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mad
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| heatherriver |
Posted on November 01 2007 04:49 AM
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Member
Location: No value
Posts: 7
Joined: 2007-11-01
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i am 31. i have dyscalculia. my life could have been so different had some one suggested dyscalculia. math had me in tears in school for as long as a can remember. i never learned the basics and could never catch on. sooooo frustrating, for me and my parents. my aunt was tutoring me and noticed that as a was saying my math problem numbers out loud, i was writing down different numbers than what i was saying. no wonder that i never learned the basics. anyway, i ended up dropping out of school in the 12th grade. my reason.... i could not pass the math section of the texas acheivment standard test(mandatory to receive a high school diploma) boy, what i could have done with one of those! i could have gone to college! wow! My life would have been so different. no anxiety, no tears, the help i needed, the ground work for my future had someone,anyone suggested that i might have a learning disability. why didn't anyone know? why didn't anyone help me? i was only a child. traumatized by this disability and everyone who failed to recognize the problem. i don't want this to happen to anyone else! it has effected my whole life. i feel like suing my old high school or someone. can i do that? |
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| reverend blamo |
Posted on November 01 2007 01:11 PM
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Member
Location: Island of Misfit Toys
Posts: 620
Joined: 2007-10-25
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hello and welcome heatherriver, this story sounds very familiar with myself and from quite a few of the folks I have read about in the short time I have been here. As sad as that is.
Sure you could sue them, heck, in this country you can sue almost anyone for anything. Will it help? Probably not. Not for you and certainly not current L.D. students. In my humble opinion, first work out the anger/anxiety/hurt feelings in some type of therapy (do it while your young,trust me you'll be glad) then work WITH the school board, be sure others aren't falling through the cracks. (esp. if you have kids or relatives who might have L.D.s) Education is much more constuctive.
And yes I see the irony of needing to educate the school system. Truth be told, schools have much better tools for helping the L.D. students now than they did in our days( they just need to put it a higher priority).
Good luck to you and look forward to hearing more from you here. |
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| heatherriver |
Posted on November 01 2007 01:41 PM
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Member
Location: No value
Posts: 7
Joined: 2007-11-01
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thank you for the reply. as you can see, i am very passionate about this. i am not really a big believer in law suits but how else do you get their attention? there are laws in the texas education system for dyslexia but they are being broken? how do you get people to listen? i don't want anyone else to go through what i went through. the mental anguish of feeling stupid, feeling like a cast out because i could not pass that math test to graduate.. the lost opportunities.ect. i am not in general a mad person but when i think of how i was failed and treated by the schoool system i am mad. what can i do to help others who might be in this situation? |
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| Toe_Nail |
Posted on November 01 2007 03:13 PM
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Member
Location: No value
Posts: 915
Joined: 2006-08-13
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Hi heatherriver and welcome to the forum
Reverend blamo is giving you very good advice. Work on your anger/anxiety/frustration issues first. It is quite common, espescially those who were diagnosed late to feel like they have been robbed of opportunities, robbed of equal chances to succeed.. It is quite normal to feel like that. You are not alone
This said, the rest (educating the system, making the condition known, etc) cannot be done overnight. It will be a long, long process and maybe that we will not see immediate or very big changes in this lifetime. But making changes in your life, treating yourself better, work on your self-confidence, on a better quality of life... things like that, you can change and will see gratifying results
Edited by Toe_Nail on November 01 2007 03:14 PM
It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer -- Albert Einstein |
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| heatherriver |
Posted on November 01 2007 08:49 PM
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Member
Location: No value
Posts: 7
Joined: 2007-11-01
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thank you toe nail. i work with a girl from canada. i hear it is a beautiful place. i have self confidence and take care of myself and i live a pretty fulfilling life. i have pursued other paths that do not require math.however, it still bothers me that what i went through could have been prevented and many other opportunities would have been available to me had i not "slipped through the cracks" in our school systems. again, anyone have any suggestions of how to go about preventing this from happening to others? how do we get the word out? how do we get schools here to follow the laws about diagnosing and giving children the proper assistance . i think we can see changes in our life time. the earlier this disability is diagnosed the better. like when a child is learning the basics. if you dont have the basics you can't have the rest when it comes to math. |
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| Countess |
Posted on November 05 2007 10:16 AM
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Administrator
Location: Germany
Posts: 850
Joined: 2005-10-02
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Hello heatherriver and welcome.
Oh my, I can understand your anger so so well. I 'knew' that there is something wrong with my daughter, when she started school (nearly at the end of her first year). I had no help at all of any teacher then and learned about Dyscalculia myself. I was persuaded of the math teacher thats everything is okay .... Nope, wasnt.
I was very emotional at the beginning too, I learned a lot and feel much better now. 
'You should really be sympathetic to people who suffer 'Normalism' (Geoff)
My Child (born 97) has Dyscalculia
Sorry for any spelling mistakes ;-) |
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| ert |
Posted on November 10 2007 09:01 PM
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Member
Location: Denmark
Posts: 1388
Joined: 2005-03-11
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hi heather, welcome. i understand your anger. i use it to spread the word. helps a lot. wanna join? |
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| ponitail |
Posted on November 28 2007 03:21 AM
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Member
Location: No value
Posts: 2
Joined: 2007-11-28
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Hello heatherriver, can completely relate, I found out at 24 and had math teacher tell my mom that I was lazy, and off in my own world and not paying attention, and when I would stare blankly at my homework my mom would yell at to "just do it" I feel like it is the same thing as telling a Chinese speaking person to just write in "french already what is the matter". I mad the best of my situation could not graduate high school because of it but own my own business and am doing what I have wanted to do since I was 9, Hair. However I am on anxiety medication and still feel dread when I ask some stranger for the time and the just show me their watch that had hands, not the digital ones ( I did not learn to tell time on a face watch with hands till I was 23) but it take way longer than a quick glance for me to get it, I was very angry at the school system for my situation why didn't they notice? but that was a long time ago I am 30 as well.
Now I go threw the same thing with my son he has the same learning difference and seeing him go threw it sucks, I was the one that noticed not his teachers, but when I mentioned my suspicions they agreed that his symptoms look alot like dyscalculia and that would explain things, so advocacy is very important and spreading the word is too, I know many many people that do not know what this is and have never herd of dyscalculia, spreading the word helps! |
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