by Ms Pitt
(Australia and now UK)
One thing I remember about early school was going to remedial lessons - being taken out of normal lessons when Maths and English were happening and going to remedial classes. And coming back to be teased by my classmates and also not understanding what my teacher was talking about in class.
I was lucky though, my mother was a primary school teacher and understood I was dyslexic. She set about helping me - I thought all kids had to write reports about their weekend activities and do mental arithmetic as well as the school set homework. Took me until high school to work out it was just for me. Even then it wasn't until I was at Uni that Mum announced that the reason that I was struggling at a particular task was because I was dyslexic.
I went from a student failing all subjects in primary school to getting a tertiary entrance score of 96.5%, then getting more credits and honours than passes in my maths/IT degree. I worked in the computing industry for 30 years, not only writing the programs but writing the documentation and also training others who to use various computer systems.
Now, after a change in career, I'm a high school maths and IT teacher. And one of the first things I tell my students in each year is that my classrooms are safe learning spaces because I will not only help them but they will help me because I am dyslexic and I will make mistakes.