Special Needs

Call them 10 lost years. When Thomas arrived at Landmark East School in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, at that age, he could neither spell nor put together a sentence. His schooling in England had been an experience in frustration. He was seven before it was discovered he was dyslexic. The solution, he recalled, "was to put me in special ed classes to do drills."

When his parents--his father is Canadian--heard about Landmark East, a school specializing in kids with learning disabilities, they moved to Wolfville and enrolled their son.

"I was very hopeful," says Thomas, now 17. "In the first two days alone, my progress was absolutely incredible. Everything was so positive."

He chummed with another boy his age with similar learning problems, "and we both excelled at our studies." The key, says Thomas, was learning how to learn. "They teach you different ways to learn. And I began to understand that this was not something that was going to hold me back."

His social life in England had been "horrible." In Wolfville, he learned how to communicate, and blossomed.

Through school cadets, he got his private pilot's license and this summer learned he had been accepted at flight college in New Brunswick. His plan: to become a commercial pilot. His greatest joy? "It's the freedom--going from someone who couldn't write a sentence to someone who can fly a plane."

Our Kids Go To School, Issue 8, 2006/2007