How Winnie The Pooh Changed My Life

When I was little my Father used to read me AA Milne’s Winnie the Pooh. I think piglet was my favorite. I always felt like a very small animal on the look out for a friend like Winnie the Pooh. I learned the character traits of Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Rabbit and Eeyore. I loved the stories and amazing illustrations. 

I started seeing the characteristics in people around me. My father reminded me of Rabbit he was very precise and always had a plan. My Mother was Tigger. She was spontaneous and always looking for fun. These AA Milne stories were my favorite stories as a child.

I started first grade when I was six in an American public school. I was introduced to Dick and Jane and the perils and pitfalls of learning to read through whole language instruction. I didn’t go to Kindergarten. So when I was asked to read, I would look at the letters, then at the pictures and try to figure out what it said. It didn’t really make sense to me and I kept thinking that maybe I was missing something.

When my father asked me to read to him I always brought out the same book Green Eggs and Ham. I memorized every word that Dr. Seuss had written in that book. So my Dad thought I could read. What kid would memorize a book in order not to read?

Every time my teacher, Mrs. Guilford, would ask me to stand and read I felt sick to my stomach. She would get frustrated with me and ask me to sit down. I knew she thought, I was dumb and she just didn’t seem to have time for me. The other kids looked at me strangely.

At the end of the year, my teacher brought my parents in for a conference. I stayed in the room with them while she told my parents that she couldn’t teach me how to read. She said the school would go ahead and pass me on to second grade anyway.  My father who has a Masters degree in English, said I don’t think so. 

When she said I couldn’t read I was so sad. I thought to myself, I will never learn to read. I will never be able to read Winnie the Pooh! My stomach fell and it was all I could do to keep from crying. I was afraid I would never be a reader. I realized how sad that would be not to be able to read stories.

As it turns out my teacher was right as a whole language teacher she could never teach a dyslexic child like me to read. As a dyslexic the only way I could learn to read was phonically. My brain needed to learn to read left to right to see each letter at a time and put them together as complete words. As a teacher she would have never had the patience to teach me that way.

The next year my parents sent me to private school, to my second first grade. By the middle of the year I was reading grocery store tabloids. I could read Winnie the Pooh, anything I could get my hands on. I was so happy, I was a reader. I have been reading ever since.

Thirty years later, I became an elementary school librarian so I could help other students learn to read. Now I teach children to read and write stories. All because I wanted to be able to read Winnie the Pooh all by myself. Thank you AA Milne for your wonderful and engaging stories. If I can write stories that inspire children to read. I will have lived my best life.