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Nancy J Lantz's avatar

You have turned out to be fantastic woman for what you lived through. What were you beaten with, your parents' hand/fist, stick, or belt? I was never beaten. All my father needed to do was snap an old barber's razor strap to get our attention. My mother was former Military, a Coast Guard drill team squad leader. Her voice was enough to scare you into submission and compliance. Harsh words were my punishment. My First-grade teacher called me a "nincompoop" for having a messy desk. My mother wrote on one of my Report Cards that she guessed I was not as "stupid" as they had thought. She called my "trash" one time, can't remember the incident that led to that. It was believed that I was not College material because I did not read well. I was recommended to be a mechanic and take vocational classes rather than college bound classes. Later in life I determined that I had a Learning Disability as there was a 400-point difference between my Math and Reading scores on the test that you take before entering college. That same 400-point difference was there when I took the tests to enter graduate school. The Federal Law identifying the need to serve Special Education did not exist until 1975. I was out of high school and undergraduate college by 1971, so I never received any help with my disability. I figured the best ways that I learned on my own. To this day, I do not really enjoy picking up a book to read, but I do so on occasion. I will write characters' name down and how they relate to each other or to the story so that I can remember and connect. When I stop reading, or even while I am reading, I have great difficulty remembering what I have read. I am extremely distractable with noise and motion around me when I am reading. You can imagine what it was like sitting in a classroom and being told to read quietly for twenty minutes while the rest of the students are talking, moving, etc. Just as you, Anna, I survived! I graduated from Madison College with a B.S., from Virginia Tech with a M.A., and an Ed.S. from UVA. I had a very successful, and mostly enjoyable, forty-five-year career in the field of Education. Rather, than calling me names, I wish that people had said to me, "YOU GO GIRL!!!!!"

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