PLEASE PRINT

Every morning, in first grade, the teacher would print our names on the chalkboard and we were all supposed to print our name underneath.  My classmates were able to print their names almost perfectly. I couldn't.  My attempts to print my name looked like chicken scratches.    I knew what the teacher wanted, but my brain could not get my hand to cooperate. It was humiliating to have to try, and fail, every day while the other children were successful/

My teacher didn't realize how hard I was trying to print my name like everyone else.  She did nothing to encourage me.  I think that was disgusted by the fact that I couldn't print my name

This morning ritual went on for months. Finally, I did it.  I printed my name on a workbook.  The teacher saw what I had done. There were no words of praise to acknowledge what a struggle learning to print my name had been for me.  Her response was,  "Well, was that so hard?"   Clearly, she was clueless.

In second grade I learned to use an electric typewriter.  I didn't have to worry if I could write or not. I could express myself and complete my classwork like everyone else. 

I was chosen to have my picture in the School and Home Newspaper. using my electric typewriter.  This was quite an honor for a seven-year-old. The photographer and the physical therapist came to my classroom.   I was supposed to type as if no one was watching me.  The photographer snapped the picture.  my physical therapist got angry because I'd hit the wrong key. (This woman wore her hair in a bun all year, but she took her hair down once a year to be a witch in my school's Halloween parade. I'm not kidding. All she needed was a broom. The day the photo was taken, the witch appeared a little early.)  Why couldn't she have been happy that my picture would be published and that I'd be representing the school?

I know the teachers in the sixties did the best they could, but, I still wonder where the compassion and understanding was.  It took me a little longer than my classmates to learn to print my name but I did it.  That should have been what mattered,