I am not lazy. Please stop telling my parents I am lazy, scattered and unorganised. I really am trying to keep everything on track. I don’t know why I can’t keep up with the class. When you just read from the book I start to fall asleep or I end up looking out the window. Then you shout at me to pay attention. Remember the last parent/teacher meeting when you told my parents that I wasn’t that bright and college wasn’t for everyone. That hurt because I think I am as smart as everyone else in the class. It just takes me a bit longer to get there and process information.
Last week when you asked a question and everyone put up their hands to answer and I was writing. I was writing down my thoughts, so I could answer the question and not forget anything. Asking me to answer and then rolling your eyes and sighing dramatically when I couldn’t get the answer out quickly enough isn’t helpful or very fair.
It’s really upsetting because I am trying. I like the subject but if you don’t give me a chance, why should I even bother? Listening to you tell my parents that I should just drop to ‘ordinary level’ without even trying higher level was upsetting too. I get angry sometimes because I get frustrated and embarrassed in your class.
When you play videos or draw diagrams on the board or do practicals, I am okay. I remember them. When you give us homework verbally just as the bell has gone and we are racing to the next class? I forget. You get mad and I get another detention. I don’t know why all this happens to me, but I am trying my best.
I didn’t know that I have a specific learning difficulty and I have had it all my life. I am in third year now of secondary school and it’s hard to remember everything I must do each day. I have twelve subjects to keep track of. I don’t know that I have DYSLEXIA because my primary school didn’t have enough assessments to go around. There were not enough resource teachers either. When I got to secondary school I got through my first year because there were so many of us all trying to settle in teachers didn’t really pay that much attention to the quiet kid.
In second year my resource teacher gave me some tests and said I was fine. Just work harder I was told. By third year I had been laughed at by my classmates, bullied by a teacher and given more detentions for forgotten homework. There were so many notes home to my parents because I was getting angry in school, being cheeky answering back to teachers. My parents knew there was something more going on, but everyone kept telling them academically I was challenged but fine. I was just not making much of an effort. How many times did they hear from my teachers that I was just lazy? No, turns out I have Dyslexia!