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, Reply)