I hesitate to generalize…but going to school in the 60’s and 70’s, I don’t feel that there were as many recognized education markers in place to determine if kids were getting it or not getting it.  There are a lot of baby boomers out there who are very smart and have excelled in all fields…this detail which causes me to pause when lambasting the education system.  I just know in my situation, I didn’t get it – I think I probably started missing out on the basics say about 5th grade. I also had no support at home for excelling in school other than the Sunday night spelling test practice and the absolute fear when report cards came out.  I did not excel – I was average – this was not good enough for my mother – yet she took no steps to help me help myself.  Knowing what I know now, I had a learning disability – never verbally recognized by the adults in my life – I just thought I was dumb.  I know this now because I’ve learned that I have spatial issues and math going through my brain just does not compute.  I can add, subtract, divide and I have my multiplication tables well synced in my brain…but percentages and decimal knowledge that I use now was self taught and algebra or anything more advanced does not exist.  Pretty much the science, geography and history that I know now are also self taught because I have an incurable curiosity.  I think kids are still falling through the cracks, obviously…but I’m not witness to it.  There is a fine line between whether my kids excelled because they were smart, minus a learning disability or because they were taught in a good school system with good curriculum?  God knows I didn’t help them much with their studies…because I didn’t know that I was supposed to help them…if I were to do it all over again, I would have broken that cycle.  Just thoughts – I’m not sure what is more broken – the education system or parents who don’t have the time to enhance the learning curve.

I know, now, that I”m not dumb.  Some of the skills I have can only be learned in life…and I have some inner drive to learn and experience as much as I possibly can.

I’m not dumb – I just took a different route to get here.

Until next time…..