The Courage of Children: Boston and Beyond XXX

John Patrick Jennings
Sarah Hoisl, Teacher
South Boston Catholic Academy
I spent five years trying to overcome dyslexia. Dyslexia is a learning problem
where a child can’t learn to read properly. This was annoying to me. I had to
make many sacrifices because of this. One year I got held back. Luckily my
mother searched long and hard for something that could help me. After a
long time of searching she finally found a reading program meant for people
like me. I spent five years in this program. I had to go there three days a week.
I often had to leave school early just when my favorite classes (Stem, Math,
Vocabulary) were starting. This bothered me, but instead of complaining, I
used courage and determination to get through this.
The teacher there was nice and helped me pass the program. Every day that
I was there, I got better at reading. When my school year was over, I thought
I could finally rest, but instead I had to do the program throughout the
summer. I usually go sailing, so this was very hard for me. Going to school and
having to leave early three days a week was hard, but this was harder. I had to
skip my sailing classes and my free time to do this. It takes a lot of courage to
get past it.
This program used special methods of teaching so that people with dyslexia
could learn to read and write. Doing this program normally was hard, but
with my sweaty hands that prevented me from writing, this made it ten times
harder. It takes a lot of courage to do this program.
In my third year of this program, I was getting better at reading, but I wasn’t
out of the fog yet. Sadly, because of grades and my reading skills, I got held
back. This made me sad. Luckily my parents were supportive and helped me
get through the program to get my reading skills up again.
After two years I was slowly but surely making progress to keep my grades high,
but I was still continuing the program to keep my reading skills up. After two
more years the program was finally over. They had me take a reading test at
the program to evaluate my reading skills, which they determined to be at
the level of eighth grade. I was in fourth grade at the time. Not only did the
program help me get past dyslexia, but it also boosted my reading skills to an
eighth grade level. I was now reading chapter books. I went from five page
books to chapter books with this program. I was super thankful. Even though
it took a lot of courage, I got through it, and I am super thankful for my family
members for being so supportive. That’s how I cured my dyslexia using hard
work and courage.
The Courage of Children: Boston and Beyond
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