Article June 2, 2003 Issue

Poor student? It's not hopeless

By Phil Davis

Have you ever been haunted by the feeling that past academic failings would prevent your progress and success in life? For most of my childhood, and right into adulthood, I felt that way. While my younger brother always seemed to score that A, I was a poor to mediocre student at best.

I hit a low point in high school when a teacher told me I had the lowest vocabulary in the sophomore class. I made attempts to improve, but nothing really changed. Somehow I managed to get through high school and two years of college—as my mother put it—by the "skin of my teeth."

By that point, my "deficit" in academic knowledge was staring me in the face, along with some pretty serious personal problems. Prospects for the kind of advancement and success in life that I had hoped for seemed nearly impossible, and I was downright discouraged.