Memories – After 40 years of taking students for Speld and, later from 1999, SPELADD, I have plenty of students and families to remember.

The great pleasure comes when you hear about them later in life and what they have achieved. Their difficulties, strengths and interests have been so diverse.

The ones I will mention are all well into their forties and fifties by now, and some lived in the South Island where I first taught. You will notice most of them are male, and many of them teenagers. Until about twenty years ago we seemed to see few females.

One of the saddest was 15 and had been classified as “uneducable”. His assessment showed he could not tell the difference between an “i” and an “l”, and a “c” or an “e”! No wonder he had trouble reading and spelling.

Luckily, he was a farmer’s son and could work with his father. Also, being clever with his hands he could a bike to pieces and put it back together again! As he lived in the South Island, I don’t know what became of him.