The story of jay

Abstract

He is now completing the second successful year of work on his Master's degree at a top university. Furthermore his grades are all A's and B's. Yes, Jay learned to read which has made quite a difference in his life. His story is typical in many ways, but is fascinating in its details. Jay's reading problem was not acknowledged by the school until late in the third grade. In the earlier grades his parents had been concerned, but were reassured by the teachers that he was "a late bloomer." Later the comments changed to: "he just doesn't try hard enough" and "he just isn't working up to capacity." Some even hinted that "when it comes to school work Jay is a bit lazy, you know." Jay's WISC revealed a full scale I.Q. of 146, so everyone knew that "he can do the work, once he makes up his mind to do it." Of course the fact that Jay was handsome, very personable and a topnotch athlete helped. The fact that his family was one of the old-line families in town, respected, wealthy, and socially prominent made it less likely that Jay would "fail." It had been suggested that it might be well for him to repeat third grade, but this would have meant having the same teacher three years in a row, so he was passed on to fourth grade. In fourth grade Jay missed several months of school because of a kidney infection and so repeated that grade. Between third and fourth grades and between the two years in fourth grade he was tutored by a "reading specialist" from the schools. She used the same methods with which he had already failed and he continued to fail.