Education, particularly the education of me and my sisters, has always been important in my family. I was always a very good student. I was in gifted in elementary school, took advanced classes in middle school, and honors classes in high school.I didn't make my first B until middle school. And all through middle and high school I made good grades, made the honor roll, etc. I had a 4.1 GPA my senior year and graduated with highest honors. I made the Dean's list both semesters my freshman year. Ok, it may sound like I'm just bragging, but I'm not. I'm listing all this stuff for a reason, to make a point in just a minute. My parents always expected me to get good grades, but I was never punished if I brought home a C or D. If I brought home a report card with one C or one D (which didn't happen often until I came to college) my parents would let me know that they knew I could do better than that, but that it was ok not to make straight A's all the time. I can't explain how grateful I am for the attitude they've always had about my grades. I've known people who were yelled at, grounded, and punished severely for bringing home B's! I don't feel that doing that does any good. If just makes the child obsessed with getting A's so that they won't be punished. While I wasn't punished for less than perfect grades, I wasn't always rewarded the same way some people were. I'm sure we all know kids that got paid like $5 for every A they brought home. Well, my dad always told me that you shouldn't always get rewarded for doing things you're "supposed" to do. I do remember getting to go to Showbiz Pizza (aka Billy Bob's Pizza Wonderland) when we got good grades, and the movie place in my hometown would give free movie rentals for good report cards! These were always great rewards for me and my sisters after getting good grades.

Now, remember how I said I wasn't bragging about how great of a student I was? Well, I listed all that stuff because I have to say that things have changed a little. I still consider myself to be a good student, I make good grades, but my college report cards have been known to include a C or D now and then. My parents still have the same attitude and are happy with my performance. They realize that college is harder, classes are harder, and I'm not in high school anymore. They don't "expect" me to get a 4.0, but they do expect me to do my best, try hard, and get a good education. While some people may not like this "no pressure" approach, it's always worked for me. My parents don't have to punish me for bad grades because I'm harder on myself than they are when it comes to grades now. I feel that they're approach to education has made me realize that it's ok to not be perfect, to not make straight A's, and has prevented me from developing an obsessive complex about never making anything other than A's. From my perspective, I think sometimes grades are a poor reflection of our true knowledge or education. Just beacause someone makes an A doesn't mean they know more than the student who made a B, or even a C! The C student might have actually learned something, while the A student could have cheated his/her way through. You can't tell by just looking at the grade. I know of a couple instances where I've gotten an A in a class, but didn't learn a single thing. I think with me and my family it's the education that's important, not so much the grades.

My interest in becoming a speech pathologist comes from my desire to help people. Also, I've seen the difference that speech therapy can make in a person's communication and in their life. From the time she was old enough to talk, my youngest sister Tasha has been in speech therapy. Her speech was extremely distorted, she had many imprecise articulations, and muscle weakness in her tongue. Those are the things I can think of right off the top of my head. Anyway, she had therapy in preschool, she had therapy when she started public school, she even had speech therapy during the summer. It was those speech sessions in the summer that I got to see. The therapist would come to our house once I week I think. If I behaved and didn't disrupt the session, I was allowed to observe. I made a comment earlier I think in our MOO classes that I thought all a speech therapist did was hold up flash cards, have kids name pictures, say sounds, and then give them stickers. These were many of the things I observed the therapist do with my sister. I knew from a pretty young age that I wanted to go into speech therapy, probably since junior high. As I got older I learned more about what therapists do by shadowing and talking to people in the profession. My mom worked at a child development center with early intervention children. Many of them require speech services so I was able to visit a few times and see the therapist work with different children. This was also when I found out that speech therapy was including swallowing therapy as well.

So, my sister is 15 now and she's still in speech therapy, but boy has she come a long way. When she was very young, about the only people who could understand her were me and my family because we were always around her. Now, she may be a little hard to understand at first, or if you're not listening, but for the most part she is completely understandable when she speaks. Her voice quality is different which may make her speech seem different to people hearing her for the first time. I can understand everything she says, and as a senior in this program now, I realize all the work that goes in to therapy. I sometimes go and observe her therapy when I'm home and it feels great to know so much more about everything that's going on. I've seen how a speech therapist can make a difference in the life of someone with a communication disorder and that's exactly what I want to do.