By Jack Smith
I had a very conflicted childhood, a great family, I loved sports and absolutely hated school. The problem was a continuous stream of failing grades. This was exacerbated by having an extremely high I.Q. which convinced educators and my parents that I just didn’t try or care. What was unknown at the time were conditions like ADD and Dyslexia, which I had in spades. When a teacher illustrated a math problem on the chalkboard, it may as well have been Hieroglyphics or the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The one exception was in reading and reading comprehension, where I scored off the charts. After a number of social promotions due to athletic abilities, I was finally made to repeat the seventh grade and could not participate in school sports until my grades improved. I had no viable way out of this dilemma until I met my guardian angel, Stuart Williams, who doubled as my history teacher. It did not take Mr. Williams long to realize that something was very wrong. While he struggled to solve this problem, I was instructed to go by the library every day before class and bring a book to read. I thought I might as well read about something I was interested in.
The first book that I ever read was a youth novel named “Dirt Track Summer” by John Gault. No, not the John Gault made famous in the novel “Atlas Shrugged,” but by a youth author. This book was about a twelve year old boy who spends his summer vacation attending car races with his uncle who was a race car driver. I was hooked for life, not only on books, but race cars as well. By 14, I had graduated to the likes of John Steinbeck, Joseph Heller, J. D. Salinger and many more.
Utilizing my reading skills I was able to self-educate to the point that I was a copywriter for several award winning advertising agencies including my own, and today am a newspaper publisher. The power of the written word along with Mr. Williams saved me from reform school and maybe worse.
