Posted in Connecting with God
I just got done commenting on mistresninos' blog about her son's academic struggles. I can certainly understand her concerns, but I can also relate to her son's struggles.
Reading was not easy for me as a kid. I couldn't remember what I had read and it took hours just to read a few chapters in a book. What was worse, if there were instructions written on the chalk board, I couldn't remember them. Yet if it was said in class, I could remember it easily. Oral reviews in class kept me from failing tests and grades, although I could have been held back once or twice. I made it to the 7th grade but I was still struggling as hard as ever, with C's and D's to show for my work.
All that began to change when my sister had her car accident. She was driving "George," her 73 Oldsmobile, and she pulled out onto the town's main drag, which was a very busy street. A car she claims she never saw immediately broadsided her. This was not the first accident she'd had, but it raised my parents suspicions that there was something more to the problem than just her driving skills. She never saw the vehicle, like she never saw the last vehicle. They took her to a vision clinic and they realized she had a serious visual problem that had gone undetected until then. It turns our that her eyes had not learned to work together. One eye or the other would focus on the object but not both. Her brain had learned to disregard the other eye completely. She was right in thinking the car had come from nowhere because she was practically blind to it. What she saw was only half of the picture.
My parents decided it would be good for me to get checked as well. Their examination turned up a similar diagnosis for me. My eyes would not focus in on the same thing. I needed some re-training of my eyes and my mind. In a few short months, my grades jumped a full letter or more in all areas. What was amazing to me was that it required less effort. I actually had little trouble with school. Reading wasn't as frustrating and I actually retained what I read much easier.
It's odd. My sister gets in a minor car wreck and both our lives get easier. God used something painful as a catalyst to fix something that would have impacted the rest of my life. It's just one more case where I can look back on His ways realizing that I didn't understand at the time, but now it makes sense.
Reading was not easy for me as a kid. I couldn't remember what I had read and it took hours just to read a few chapters in a book. What was worse, if there were instructions written on the chalk board, I couldn't remember them. Yet if it was said in class, I could remember it easily. Oral reviews in class kept me from failing tests and grades, although I could have been held back once or twice. I made it to the 7th grade but I was still struggling as hard as ever, with C's and D's to show for my work.
All that began to change when my sister had her car accident. She was driving "George," her 73 Oldsmobile, and she pulled out onto the town's main drag, which was a very busy street. A car she claims she never saw immediately broadsided her. This was not the first accident she'd had, but it raised my parents suspicions that there was something more to the problem than just her driving skills. She never saw the vehicle, like she never saw the last vehicle. They took her to a vision clinic and they realized she had a serious visual problem that had gone undetected until then. It turns our that her eyes had not learned to work together. One eye or the other would focus on the object but not both. Her brain had learned to disregard the other eye completely. She was right in thinking the car had come from nowhere because she was practically blind to it. What she saw was only half of the picture.
My parents decided it would be good for me to get checked as well. Their examination turned up a similar diagnosis for me. My eyes would not focus in on the same thing. I needed some re-training of my eyes and my mind. In a few short months, my grades jumped a full letter or more in all areas. What was amazing to me was that it required less effort. I actually had little trouble with school. Reading wasn't as frustrating and I actually retained what I read much easier.
It's odd. My sister gets in a minor car wreck and both our lives get easier. God used something painful as a catalyst to fix something that would have impacted the rest of my life. It's just one more case where I can look back on His ways realizing that I didn't understand at the time, but now it makes sense.
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