The One That Almost Got Away

A Troubling time for me. Please don't mistake this, as a pity write, from me.

You labelled me

A failure

Telling me

No needing to take

Certain classes.

As this would be

An exercise

In futility

On my part.

Even after

A battery of academic tests

You tell my parents

To keep the results

A secret.

Wrongly believing

I would become

An obnoxious prig

Upon learning the results.

True is

Barely passed grade 6

And grade 7 was

Becoming a carbon copy

Of 6.

Never mind

The emotional baggage

I carried with me.

Manifesting itself

In constant skipping

Taking entire days off

And the dread

I felt.

Yet

I could not explain

When asked

Why.

Only response

From me

Was a painful silence

Which filled the room.

Broken

By the Principal

As he threatening me

With juvenile detention

For my actions.

Instead

I served several weeks

Of internal detention

With the threat of

Juvenile detention

Hanging over my head.

As for

Those test results

They showed

I was a gifted student

With multiple learning disabilities.

Some

Very severe.

Who

Manage to pass

Through the cracks

Of the education system

Until then.

Author's Note

These events occurred, during the school year of 1983-84. I have only told edited versions of this period of my life, with a select group of people. This is, the closest I have come to the whole truth. For I know, I have forgotten some details and others have been magnified, with the passage of time.

Reviews

[TL Boehm]

Eloquent. Odd how many highly intelligent people I know also have what are considered learning disabilities - I think its that some brains are just wired differently and our limited concept of how a person should learn is skewed.

[therisa]

Thank you, Tammy. Wish that my generation is the last one, to be failed by the educational system, but I know this is still happening today. Parents need to be vocal, in demanding the best, for their children.