"Hey, Helen Keller!": Living with Dyslexia and AD/HD

Holly Schallert 2013 Anne Ford Scholar

Ironically, Mrs. Abernathy’s fourth period freshman English class was reading The Miracle Worker, a drama about Helen Keller, when I, a meek Enrichment Center girl, transferred into her class. I looked like any other blue-eyed, pale-skinned and frizzy-haired girl; I could hear fine and had perfect vision. However, when I read, my words sounded as though I were blind. No matter the part I was assigned I stumbled, stammered, and tripped over the simplest of words. The classroom filled with every sort of noise; the loudest of which was the laughter. Every mistake I made seemed to erupt with a new wave of laughs from my peers. Soon it became not just harmless laughter, but jeers and jabs. I could hear them whisper to me, “Hey, you reading today, Helen Keller?”

“Holly could still be successful,” my first grade teacher told my mother when she first told her of my disabilities. “My sister has AD/HD and dyslexia, and look at her! She cuts hair!” Not many people had high expectations for my reading and writing skills. Like Helen Keller, many people did not understand my disability and either tried to ignore the problem because nothing seemed physically wrong or they mistook my inability to read and write for an intellectual disability. This is partly because when I was in sixth grade, I had the reading level of a second or third grader. However, many people didn’t know my intelligence was above average. In hopes for success, my mother carted me off to multiple tutors and summer schools. I took advantage of extended time on standardized tests, dictated exams, and special education. I used assistive technologies such as spell check, talk dictionaries, books on CDs or  tapes, graphic organizers/planners, calculators, and word prediction programs to enable or enhance my learning abilities.

Facing those who didn't believe she could succeed in school and peers who taunted her for being different, 2013 Anne Ford Scholar Holly Schallert set out at a young age to prove that people with learning disabilities can be an asset to the world.

In school and in the community, I had low self-esteem when I was a child and young teenager because I feared people looked down on me because I was “stupid” or afraid my dyslexic secret would be revealed. I often cried or threw tantrums in Sunday school or Girl Scouts when someone asked me to read. The fear of not being accepted afforded me the opportunity to acquire friends who didn’t mind being different and liked me on the basis of who I was, rather than what I accomplished (or failed to accomplish) in the classroom.

While in Wesleyan’s Enrichment Center, I had the same homeroom as the “normal” general education Academy kids. I met other blue-eyed, pale-skinned, and frizzy-haired kids. When I looked in the mirror and back at everyone, I kept asking to the same two questions: “What makes them so different from me?” and “ Why can’t I do the same things they do?” I was not sure of what I could achieve but I knew I was better than the cruel names the other kids called me. I just wanted to prove their expectations wrong; then, I started wanting to prove my own expectations wrong.

At the end of middle school, I attended one regular class, but I knew I could accomplish the work my classmates did in all the other classes. I gathered my courage and met with the high school principal, Mr. Rickman, and asked to take regular Academy classes in addition to the most rigorous course load offered to ninth graders. With much apprehension, the Enrichment Center Director and Academy Principal decided to give me a chance. Since then, I have kept my determination and not only have taken four Advanced Placement classes (half of which are English courses) but also I have become a Junior Marshal for the graduating class of 2012 and I am one of the top seven students in my class.


However, I did not accomplish such triumph without a combined effort from my parents and teachers. My parents were often frustrated because I was not making the progress other children were making and had to deal with my irritation because I did not understand why I was making very little progress. I am truly thankful for my mother—she was the one who first recognized that my learning difficulties could not be ignored. Although she was saddened by countless dollars and years of work with marginal results, she went to every length to provide me with the assistance I needed and strove to teach me I was just as good as anyone else.

I am fortunate that most of my teachers have been excellent. My eighth grade writing teacher, though, surpasses them all. Mrs. Foster encouraged and pushed me like no one ever has. She was by my side as I progressed not in leaps and bounds but with slow, minute changes. Once I started special needs programs, I repeatedly practiced phonics skills. These drills are tedious and require much patience. But we celebrated every word I mastered. Additionally, I remember writing my first mature paper with her assistance. I worked so hard on this paper, Mrs. Flowers, that to this day I consider the essay a piece of art. With her, my small steps became the leaps and bounds we all were hoping for. I believe for any student with LD to be successful, it is essential that parents, teachers and students conduct themselves with understanding and diligence. I am lucky to have such a community of people surrounding me.

The challenges I have faced were not easy, but rarely is anything worth living for. Embarrassment and frustration were no strangers, they did not come alone. Bags under my blue eyes were left from perseverance and the effort I exerted; the sweat on my pale skin was left from the motivation to always do my best; and the untamed kinks in my frizzy hair were left from the urge to be bold. I may look like your average girl, but when you take a closer look, I am the farthest thing from it. I used to consider my AD/HD and dyslexia shameful, but now I have
realized my disorders have made me a truly unique person who can do anything when I set my mind to it.

My passion has always been art and design. Therefore, I plan to pursue a career in industrial design at North Carolina State University. My hope is to use my creative skills to design medical equipment and assistive technology to help ease the hardships of people with learning and/or physical disabilities. As someone with LD, I hope to bring a new insight into the world of assistive technology and medical devices. I have written an article in The Trojan, my school’s magazine, explaining and advocating for LD. Moreover, The High Point Enterprise, the local newspaper, published an interest piece on my struggles and successes.

Now, the Anne Ford Scholarship will help to make my goals a reality.