The nun’s ruler snapped across Anne Burke’s knuckles as she struggled to form words onto a page.
Burke, who is chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court, has come a long way from being that Chicago school girl who wanted to write from right to left.
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The nun’s ruler snapped across Anne Burke’s knuckles as she struggled to form words onto a page.
Burke, who is chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court, has come a long way from being that Chicago school girl who wanted to write from right to left.
“I didn’t even know there was a name for what I was doing. My friends were getting As and Bs and I was getting Cs,” she said.
Growing up in the 1950s, Burke derived much of her self-worth from athletics not academics.
“Neither of my parents had gone to high school so I wasn’t under a lot of pressure to get good grades. I guess I just thought I wasn’t a good student. It took me a lot longer to read things than many of my peers.”
It was not until she was well into adulthood that she learned that there is a name for the different way she perceived the world: dyslexia.
Dyslexia is a difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols, but it in no way affects general intelligence.
In fact, dyslexics tend to have high intelligence levels, Sally Shaywitz, a Yale University physician specializing in dyslexia, told me during a telephone interview Monday.
Gavin Newsom, California’s governor; Henry Winkler, an actor and producer; David Boies, one of the nation’s top appellate lawyers; Charles Schwab, a businessman specializing in discount brokerage services; and Tim Tebow, a Heisman trophy winner and NFL quarterback are among the most well-known dyslexics.
Successful dyslexics are greatly shaped by their childhood struggles but have found coping strategies Shaywitz said.
“I was at conference and many prominent people who are dyslexics there. Someone asked what school was like for them when they were younger and they all ended up crying,” she said.
As a journalist I can relate to the challenges Burke and others have faced. I, too, am dyslexic.
I was never struck with a ruler, but I had a third-grade teacher who would shake me like a rag doll. She was a woman who brimmed with contempt for those who struggled.