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Glaucus
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Posts: 1721
From: Sacramento,California
Registered: Apr 2009

posted October 13, 2009 06:22 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Glaucus     Edit/Delete Message
Henry Winkler to share his story
Posted By LARA BRADLEY, THE SUDBURY STAR
Posted 9 hours ago

At the age of 31, Henry Winkler discovered he wasn't lazy and stupid.

His stepson Jed, then in Grade 3, was diagnosed with a learning disability.

"Everything he said to me, and everything they said about him, I went 'oh my God. That's me.' That's when I realized that I wasn't stupid. I actually had a name for it," said Winkler, now 64, in a telephone interview.

The name for his difficulty trying to read and write is dyslexia. Winkler will speak about learning disabilities and his own life at an evening to mark Learning Disabilities Month on Oct. 19 at 7 p. m., in the Glad Tidings Tabernacle.

While Winkler has played many roles as an actor, including the lawyer in the TV series Arrested Developmentand the coach in the movie,The Water Boy,as well as directed and produced, his mug is known to most as the Fonz fromHappy Days.The leather jacket he wore for those 10 seasons, from 1964-74, now hangs in the Smithsonian.

Although he played the super cool character, Winkler felt anything but cool growing up. Reading and writing were hard and mathematics was "like learning another language."

"What I learned was you kind of negotiate it. You work with it. I used to think I wish I could just cut it out of my brain like a rotten part," Winkler said. "And then I realized that maybe I would never have succeeded if I didn't have that struggle."

Winkler and his wife got help for Jed immediately, as well as his two other step-children who also had the learning disability. All three grew up to go to university.

"What I realized there is no hard and fast rule. You have to look at every child and how they learn," he said. "What I always say to kids is no matter how you learn, your brilliance is not affected by your dyslexia."

Keeping the self image intact is the job of parents. When a child is struggling, they feel badly all by themselves. They don't need help to feel worse, Winkler said.

It takes a long time to get over feeling badly, he added.

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"My parents were European, thinking education was really important," he said. "I was grounded for most of my life. They were thinking if he sits at his desk long enough, he's going to get it. I could have sat at my desk until 3,000 and still not got it."

In high school he worked as an after-school counsellor and studied child psychology in university. If acting fell through, he planned to work helping kids foster their self image. One of the most surprising developments in his own life came in 2003 when he began writing a series of children's novels with his partner Lin Oliver, calledHank Zipzer: The World's Greatest Under-Achiever. Since then, the duo has typed 17 novels and sold more than 3 million copies, which have landed the books on many best seller lists.

"It is shocking that I even wrote a book in the first place," he said.

Wrapping up the series was hard; Winkler cried twice finishing Hank's last adventure. He has had fun not only coming up with the stories but answering letters from the children who have read them. Recently Winkler gave a lecture to college students about the film and television business. His most important message for them to become centered as people, centered in the knowledge of who they are.

"The stronger your core is, the easier your journey is through anything that comes your way, " he said. "Most of my adult was spent like a bowl of jelly. I was just nervous all the time. Whether I would succeed. Whether I could succeed. Whether I could succeed again ... Trying to keep an exterior that was not falling apart."

His most well known character, The Fonz, was also his alter-ego.

"He was everybody who I wanted to be. He was such a joy to play him. I had such a fun time," he said.
http://www.thesudburystar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2114085


The Fonz is awesome!


Raymond

------------------
"Nothing matters absolutely;
the truth is it only matters relatively"

- Eckhart Tolle

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BlueTopaz124
Knowflake

Posts: 110
From: Portland, OR, USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted October 13, 2009 11:52 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for BlueTopaz124     Edit/Delete Message
He is awesome, I've always liked the character he plays. Especially, I like what he says - "that (your) brilliance is not affected by your dyslexia".

My son has a learning disability and always struggled in school. The teachers with their patience (and success) in helping my son succeed in school are first rate in my opinion. My son is brilliant in spite of his challenges in grade school.

Great post Raymond!

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