The Origin of Ms. No-Bingo

This first tale is dedicated to all of the people in the world who struggle with dyslexia.  The Dyslexia Research Institute  estimates that 10-15% of the U.S. population has dyslexia.  Dyslexia doesn’t care about your gender, socioeconomic background, or race.  It can take on several forms such as effecting the way one reads, writes, or even speaks.

My Sicilian last name has always caused me problems.  My grandfather changed the way he said it because the Italian pronunciation tickled his nose. To most of my students I am Ms. B.  One student in particular never could just call me Ms. B. He kept on trying several variations of my last name.  For some odd reason the variation of Ms. No-Bingo stuck. 

This particular student struggles with reading, writing, and at times expressing his thoughts.  I get it.  I too have some form of Dyslexia (I can’t tell you how many errors I have made in just writing this one blog post).  I am always saying the wrong word or writing ‘their’ when I mean to write ‘there’. Words on signs get mixed up in my head.  For the longest time I thought the name of a favorite coffee shop was Cork and Screw (I completely missed the meaning of what I was saying too). My roommate at the time informed me that it was Cork and Cafe.  It was too late though,I had already told my date to meet me at the Cork and Screw. Then there was the time I was going to meet a date at The Cruise Room for a drink.  But I kept calling it The Center Room.  Everyone just looked at me funny when I would tell them about The Center Room.  Finally a concerned co worker looked it up and corrected my mistake.

I have not always been able to make light of my dyslexia.  In the seventh grade I was writing a play and had my friends read it. It took place around a swimming pond and instead I had written swimming pound.  I don’t think my friends meant to embarrass me but from then on I was terrified of writing let alone showing it to anyone.

In my short years of teaching, I have had many mothers break down in tears when they come to the realization that their child has some type of learning disability.  I’ve seen the pain in a father’s eyes when he sees that his son has inherited his struggle with reading. But friends, Dyslexia is not the end of one’s life.  It is just one more obstacle in life that one has to overcome every day.

If you want to know more about Dyslexia I recommended checking out The Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity.  Dr.Sally Shaywitz is one of my heroes!