Success Stories

Perserverance Despite Challenges

On the surface, Beth Baily appears like any other successful 38-year old woman. Raised for most of her life in Athens, Baily graduated from high school with a 3.85 grade point average and had her pick of five colleges. After spending a year at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, she returned home where she eventually graduated from the University of Georgia (UGA) with a degree in health education. She traveled throughout the country for eight years working as a corporate trainer for Kinkos. For the last five years, Baily has worked as a massage therapist and is currently studying for a master’s degree in human resources and organization development at UGA.

Her accomplishments, however, did not come easily. In a recent interview with Kids Enabled, Baily described the learning and emotional challenges she faced as a child and offered advice to parents of children with similar struggles.

KE: Can you describe the toughest challenges you faced in the classroom?
BB: The struggles were really two-fold. First, I struggled with how to organize myself so that I could get things done on time. I didn’t seem to have a good picture of how to organize things in my mind so that they would stick. The other really big challenge was learning to spell.

KE: How old were you when you were diagnosed with a learning disability? What is your earliest memory of struggling in school?
BB: I was in second grade. I was pulled out for spelling. That was my first experience of not being part of the group. ‘Slow’ was the label I gave myself…that’s what I had heard. My teacher at the time was the first person to ever say ‘you’re not slow; you just do it differently, so let’s just figure out what you need to do to learn.’ She tutored me outside of school, and through that I actually started to get my arms around this school thing and figured out that it could be fun.

KE: How did your challenges change as you progressed through elementary, middle school and high school?
BB: They completely changed. I was tested again in seventh grade, and eighth grade was the first time I remember hearing the words ‘learning disability.’ This was the first time somebody specifically addressed my reading rate and math issues. People started breaking my issues down for me, in kid language. I started going to resource classes instead of art or home economics and learning how to organize. I had constant IEPs (individualized education plans) and testing. Eventually, I starting making the connections and began attending classes that were not remedial classes.

When I transitioned to high school, I was fully supported. It was the first time I had made a transition from school to school and had someone on the first day come up and identify herself as my resource teacher. It made me feel like there was somebody there for me.

I came to live and breathe high school. A turning point for me was getting involved in theater. I finally had a creative outlet where I could speak and it wasn’t about reading or taking a test. I could imitate voices, figure out how to put on make-up, put a costume on and pretend to be somebody else. I had an absolute blast.

KE: Were there any particular interventions or teaching methods that helped you make gains academically?
BB: Books on tape were helpful, where I could hear and see the words at the same time. My hearing vocabulary and sight vocabulary are vastly different, so this really made printed words come alive for me. Also, finding a genre of book that I liked to read was important.

My mom encouraged me to just read something, even if it was a junky novel, because as long as you’re always reading, you’ll get better at it.

KE: Did your struggles ever cause your self-esteem to suffer?
BB: That’s a struggle that I have even today. My friends in high school were all doing things outside of school, but I had to work harder and sleep less just to get by. Really, the theater helped me see that I was so much more than just the grades that I was struggling with…that I could really be a viable part of the community.

When I was younger, though, I didn’t realize how important it was to see myself as intelligent, so how can you blow something (self esteem) that you never knew existed?

KE: You mentioned that there were some social difficulties for you growing up. Can you describe those and tell us what you think were at the root of those struggles?
BB: For me it was the feeling of being different. I felt like a part of my group of friends, but I always wondered if they really knew the struggles I had, would they still be my friends. This idea was a bunch of bunk, but I still wondered.

KE: Did you feel prepared to go to college after graduating from high school?
BB: I was told that my first college in New York would provide me with books on tape, but they either didn’t or they gave me the tapes the night before the test. The mechanisms weren’t delivered very well. My big struggle at UGA was taking a full load. I never did well with three classes. That third class was too much information for my brain to handle.

KE: What advice would you give to parents of children who struggle with learning challenges?
BB: I would encourage parents to address the emotional side of things with their kids. It can’t be all about the academics and how you are doing in school. Parents need to help their kids process through their emotions or make sure they have an avenue in which to do it, whether it’s a support group or a counselor. Just having a learning disability is a potential blow to your self-esteem, and that’s tough.

KE: What advice would you give a child who is struggling in school?
BB: Don’t be afraid to ask for help. It’s not weakness to need help.

KE: How do you define success at this point in your life?
BB: Being able to look at myself in the mirror at the end of the day and know that I have lived true to myself.

Kids Enabled thanks Beth Baily for sharing her story.