Still Bitter 2.
I was, and to a small extent still am, affected by the learning disorder dyspraxia (and to a lesser extent dyslexia), a condition affecting fine motor skills and co-ordination. This basically meant my hand writing was very messy, difficult to read, and often, full of mistakes. Most teachers would be ok with this, understanding I had a medically diagnosed condition.

Not Mrs Coe. Mrs Coe taught Spanish, which I was average at. She would always have a go about my writing, not understanding that it wasn’t a jumbled on purpose. I was mostly ok with it, hey it was nothing compared to the stick I got for being a geeky lad who didn’t like sports. Sadly, she took it too far. A piece of home work I had done was returned with the note “I’m sorry I cannot read this, please re-do for next lesson, word-process if possible.” I went to do it on the computer, but alas, my sister was working on it. I wrote the work very neatly, and added a note apologising it wasn’t typed, but I couldn’t get on the computer. Imagine my confusion a few days later when my name was called out on the central detention list (45 mins after school, supervised by a member of staff, one step down from suspension) in the morning assembly.

Turns out my homework wasn’t good enough, and rather then a 10 minuet or half hour detention fitting to failing to hand in homework, the bitch put me in central detention. I went to my head of year, who was rather fond of me. She went totally berserk. Like a menopausal Spartan. Mrs Coe was called to her room, and apparently, the shouting of my head of year carried rather far. I was excused from detention.

Happy ending? Not yet. A few days latter I saw sat in Spanish, thinking what to write. I tend to touch my chin when I think, so my left hand was on my chin, my right hand tapping my pen on my page. Out of the blue, Mrs Coe glares up at me and says. “Chris, maybe if you put your left hand on your paper your handwriting wouldn’t be such an unreadable mess.” The whole class were in a shocked silence. I wasn’t popular, I used to wear huge glasses (hurrah for contacts!) and was in all honesty, different. The class was full of lads who usually didn’t mind taking the piss out of anything I did. But they all just looked shocked, it was like criticising a guy in a wheel chair for having poor tap dancing skills. She crossed a line, it was picking on a disability. I was a very well mannered lad, and I respected teachers, so my response was pretty out of character. “Maybe if I was writing that would be an issue.” The ugly hags face fell further then usual, she looked flustered. “W..Well get writing!” she shouted. Unable to think of anything else to say I shouted, “I WILL!” and started scribbling some load of badly written Spanish bollocks.

Looking back, I wish I’d told her to fuck off, or possibly reported it. I wasn’t looking for a free ride or cashing in on my dyspraxia, just a fair chance. Hitting out at a child who already lacked confidence over a disability? I guess she had some issues of her own to act out on her students.

6 years on, I still feel angry.
(Mong goose, Fri 30 Jan 2009, 1:15, 2 replies)

When I was at school, teachers were free to thump kids with learning problems.
Back then, if a child was unco-ordinated or wrote untidily they were seen as lazy or just insolent.

They were slapped hard round the legs or hit on the hand or behind with rulers or gym shoes, right in front of the class.

In my school this happened every day. Being dyspraxic, I used to cop it a lot for untidy handwriting, along with the dyslexic kids who wrote beautifully neatly but in jumbled words.

This was 40-odd years ago, when specific learning problems weren't recognised.
It was obvious to me at 8 or 9 though that certain kids were being belted for laziness when they were doing their best, which I believe makes me cleverer than those violent, highly-educated, bullying bastards of teachers.

30 years later I was diagnosed with dyspraxia as a mature student and given help for it at university. Yay for a free laptop!

Now I'm training to teach adult literacy. We come across a lot of people with similar experiences to mine.

Every time I see someone struggle to read, write or do maths, and finally get it right, I remember those ignorant teachers of my childhood.

You were wrong, you sadistic creeps, and I was only a little kid, and I was right.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Fri 30 Jan 2009, 4:11, closed)

I have the same condtion as you,
I had to tech myself to write again at age twelve as my efforts were totaly illegible.

BTW get yourself a copy of 'read&write' its a spell checking program designed to think like dyslexics
( willenium Fist bump for verification, Fri 30 Jan 2009, 9:34, closed)