I failed the high school reading test—that sums up my entire high school education, but my life in remedial education began much earlier.

I was in third grade when they pulled me away from my class for the first time because my low test scores said I was “special.” In reality, I was “special” because test scores could measure creativity.

There was really no routine to what would happen at the special class. Some days we’d color, other days we’d do word searches, and more than once we watched Bambi. Most days, the teacher would read her gossip magazines, although, more than once, she brought a portable black and white TV and watched Soaps.

I graduated sixth grade with the highest remedial honors, which meant that the teacher told me she was sorry to see me go.

In my junior year of high school, we had to take several tests; we were told that we couldn’t graduate unless we passed. At the time, that threat didn’t seem that serious.

Months later, I was informed that I failed the reading portion of the test, and, according to the state of California, could not read at a high school level. I would have to retake the exam until I passed it with a satisfactory score.

The test was held in the school library. It was full to capacity of kids who couldn’t speak or read English. The State of California would not let any of these kids graduate until they could pass a reading test in a language they didn’t understand.

It was a reading comprehension exam. All I had to do was read the paragraph, and then answer multiple choice questions about what I had read. I expected it to be more difficult; had I known it was so simple, I would have probably did it right the first time. I passed.

I was told two things by my parents when I graduated: one, I had to go to college, and two, I would have to pay for college myself.

Maybe it was the fact that I had to pay for school or maybe it was because there was no test to tell me how dumb I was, but I did fine in college. Me, the student called remedial for over ten years, ended up with four college degrees and publishing dozens of books.