Profile by helena steffens

Living with a Disability by: Helena Steffens

“L

et me ask you a ques- is severely dyslexic, which is part of in it. Because he had trouble memtion. If you were going to take your the reason why he is able to so effec- orizing lines, he mostly got small head and hit it against the wall… tively teach these students. Having a parts that just had a few lines. Howthis wall over here is made out of learning difference not only sets you ever, he still loved it. After graduatconcrete…how many times would apart from students in your class, ing high school, he went on to UC you have to hit your head against but also unfortunately from society. Berkeley. Unsurprisingly, as he says, that wall before you stop? ...How Mr. D, however, is able to transform he flunked out after just one year. many times would you have to these students and inspire them to Following UC Berkeley, he knew be the best they can possibly be. he still needed to get an education. hit your head against the wall He enrolled himself into the before you stop hitting your University of San Francisco “I can still remember head against the wall?” This is decided to get a degree to how Scott Douthit, a teacher at my mother trying to and teach P.E. Charles Armstrong School, derock me to sleep after scribes what school is like for my principal told me kids who have differing learning abilities.

I was retarded in 4th The first time I met Mr. grade.”

Douthit (who is most commonly referred to as ‘Mr. D’), I noticed his Mr. D’s childhood was far theme in apparel. Decked out in Cal from normal. While his mother was gear, he told me the story of how he extremely supportive and accepting flunked out of Cal. He constantly of him, his father was not. During wears Cal clothing to remind him high school Mr. D struggled to of his lowest point, and how he can get good grades and felt that no always come back from hardships one fully understood him. Soon stronger than ever before. Mr D. enough, he discovered the is a teacher at Charles Armstrong acting program and School, a school for the dyslexic. He became fully engaged

“From that day on I was able to learn because I was able to do. For the first time, it wasn’t listening to what someone said or watching them write on the board and it changed everything.”

ample of this treatment: One day (Mr. D was four years old at the time), his father came to pick him up from school. In the distance, he saw a plume of smoke rising.

Being an ambulance chaser, Mr. D’s father took them to the scene of the fire. As his father inspected the scene for good details for his article, Mr. D simply stood there looking around until he saw two charred bodies laying on the ground. Mr. D explained that because of that moment, he will forever be scared situations because he feels that if they go wrong, they will go extremely wrong. For example, when he would ride in a car on the freeway, the whole drive he would be crunched in the middle seat covering his face, afraid that the car would surely crash and they would all be dead.

Although Mr. D attributes this to his father, he makes sure not to blame his father and says that he will always love him. His emotional hardships as child greatly contribute to who he is today.

“There’s a real emotional component to it and those wounds don’t go away. Being dyslexic is not a disability I consider it Continued Schooling one of my strengths, but it is something Mr. D eventually made it through high school, and went on to study that I have to battle every day.”

“How could you possibly fail out of this?”, he said. This school was where he had a life changing realization. After a very engaging anatomy lab, at which he got to physically touch and feel muscles, he realized how he learns differently. “From that day on I was able to learn because I was able to do. For the first time it wasn’t listening to what someone said or them writing on the board, and it changed everything. I made sure from that point on that if it wasn’t done that way I would figure it out that way.” After

graduating USF, he went through a rigorous search for a job and eventually ended up at CAS, where he resides teaching today.

A Childhood Struggle Mr. D struggled as a child, both intellectually as well as emotionally.

His father, who was an ambulance chaser (someone who would follow disasters to report them) had a very hard time accepting him, which caused Mr. D to struggle.

He told me one story that will stick with me and gave me a great ex-

at UC Berkeley, just a few minutes away from his childhood home. He continually struggled at Berkeley, and eventually failed out. He next studied at USF, where he finally understood how to learn. He explains after telling me about his first anatomy class, “Well short story long all of a sudden I started figuring things out because i was doing it. It was all touching and doing. It was awesome. There was a test where we had to feel what kind of bone and identify by feeling. For the first time in my life things made

sense to me.” At this moment I am reminded of his peculiarity of always wearing Cal clothing- even though he had such trouble learning at his previous college, he was still able to thrive at another college and be confident enough to know that he could. He graduated USF with a degree to start teaching, and immediately went on a quest for a job so he could support his wife and two kids. He took a job at a public high school located in San Francisco. After one year of teaching, the principal reminded him that he had to take the CBEST test in order to teach the next year.

The principal assured Mr. D that he would pass and told him it was nothing to be worried. However, when Mr. D took the test, he in fact failed. Mr. D at this point still didn’t know of his learning disability. The principal found it hard to believe, but allowed him to try one more time. However, the principal made sure to let Mr. D know that if he didn’t pass this time, he would be fired. Even after intense studying, Mr. D did not pass the test and was subsequently fired. At this point in his life, Mr. D had to find a stable job to support his wife and two kids. How was he going to do this, though, if he couldn’t pass the test?

The Search for a Job Mr. D started to look for a new job and found one at an “LD school in Belmont”. Despite the fact that he didn’t know what ‘LD’ stands for (learning disability) and he barely knew where Belmont was, he decided to do an interview. At the interview, he was told to teach and play a parachute game with the students. He says of this experience, “Not to over dramatize it but there was something about these

kids that I recognized, something about them that I understood, and I didn’t know what it was because I didn’t know what the school was”.

As Mr. D describes it, apparently he did well enough to get the job.

Within the first few weeks of his new job, the principal asked him to administer a test. The test, which included putting pictures in the order they are supposed to happen in, was meant for second graders to pass. However, as he stared at these cards, he realized that he couldn’t do it. When the principal realized he was struggling, she asked if he happened to be dyslexic. Mr. D told her he didn’t know what this

“Well, he really understands you. if you don’t know how to play he’ll teach you.” was so she suggested he get tested.

Thinking this was like the CBEST, he started freaking out, knowing that there was no way he would pass. Soon after, he took the test, and brought it back to show the principal. Because Mr. D read the results thinking they were negative, he was ready to be let go from his job. However, the principal looked at his results and had a wide smile on her face. As Mr. D tells it, “She said ‘welcome home’. I had no idea what she meant until I realized that this was where I belonged. I understood the kids that came down from that class not because of anything other than that I was just like them.” This strong way he connects with the students is a way that most other teachers instructing students with learning disabilities

do not have. This is greatly portrayed by the two students I interviewed (Claire and Chloe), who all said very similar things about Mr. D. Chloe said, “Well, he understands me like how I don’t really know how to do stuff. ” and Claire said, “Well, he really understands you if you don’t know how to play he’ll teach you.” This is precisely what makes Mr. D such an amazing teacher- the students understand Mr. D, and Mr. D understands the students.

The Future When asked what Mr. D’s plans are in the future, he simply explained that he would forever stay at Charles Armstrong School. “I am working on my 29th year at Charles Armstrong and I will die here because this is where my heart is.” Given the students’, coworkers’, and parents’ love for him, he will have absolutely no problem staying at CAS. His hard work, determination, and understanding inspire kids and adults alike, no matter how they learn. Mr. D’s Cal shirt and cap glare back at me, as I realize how easy it is for LD students to flunk out of school, yet how hard it is for them to pick themselves back up and stay determined to finish school. Hopefully through Mr. D’s hard work, children with learning disabilities can learn how to succeed and thrive despite their hardships and come out on the other side just where everyone else is. After all, as Mr. D puts it, “We don’t all learn the same but we’ve all gone through the same battles, and that’s the important thing.”