k English?" Their best entertainment
was to tease and mock me until I became angry, taunt me when I did, and
ridicule me at every turn.

It was not only in the school yard and going to and from school that I
suffered--but also in class. When I got up to recite, what a spectacle
I made, hesitating over every other word, stumbling along, gasping for
breath, waiting while speech returned to me. And how they laughed at
me--for then I was helpless to defend myself. True, my teachers tried
to be kind to me, but that did not make me talk normally like other
children, nor did it always prevent the others from laughing at me.

The reader can imagine my state of mind during these school days. I
fairly hated even to start to school in the morning--not because I
disliked to go to school, but because I was sure to meet some of my
taunting comrades, sure to be humiliated and laughed at because I
stammered. And having reached the school room I had to face the
prospect of failing every time I stood up on my feet and tried to
recite.

There were four things I looked forward to with positive dread--the
trip to school, the recitations in class, recess in the school yard and
the trip home again. It makes me shudder even now to think of those
days--the dread with which I left that home of mine every school day
morning, the nervous strain, the torment and torture, and the constant
fear of failure which never left me. Imagine my thoughts as I left
parents and friends to face the ribald laughter of those who did not
understand. I asked myself: "Well, what new disgrace today? Whom will I
meet this morning? What will the teacher say when I stumble? How shall
I get through recess? What is the easiest way home?"

These and a hundred other questions, born of nervousness and fear, I
asked myself morning after morning. And day after day, as the hours
dragged by, I would wonder, "Will this day NEVER end? Will I NEVER get
out of this?"

Such was my life in school. And such is the daily life of thousands of
boys and hundreds of girls--a life of dread, of constant fear, of
endless worry and unceasing nervousness.

But, as I look back at the boys and girls who helped to make life
miserable for me in school, I feel for them only kindness. I bear no
malice. They did no more than their fathers and mothers, many of them,
would have done. They little realized what they were doing. They had no
intention to do me personal injury, though there is no questi