Childhood Memories...

Afternoon,

As I write many thousands of teenagers and young adults are heading to Universities up and down the country. I never had the opportunity to do such a thing as my academia and speech and language problems curtailed any chances I had of having such opportunities.

Having such a disorder, was extremely hard and painful. The constant bullying that I ensured whilst at primary school, as well as my poor performance in the classroom did not help at all.

Leaving mainstream school when I was nine, was a blessing in disguise, as I was getting away from the bullies, at home and at school. I wasn't happy at having to leave my parents, especially at that age, but if I was to stay in Folkestone then the likelihood would be that I would have got myself into trouble with the law as I became more and more disenfranchised.

My academia performance improved substantially relatively quickly. The classes in schools such as where I went were far smaller than in mainstream schools. Where I went you would have a teacher and a teacher's assistant at all times, with a speech therapist on hand on occasion. Classes would have 12 students or less, in any one class, which meant that there was more time for teachers to help students on an individual basis - which helps a awful lot.

And it showed for itself when I went to high school in the Isle of Wight. There you have one teacher trying (and failing, most of the time) to control 30 or so students, including some who were very much unruly and disruptive - and whose had similar problems to myself, and yet had not been captured by the Local Education Authority (LEA).

The question of who was failing who needs to be considered...

Meanwhile, the bullying continued without remiss, whenever I was home on holidays, towards the point when I was looking forward to getting back down to the Island. It felt like I was being hounded towards the point of submission. The lack of education concerning my disability do not help. Thankfully, nowadays speech and language problems are dealt with a lot earlier than they were when I started school.

One of my very earliest school memories was when I was at a special school called Parkfield. Parkfield isn't there anymore, last time I went past it, it was a school for those who suffered behavioural problems - very apt that! Anyway, at the time I suffered from severe language problems and had difficulty reading at all.

So the headmaster, Mr Sailsbury (prounounced Strawberry by me!) encouraged to read by giving me incentives, such as riding on the school's motorised go-kart around the schools grounds and the park surrounding it.

One of the more memorable incentives was where I read a passage from one of the many children's books there and if I did it successfully, then I would be able throw a pie full of shaving foam into the headmaster's face! Now from what I remember, he pleaded with me not to, as he had a eye infection but that wasn't going to stop me and it hit his face without touching the infected eye.

However, there was still a lot of shaving foam on the paper plate, so one of the houseparents smothered my face with the shaving cream-covered plate. My face and hair was more messy than the headmaster's!

Not fair that!

When I was at school on the Isle of Wight, I had the opportunity to some amazing things, which I don't think any of my friends at home had when they were that age.

Every year in late April, the Cowes Marina organized something called Youth Afloat - and it opened my eyes to things that I never thought I would be able to do, such as ride on tall ships and dragon-boat racing! I remember getting up ridiculously early (well for a Saturday!) to get over to Cowes, over at the other end of the Island, to get on one of the big boats. Couldn't see myself doing that nowadays!

I also remember my first trip to Wales, when I was 14. Now I was a bit of a adrenaline junkie, had to go mountain biking most weekends, and on this trip I climbed my first mountain, Cader Idris, just shy of 3000ft, some 892m high. The walk up was pretty easy for someone of my fitness (at that time!).

On the way back down, the weather wasn't the only thing which was closing in! I haven't told this story at all, to anyone as it is so funny yet so disturbing! As we got back down to where everyone else was, as only a small number of us had decided to do the full ascent, my stomach began to play up. I was having to get down to the bottom of the mountain before my bowels gave way and the inevitable mess ensued!

Eventually, I got to the toilets and as I went, the bowels exploded and unfortunately for me, the boxers did not get through this ordeal unscathed! So what I did was stuff the boxers down the toilet and flushed them away. Well, there was a river behind the toilets, so at least flooding wouldn't be a problem!

No one ever asked me about those boxers which 'mysteriously' disappeared! Well now you know!

However, although I had some wonderful memories of my childhood, there are some aspects that I was unhappy about.

That will have to wait for another time....

Rob :)

Posted with LifeCast