Wisdom Dojo

Share this post

User's avatar
Wisdom Dojo
Essay: Mother’s Day, Harry Potter, and Doing What you Love
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More

Essay: Mother’s Day, Harry Potter, and Doing What you Love

Mahon McCann's avatar
Mahon McCann
Mar 15, 2021
∙ Paid

Share this post

User's avatar
Wisdom Dojo
Essay: Mother’s Day, Harry Potter, and Doing What you Love
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
Share

When I was born, I couldn’t read (please hold your applause).

As so many of my fellow babies began to learn their ABCs and read sentences, I soon fell behind in school. I wasn’t performing at the expected level of my classmates and so had to be put into the slow reading class, which did not gel with my self-image as a clever clogs/cool dude.

A woman taught me in the special reading class with giant frizzy grey hair and big thick glasses that looked like plexiglass, which I never knew how she could read through. In memory, she was a bit like a mad professor, and there was a rumour later that she was expelled for hitting children, but I don’t know if this was true, as she was fairly sound to me. I was fond of her, and she tried her hardest to make me read well, which involved a lot of squinting at alphabets with caterpillars on them and sounding out letters. Still, my hatred of reading only grew, and the extra lessons felt a lot like going to the dentist every day after school and didn’t …

This post is for paid subscribers

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Mahon McCann
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share

Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More