Sam Farr: “October is Dyslexia Awareness Month. It is part of the broader Learning Disabilities Month. This is the time we focus on…”

“October is Dyslexia Awareness Month. It is part of the broader Learning Disabilities Month. This is the time we focus on learning disabilities, particularly in our students and our own children and many who suffer from learning disabilities. I am emphasizing Dyslexia Awareness Month because I have dyslexia. Growing up, it was very hard being a student that couldn't read well, couldn't spell, couldn't write. I was very ashamed of that. I was shy. I didn't know how to ask for help, but I had a lot of support in my home. My mother and father didn't really know how to treat it. We didn't even know how to diagnose it in the early ages. I became withdrawn and embarrassed to go to class, particularly to get up and to have to read in front of the class and to spell in front of the class. I still have trouble doing that. Thanks to loving parents and to supportive teachers, I am here. I share my story because we need to remove the stigma attached to learning disabilities. No student should have to sit in silence being ashamed, being afraid to ask for help. I had a high school biology teacher, Enid Larson, a person whom I actually wanted to grow up and be like and be a high school biology teacher, who taught me I could accomplish anything. I think I studied sciences because so much of science was memorization and not having to write a lot of papers and not having to read in front of the class.…”