A letter to special education staff.

Thinking back on my past, I have many people to thank for my successes in life, but one of the biggest influences has been the extremely dedicated presence of special education teachers and staff since grade 1.

Withholding a couple years of lapse in that, every year there was at least one person who took the time to give a damn about my future, something many did not care about because of their own excuses. “He isn’t paying attention, no matter what I do, he’s stuck in his own world”, “he won’t write a single thing down, how can I even mark him?”, “he can’t even do basic math, he’ll never survive in the real world”.

Although I’ve never been told these myself, I’ve heard many stories where teachers have thoughts along those lines about other students, and I’m sure I’ve had teachers think similar of myself. The biggest thing to remember about students with learning disorders is that they aren’t broken, they aren’t stupid, they just think in a different way. For me, all three of those thoughts apply.

Yes, I can sometimes get stuck in my own world, but I’m also able to split my attention between what happens in my head and whats being said in class. Sometimes my best learning experiences happen because of that.

Yes, I can write more than 2 sentences at a time, but for me, its like lifting weights, you can lift a half kilo weight many times and not get tired for hours, but you will get tired of the repetition, and you can lift a 10 kilo weight a couple times, but you can only handle it for so long, and then pass out from exhaustion, pain, or both. I can write, but its mentally tiring, while typing just unlocks my mind.

Yes, I admit that basic math is damn near impossible for me, but give me a calculator, some paper, the right sources to read, and enough time, I’ll teach myself concepts that will leave your head spinning for years.

Give me basic work, and I’ll do it bored out of my mind. Give me something that gets my brain working and I’ll be able to teach you something about it you’d never thought about before because it seemed too far above what you knew.

It takes a special kind of person to unlock this kind of potential, and I’ve met many of them in my life. They are some of the most dedicated diligent people in their fields, and are sorely under appreciated for all the hard work (and I mean HARD, given some of my classmates, and myself at times as well) they do.

These are the special education teachers that spend hours a day in the same classroom with the same set of around 10 students, day in and day out, through thick and thin, good days and bad, they see something in their students that not even the students themselves may see for years to come, I know that from personal experience. Its one thing to teach someone, its another thing to give them the right combination of motivation, accommodations, and nudges in the right direction, and through a process that seems like sheer luck with a touch of magic see what some have passed off as a bad apple turn into one of the brightest minds you’ve seen. I’ve been told that last part by so many of my teachers in spec. ed, and I am always happy to know they get every bit as excited as I do when I manage to do something I never expected i would be able to do.

To all those that have helped me in my journey, thank you. Thank you for being the one that saw me and thought to yourself that this mind is special and something to foster, instead of looking at my shortcomings and writing me off as broken. You all have changed my life in ways you don’t even know.