My school days were not a pleasurable experience. During my journey through the school structure my education rather than improve deteriorated. My memories of school were that life was an odd existence I remember that I was always in trouble for some reason or another. I remember the negative teacher comments, such as lazy, could do better, more effort is required, easily distracted to name a few. I can also remember my teachers used to get very angry because I could not spell, or when I was writing a sentence I would mix up letters and words, and as if to further annoy. I would make similar errors with numbers.
I am sure that these critical teacher observations were because I could read reasonably well, so the mistakes I made when writing was a result of my lazy attitude. Therefore in the minds of my parents and teachers, the reason I could not write or spell properly was because I too lazy to concentrate.
Today I am aware that I am dyslexic and that I am a visual and Kinaesthetic learner. I am also aware that when I read, before I can fully grasp the context of the paragraph I will need to read each sentence five or six times; before I fully understand the meaning of the text.
The flip side of this situation is as such that whenever and whatever I am doing. If it is a new learning experience I will need several rehearsals, so as to visualize the requirement or technique. Once the new subject/experience is embedded within my mind, I can recall the whole experience as a clear concise visualisation.
I know that I have poor short term memory, however by contrast I can vividly remember in image form of events and important facts from long ago. Petty (2004) suggests that we store in our brains material that we use frequently and recently.
When I was younger I found writing very difficult. Conversely I remember once filling a full essay book with a story about a school trip. To cut a long story short myself and five other lads spent a week with the RAF, (instead of going to France with the rest of my school year) camping, canoeing, climbing and things of that nature. Inspired by events and experiences I wrote my story within an essay book. Amazingly for my efforts I won a prize and furthermore my essay was put forward as a potential entry for a national writing competition.
Disappointingly and at that particular juncture of my life no real surprise, my work was withdrawn from the competition by the headmaster. Furthermore the ever caring headmaster took it upon himself, to explain during school assembly his reasoning. I remember well his words were “although your efforts gave a good account of your adventurous week, your handwriting and spelling are appalling.
With pleasure I left school with little in the way of qualifications or confidence.
I still to this day treasure the thought of my prize. It was a small framed photograph of stalagmites and stalactites from the Blue John Mine Castleton. It had a label on the back which read for the best written work on the castleton journey.
My School Years 1963 to 1974 RIP
Ironically after a long period of absence (36 years) I have returned to education as a teacher. How this turn of events evolved as little relevance to this blog, what is relevant is that education has radically changed.
The care and understanding that I received during my teacher training, is replicated within the teaching and learning environments, that I now work, teaching today is second to none.
I sincerely hope the content of my blog alleviates the readers negative memories of education. And for those who have a learning barriers/challenges such as dyslexia will give education a second chance.
The aim of this blog is to highlight the modern education methods and resources, that both the learner and teacher share in the modern teaching and learning environments.
As a matter of course I continually review each blog for mistakes. Unfortunately due to word blindness I don't always see the mistakes on the first view, or the second for that matter, it can take as many as twelve edits before I iron out all my mistakes.
Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.
Bright Solutions for Dyslexia (2009) suggest dyslexics have other gifts and talents such as - artistic, athletic, and mechanical gifts; 3-D visualization ability; musical talent; creative problem solving skills; and intuitive people skills.
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