---

3/3/09
Dear decell96.
I'm glad that RottieWoman had all those ideas for you, because I sure couldn't have come close to knowing all that.

On 'when did you notice' that you had a problem?... That's a good question, and in the almost 9 months that I've been posting on this forum, it's the first time that anyone has invitied us to answer that question (to my recollection). I was taught to read when I was 5, so by the time I started first grade, my very sweet and wise first grade teacher used me, and one other girl who could also read, as "word helpers" to the other children. It kept us occupied after we'd finish our class silent reading assignment, and incidentally made us extremely 'popular' with our classmates, as it practically elevated us to the level of 'student teacher' in their eyes. I rode this wave of being the smart girl in the class until about 3rd grade. I was 8 or 9 years old when two lines of competing children would move to the blackboard, two by two, and compete at who could finish the math problem first, after the teacher would call it out. It was 'break point' to win or lose the game. My worthy opponent was Kenneth B., the fastest boy in math in our classroom. All my team's 'hopes and dreams' rested with me, and they thought we had a a good chance. It was an easy enough double digit multiplication problem. But I couldn't count my fingers fast enough to beat Kenneth B. He, with his extra foot of height, towering over me, and his big tennis shoes,... and I knew that I was as smart as he was,... and I knew that I just couldn't count on my fingers for an accurate answer as fast as he could find the answer in his head. But that didn't do anything to keep my team from groaning with disappointment when K. beat me by a fraction of a second. The gap only grew in the following years. - jus'