Personal Side

One very strong memory I have that still effects me to this day is from when I was a little girl I was taking out of my first grade class and held back on the reasoning that I was not teachable, and not intelligent enough to move forward. Granted my parents were informed of this during open house (3^rd week of school). I was placed in remedial reading, and when I was in school that was a separate classroom where the kids who wore helmets and bibs would go during the day. Talk about a blow to self-esteem! This is an absolute time that I felt powerless. Of course I realize it more now as an adult reflecting on how I felt back then, than when I was living it. I felt as if I didn’t really matter and they just swept me under the rug because they didn’t want to deal with the “problem”. That’s how this assertion of power made me feel, like a problematic outcast.

Equity was completely and totally demolished and power was taken away from me by those who made me feel so low.  It wasn't until recent years that I would even talk about this situation, let alone how I felt because I always felt that I would be judged by those who knew the "truth" .