I didn't learn to read until grade 2, but then was reading chapter books in a month, and star trek novels before grade 3.
I tried SOOOOO hard to love school, but would throw up every single day. Plain stomach acid. I couldn't really eat at school. I remember having troubles understanding the questions from first grade, the typical "but that sentance doesn't mean what you say it means" kinda thing. I remember writing 2+4=1+5 type things and failing a grade 1 math test that way. I remember having my books confiscated by my teachers. I remember being told I needed extra help in english for answering an entire science test in early modern english. I got kicked out of a LOT of places and stuff. I was tagged as a prodigy by my art teacher, but never really realized that if it was there. I lived for art, though. I spent an enormous amout of time in hospital for asthma, and learned enough about medicine to freak out the tellers in the medical bookstore. I wanted to be a Dr. but I dropped out of highschool. I took some university courses in highschool, but family changes short-circuited what might have turned into a good thing.
I was told to drop math becasue I was inthe 25%le at it, but I found the report, and I was only bad at arithmetic, 99th for logical reasoning etc... I guess they didn't understand the results???? I tested as ASD, but wasn't labelled, b/c "She can obviously talk."
I was... squirting out in all directions, trying to survive. Getting a LOT of bad advice. Not pushed to do the things I needed to do, and dumb enough to make excuses to get out of them.
In retrospect, I think a lot of adults were actually afraid of me. I see the same thing with my older kid now. He's tenacious and smart, at 3, his vocabulary is larger than many adults', and he will hurt himself instead of backing down from a tantrum. He breaks nannies -- even when he tries not to.
-Mich
