who may be going through or maybe they are going through now. i might have to clean up the story a bit but this is the first draft my prose poem dealing with what is definitely a difficult and horrific situation to go through not only for the children but the Parents especially.