I made a discovery that afternoon. A team member was ill, which explained why their work hadn't been completed for some time. This work was an integral part of our team process. In other words, as a team we were dramatically behind.
I poured over files, reports and test scores that evening when everyone else had gone home for the night. As time went by my frustration grew, how were we going to make up this work? About this time the sun began to set in the west. Brilliant crimson rays of the final sunlight filled my room like I'd never seen before.
The dazzling scene unfolded while I sat at the small, round table opposite from the window. The scene is forever burned in my memory. I opened my colleague's files then and made a discovery. Glaring at me was new information.
It was what I call the final straw as in "a series of events which finally makes you feel that you cannot continue.
In that moment I gazed at the true brilliance of some of my kiddos. These were reports that had not been given to me before and they explained more about my struggling kids. These were children who cried at the drop of a hat, who passionately despised school, who hated reading... and now I was discovering what I'd suspected all along. Some of these kids were quite smart. No, not just smart, they were Gifted!
In a flash an inkling came to me. A vision in my mind's eye I saw a book. As I'm inclined to do at times I'll bet anything I was talking out loud! "Alright!" I said to myself. I got out of my chair and stepped over to the bookcase and pulled the book right off the shelf. The book had been there all along.
The book is called "The Gift of Dyslexia." The rest is history because after that moment I was on a new path. This new path lead me to San Francisco, California. This is where the next leg of my journey began ten years ago this month!
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