I never went to preschool or Kindergarten. My Mom was a stay at home Mom which wasn’t unusual for 1956. So when September 1956 came and I was told that I can’t stay home, that I must go to school you could say I was in a state of shock. I didn’t want to go to school!
As I entered my first grade classroom the teacher, Mrs. Dial greeted my Mother and said something to me. I don’t know why but I kicked her. Not a good start to my academic years.
One of our very first assignments was to draw a picture of our family. I did that, it was fun and reminded me of what I did at home. Then there were other activities and after a few minutes I started fidgeting. From that point I would eventually build into full classroom disruption.
After the first 2 months was parent/teacher review. My Mother went to school where Mrs. Dial proceeded to explain to my Mother that I am “mentally retarded”. My Mother asked why and my teacher pulled out the picture of my family and the other kids pictures of their families.
All but one of pictures had stick figures drawn. This one picture had 5 full bodied figures clothed in clown costumes. All but one picture had blue sky. This one picture had purple sky with monkeys flying. All but one picture had green grass. This one picture had orange grass.
According to Mrs. Dial all of these strange features in this one picture proved that I was unable to follow instructions, out of touch with reality (who isn’t), constantly moving and fidgeting, wouldn’t obey orders and therefore I was mentally retarded.
Mentally retarded? I think that Mrs. Dial was just a few fries short of a happy meal on her diagnosis. Orange grass, purple skies that is creativity. Full bodied figures instead of stick figures… during my preschool years my Mother who IS an ARTIST taught me how to draw so I was much more advanced than the other kids. And the drawing of 5 clowns… she said to draw a picture of my family and that is exactly how I saw my family, I thought we were five clowns! However, that very nasty, wrong diagnosis followed me right up to graduate school.