Chapter 1: Learning Differences not Disabilities
Chapter 1: Learning Differences not Disabilities
The Hardest Struggle
Chapter 1: Learning Differences not Disabilities
Mac nervously fidgeted in his school desk as Granny Smith sat next to him. They were alone in the schoolhouse. All the other colts and fillies had already left for the day, but he had to stay behind and wait with Granny. Miss Hackney had asked for Granny and Mac to stay after school for a very important meeting that would change how the rest of his schooling was to be handled.
This filled the young colt with dread and confusion. Was he in trouble? Did he do something wrong? He just didn’t know and it scared him. His right hind leg kept bouncing up and down without his notice, a nervous habit he had gotten from somewhere. Biting his lower lip, Mac looked outside the window at the sunny day outside, completely opposite of the storm of unease that was brewing right inside of him.
Before he could think about it anymore, he felt a hoof press down on his right leg keeping it still. Looking up, he looked into the golden eyes of Granny who was smiling warmly at him.
“Calm yerself youngin’ their ain’t nothin’ ta be afraid of,” she said as calmly as possible, her voice filled with sincerity as she talked to her eldest grandson.
“But what if Ah did somethin’ wrong? Only bad foals are asked ta stay after. Ah’m not a bad foal. Am Ah, Granny?”
“Shh… stop that talk, Macky. Yer the best colt a grandmother can ask fer. Ah’m sure nothin’ is the matter. Just a little sit down that’s all.” Mac smiled up at her, but still, Mac could not let go of the pure dread he felt inside as they waited alone.
Just then, the door of the schoolhouse opened and Miss Hackney walked in, nearly making Mac jump out of his seat. “It is so nice to see you again, Mrs. Smith,” Miss Hackney said, smiling warmly at Granny Smith, before turning towards the nervous Little Macintosh. “And it’s always nice to see you, Mac.”
“H-Hi Miss Hackney, ” Mac stuttered, wishing he could cower into his desk. Granny just patted his leg as she looked up at the purple Earth Pony.
“You to, Miss Hackney, but would ya mind tellin’ me what this is all about? Poor Mac has been a nervous mess,” Granny laughed, “He thinks he is some kind of bad apple fer being held after class.”
“Oh don’t worry, Mac, you're not in trouble at all. Actually, I have some very good news for you and your grandmother.” Mac’s ears instantly perked up upon hearing this. Looking to Granny and then back to Miss Hackney, he felt a bit of the anxiety drain from his body.
“You do?”
“Why of course. But I am not the one to tell you; I think you remember Doctor Carney.” At once, Mac broke into a huge grin as a light brown Unicorn, with a white and blue mane walked into the room. He had a cutie mark of clipboard and had bright blue eyes behind his spectacles.
“Doctor Carney!” Mac cried happily, seeing the Unicorn walk into the room and smile right at Mac.
“Hello there, Little Macintosh! I see you’re still as happy as ever!” he laughed, walking over to take a seat closer to Mac and Granny. “Hello Mrs. Smith, it is a pleasure to finally meet you. Macintosh has told me so much about you. I am Doctor Carney from Princess Celestia’s School of Special Needs.” Carney raised his hoof to Granny who at once bumped it.
“The pleasure is all mine. It’s not often Ah meet a pony that makes Mac all excited like that,” she said, looking down at her smiling grandson. “But what is a pony of yer title doin’ here?” she asked, more to Miss Hackney than to Carney.
“Doctor Carney is here because of Little Mac here. You remember how I told you how I was concerned about Mac’s reading and writing, and how I wanted to work with him on that?”
“Ah sure do. Been havin’ him read out loud at home and writing a few sentences from the paper each night before bed,” Granny said proudly, as Mac gave a light groan.
“Yes. Mac has told me about that. Well, for the last few months since then I have been working with Mac on that, but he is still at the same level that he was at from the beginning of this year,” Miss Hackney said, pulling out a few papers from her desk and bringing them to Granny.
Mac looked over at the papers that his teacher was showing Granny, and immediately sunk back into his chair. Some of the sheets were from spelling tests that he had failed, and others were blank pieces of paper with his name on it.
“What are these?” Granny asked, pointing to the blank papers, that only served to make Mac cringe.
“You see, sometimes after recess, I put a paragraph on the board for the students to copy down and turn in. Mac only puts his name on the paper, and waits for a few of the other foals to turn in papers before turning in his own blank.” At once, Granny turned around and gave Mac a look of pure disapproval. Mac could feel the burning sensation of tears in his eyes as he looked away.
“Ah am so sorry fer this Miss Hackney. If there is anythin’ Ah can do to make Mac makeup fer these Ah will do it. He will have plenty of time ta make em’ out on account of being grounded.” Granny stared down at Mac again, who had a few tears running his face now.
“Now don’t be so hasty, Mrs. Smith,” Carney interrupted, placing a hoof on Mac’s desk, trying to have the young colt look up at him. “There is more to this story and I believe that Miss Hackney promised that this was a good meeting.” This caught Mac’s attention, and he looked up into the bright blue eyes of Doctor Carney.
“Yes I did, and trust me, when Doctor Carney told me I broke into tears of joy,” Miss Hackney said, trying to put as much warmth and comfort into her words as she too looked down at Mac.
“Told ya what?” Granny asked, her voice having a light trace of hostility in it. She might not be the brightest mare in all of Equestria, but she knew when she was being kept in the dark about something. Doctor Carney and Miss Hackney exchanged a look, before The Doctor took a deep breath.
“You see Mrs. Smith, I believe that your grandson here has a learning disability,” Carney said in his calmest tone.
“A learning what?” Granny spat, looking at the Unicorn as if she had just insulted her. “Are ya callin’ Mac here stupid?! He just needs a bit more motivation, he is just as smart as any foal out there! The nerve of callin’ him such a thing is—”
“Mrs. Apple, please you have it all wrong,” Carney interrupted, holding out his hooves while Mac felt a new surge of fear go through him making him want to cry more. “I am sorry, I have been in this line of work so long that I forgot we changed the name a few years back. We call it a learning difference now, and it does not mean that Mac is stupid. He is the farthest thing from stupid you can get.” Carney was trying his best to calm down the older mare, but she still looked mad enough to buck him into next week.
“Then what is it?” Granny growled, as she placed a hoof on Mac’s shoulder, that only served to make the colt very still and looked even more frightened.
“Well, you see, I need to explain how I came to this conclusion. Now Miss Hackney gave Mac a permission slip a little awhile ago for him to miss two days of school that you signed right?” Granny just nodded, remember the piece of paper. “Well last week Mac and I went to my temporary office here so I could spend some time to know him.” Carney looked down at Mac, who had a faint smile appear on his face. “You remember what we did there?”
“Eeyup! We played a lot of games, talked, and you even got us ice cream!” Mac said happily, remembering those two days as some of his best days of school ever.
“Yes we did. And during that time, Mac and I spent a lot of time talking and I have to say, he is one of the most well mannered, polite, intelligent, and all around best colts I have ever met.” This made Mac blush somewhat in embarrassment as he heard Carney talk about him in such a way.
“And what does this have ta do with this learning thing?” Granny asked, still eyeing Carney.
“Well, the games we were playing were not normal games. These were games specifically made for foals like Mac here. They were to test his cognition, memory, attention, and perception. This was all data I needed to collect to put against Mac’s academic achievements thus far.” Carney then reached into his saddle bag and pulled out two different charts for Granny and Mac to look at.
“You see here on the right, these are Mac’s scores from when he was with me in certain subjects. If you look at these first two, they are Mac’s scores for reading and writing.” Mac leaned in close along with Granny to look at them. The chart seemed to be very low, and from what Mac was able to make out it did not look good for him.
“It says here that Mac’s readin’ and writin’ is that of a kindergartener. Mac is in the second grade! Does this mean he was passed without bein’ ready?” the anger started to show in Granny’s face again.
“Yes they are low, but look over here.” Carney pointed to a third column, that was extremely high on the chart, much higher than the second grade level. “This is Mac’s math score. His comprehension of mathematics is on the level of college students.”
“He is lightyears ahead of his classmates in math!” Miss Hackney interrupted, “Never have I seen a student take so well to the subject as Mac here. Not only does he understand it, he sometimes works problems far in advance than what I am teaching. He just loves the subject!” she seemed to be glowing with pride as she looked down at Mac.
“This is a textbook case of Mac here has a learning difference. He is beyond intelligent in one subject, while in another he is falling behind,” Carney said, as he pulled out another piece of paper. “But this, right here, is what I am most proud of.” He placed the paper right in front of Granny, a smile of pure and genuine happiness on his face.
Granny looked down at the paper and read the first few lines, when her mouth fell open and her eyes grew wide. Mac looked at her in confusion, unsure if he was in trouble or whatever Granny was reading was good. She looked up at Carney, her mouth trying to form words.
“Is this… is this really his… “ Granny was just too stunned to speak as she looked down at the paper.
“It is.”Carney said, turning to Mac and was beaming with happiness. “Mac, do you know what an IQ is?”
Mac looked at Carney with a confused look, before looking back at his stunned grandmother. “Nope.” Carney just grinned as he took the paper from Granny and placed it in front of Mac.
“To put it simply, this is how we measure how smart a pony is. The higher the number the smarter the pony is. Do you want to take a guess at what your IQ is?” Mac looked down at his lap and shook his head.
“Mac, your IQ is one hundred and thirty five. The average is ninety to a hundred; you are at the level of superior intelligence.” Mac looked up at Carney in confusion, before looking back down at the paper. He tried to read what it said, but as he focused on the words they seemed to be jumbled up, making new letters and words that he didn’t know how to say.
“But… why don’t Ah read and spell good?” Mac asked, trying to hold back more tears as he tried to read the paper in front of him.
“Because Mac, you also have what I believe to be dyslexia. This is going to be a challenge for you, and its not something that will go away,” Carney said, patting Mac on the head. “You don’t write down the paragraphs on the board because you don’t want to; it’s because you can’t read it, right?” Mac just nodded, tears were running down his face. He had always felt ashamed of not being able to write down the paragraph like all the other foals in his class. He wanted to, he really wanted to. He just couldn't read it.
“Don’t cry buddy, its nothing to be ashamed about.” Carney whispered, patting Mac’s head. “Many ponies have dyslexia and are very successful in life. This doesn’t mean you are stupid, odd, or weird Macintosh. All this means is that you learn differently, and you just have to try a bit harder than others your age.”
“But Ah try hard already!” Mac yelled, his face soaked with tears. “Ah try hard everyday, but Ah just don’t get it. Ah got ta be dumb!” Tears were freely falling from his eyes, as he wrapped his hooves around his face and placed his head on the table crying.
“You're not dumb. Never tell yourself that,” Carney said, as he stroked Mac’s head. “You are very, very, very smart Mac. You just haven’t been shown the ways to learn that make sense to you.”
“Its true Mac,” Miss Hackney said, pulling her chair closer to Mac. “I didn’t know how to teach you, and I am so sorry about that.” She was holding back her own tears of seeing her student’s distress. “But Doctor Carney does know, and he wants to tutor you. He wants to help you succeed.” At this Granny turned to the pair, a few tears rolling down her own face.
“Hold up. Ah want to help Mac succeed in life as well. But, we just don’t have the bits to pay fer extra schoolin fer Mac. Not with ma son expectin’ another foal soon” Granny said, feeling a swell of pride forming inside of her for she had just found out her daughter-in-law was expecting another foal, and deep regret that they might be able to take care of the eldest child because of it.
“I won’t charge a single bit,” Carney said, looking up at Granny. “All I ask is while I am helping Mac I can write a study about him, to help other ponies in the future. Mac is so bright and talented, I would be no better than a criminal if I did not do everything in my power to help him.”
Granny just looked at the doctor, as tears started to swell up in her eyes as she looked down at Mac. He still had his head buried in his hooves unable to stop shaking as he cried. She knew this was more than just him not being able to read and write as well as other ponies, but since his parents were expecting his second sibling, he had been trying to act as strong as ever to help out around he farm. Having all these difficulties in school must have been just added weight. Weight she contributed to.
“Ah think that would be a wise plan,” Granny finally said, wiping a tear from her eye. She then got out of her chair and went over to Mac and pulled him into a hug. “There, there youngin. Everythin’ is goin’ to be alright. Yer goin’ to be the smartest pony in Ponyville. Just wait and see.”
Author's Note
Now because of some of my beta readers, this might turn into a few more chapters. I am not sure yet, but time will tell.
