Have you ever wondered what it's like for a student who struggles to do well in school? If you're like most of us, the thought probably never crossed your mind; school was simply one of the many responsibilities you had as a child. You attended class, took notes (you DID take notes, didn't you?), did your homework (and remembered to take it and turn it in), and repeated this process day after day after day after.

And then you graduated from high school and/or college, found a career in a field you loved, and began earning money. Life happened and somewhere along the way, you welcomed into your world a new little student of your own, someone who would trek off to school, enjoy classes (for the most part), and head home at the end of the day, ready to complete homework, enjoy a bedtime story, and begin the process all over again the next morning.

But, maybe your little student dreads that morning walk or ride to school. Maybe she feels miserable sitting in most classes, has few friends, drags herself home from school only to face MORE of the same math or reading or science that she didn't understand the third time her teacher explained it to her. Except now she's endured an entire day in a place where she rarely finds success and feels exhausted from the effort of paying attention and trying - really trying - to understand the lessons. What she really needs is a reprieve.

That is what a day is like for a student with a learning disability. For this student, school is an entirely different experience, and a not-so-pleasant one at that. Let me see if I can put this in terms you'll relate to so that you'll almost feel the tension this student may experience each day.

Take a minute or two and think of an academic subject in which you feel completely inadequate - or at least, did at one time. For me, that's easy - junior high school math. By seventh and eighth grades, I had been completely beaten in by math. I'd decided long ago that the language of math was as foreign to me as my next-door neighbors' dinnertime discussions in Greek. Why bother to listen when I can't understand what the teacher is trying to teach and I haven't understood for years? Why even try when all I'll get for the effort is a D or worse? Don't even talk to me about homework - Dad thought he was helping me with math but his explanations were even worse than my teacher's, if that was possible. And then he'd become furious with me for not understanding what he couldn't explain in the first place. Yep, by middle school, I'd shut down completely when it came to math.

Now, imagine that each school day, you are required to sit in that particular class all day long - your least-favorite class. The vocabulary is mind-numbingly confusing, explanations don't and you're afraid of asking a question because the other kids will think you're stupid or the teacher will have grown impatient. The minutes tick by even more slowly than it seems to when you're trying not to scratch an itch. The day is agonizingly, painfully slow. And when you drag yourself to catch a ride home, all you can think about are the pages of homework you're supposed to do - things that your class was taught that day. Things that you still don't understand how to do and they're due back at school in 18 hours.

And - oh joy - Dad is going to "help" you again tonight. He's had a lousy day at work and even forgot his lunch.

And dinner plans call for leftovers.

And there's no dessert.

Not such a pleasant experience - it doesn't even feel good thinking about it, does it? Yet this was my math experience in junior high school - and I do not have a learning disability. It's easy to see why kids might develop a headache or tummy ache before school begins. It's easy to see why friends may be few - who wants to befriend a sad sack? It's easy to see why one's self-esteem and self-confidence can evaporate when so much of each is defined by one's performance in school.

No wonder the prospect of another school day can be fraught with foreboding.

Students who are experiencing difficulty in any subject go through this sort of thing at some point. Students who have learning disabilities may feel stupid or misunderstood - any number of negative emotions. Yet this is what students have to "look forward to" until graduation.

If they can endure it that long.

These are the bravest students in school. Let's do all we can to provide the support they need to achieve real academic success.

Specializing in Reading, Math, Learning Disabilities

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