The Courage of Children: Boston and Beyond XXXIII

ANDREW CAIAZZO
MERRILL HAWKINS, TEACHER
The Park School, Brookline, MA
When you think of courage, you may think of saving someone from a fire,
fighting a bear, or jumping into an ocean to save a drowning kid. These all
show courage, but in my case, courage was a little less life threatening.
I was in my first-grade classroom at a public school. In my class, there were
three book levels: green, red, and white, green being the easiest and white
being the hardest. Everyone started by reading the green-level books, but as
my classmates became stronger readers, they started to read red- and even
white-level books. Despite my love for reading, I was never able to advance
from the green books. Because of this, I was put into a special reading group
to try to help my reading. This may have worked a little, but my reading skills
were still lacking, even after the school determined I didn’t need the group
anymore. As my second-grade year came to an end, my family started
thinking about moving to an independent school with smaller class sizes.
As soon as I was accepted into an independent school, I started going to
academic support. At first, I felt awkward being pulled out of class for one-onone
tutoring sessions. But as I began to like my tutor and noticed other people
also leaving for academic support, it became easier to leave class each day.
Academic support helped, but third grade was still a challenging year. I went
to get a neuropsychological assessment to learn more about my brain. Two
weeks after the test, my results came back, and it was confirmed that I had
dyslexia. Dyslexia is a learning difference that makes some letters look jumbled
up or deformed for me. Dyslexia makes it hard for me to read as fast or well
as some of my peers.
My neuropsychologist recommended Orton-Gillingham tutoring, which my
tutor, Ms. Austin, was already trained in. With these special teaching strategies
for dyslexic kids, I began to read bigger, harder books. But as my brain
developed more, it became clear that I also had ADD. ADD, or attention deficit
disorder, makes it hard for me to focus for long periods of time. I started taking
medication in January of my fifth-grade year. My medication helps me stay
focused for longer periods of time during schoolwork or homework. Now that
I’ve been taking medication for about a year, I am a much stronger reader
“I SHOWED A LOT OF
COURAGE WORKING
THROUGH MY
DYSLEXIA AND ADD.
BUT I AM ALSO
BEING COURAGEOUS
BY SHARING MY
STORY WITH YOU.”
because I can focus on one book for much longer. Medication didn’t fix it all,
though; late at night, when my medication wears off, I have a lot of trouble
focusing, and I have a short temper.
Courage is a lot of things, but for me, courage is not giving up even when you
feel like you’re not good enough. Courage is the ability to stick with it and wait
for things to get easier. Even if they don’t get easier, you should always stick
with your passion. Giving up never gets you anywhere. For me, life did get
easier. It took a while, but now I love reading, even if I can’t read as fast as most
people. I will never regret showing courage.
There were lots of times I really wanted to give up reading. If I hadn’t stuck
with it, tried my best at tutoring, or worked with the adults in my life to help
me learn and grow, I wouldn’t be as strong a reader or writer. I showed a lot of
courage working through my dyslexia and ADD. But I am also being
courageous by sharing my story with you. It wasn’t easy writing this essay. It
was always emotional remembering the feeling of getting pulled out of class or
hiding my book because it was the smallest book anyone was reading. Courage
is the key to growing. I hope that by having the courage to share my story,
I will help you have the courage to share yours.
THE COURAGE OF CHILDREN: BOSTON AND BEYOND
VOLUME XXXIII
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