I was blessed to come from a loving family. Both of my parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and even aunts, uncles and cousins invested in my life as I was growing.
I think the most important positive thing a family member did for me was what my mom did regarding my education. My mom was a high school and junior high English teacher before I was born. I was a preemie with a lot of potential for future learning problems.
Mom decided she needed to be prepared to help me be successful in school. She started by becoming a reading specialist. From there, she moved into special education. She was a pioneer in Texas in the field of special education. She helped develop the special education program in her school district. By the time I was 3, she had moved into administration. She was responsible for special programs and elementary schools. The superintendent encouraged Mom. He said they would do what was necessary to ensure that I was successful in school.
I guess it worked. Learning to read in kindergarten and first grade was challenging. The normal immaturity of a 5-6-year-old was compounded by my having ADHD (seriously, I couldn’t sit still. My first grade teacher often let me just stand at a desk or table. I also had dyslexia and dysgraphia. It was so hard that many nights both mom & I would end up in tears as we struggled to get my 15 minutes of reading completed. I was barely on grade level at the end of first grade. Somehow, by the end of 3rd grade, I was at least 3 grade levels ahead. Somehow, I blossomed into a vivacious reader; from the end of 5th grade to the start of 7th grade, I read over 1,000 books.
My mom gave me two pieces of wisdom about reading that have stuck with me. The first was from the early days when I was struggling just to read anything.
If you can read, you can do anything — My Mom
It wasn’t just something she said. Mom found ways to encourage me to read. Usually, by giving things like to-do lists, craft or model kits with instructions, and of course, recipes.
The second piece of wisdom was something she often said to her staff and to me when I started teaching.
Reading is caught, not taught. — My Mom
Reading instruction is vital, as is teaching a variety of reading strategies. The most important thing is to get a kid, find a book they like, and read at least 15 minutes every day. Also, find practical everyday ways to reinforce classroom instruction. Mom made it a natural part of our daily lives to have written instructions and lists (everything from rules to lists of daily activities I could select and schedules). I even had to use the TV schedule to select shows I wanted to watch. As for books I was interested in, we read every book about horses Mom could find. We even read my Granddaddy’s Western Horseman magazines.
In case you have concluded that, of course, I became a reader because of all that personal instruction. Learning to read was extremely challenging; things like sight words, phonics, and other instructional models didn’t click with my brain. I learned to read through the repeated process of reading. I was shocked to learn as an adult that I had been flagged as one of those rare people who would most likely never learn to read fluently and certainly not read at a post-secondary level before I finished grade school.
Mom made a commitment that she would do whatever it took to ensure I learned to read. That included getting the skills necessary to become a reading specialist, as well as taking me to 2-3 college clinics for help. In the end, it was her unfailing commitment that ensured I could read. Even when I moved, I had to attend a subpar elementary school with poorly trained and lazy teachers. The music teacher was more invested in my academic success than my classroom teachers. They ignored my test scores that demonstrated I should have been one of the top students in my grade. Instead, they decided to focus on what I couldn’t do and punish me for my learning disabilities (which is illegal according to federal law). I was literally bored in class and did “creative” things to make school less boring.
The Dee Zone 