You will find short stories on this site. Most are autobiographical. Some are fiction.

DUMMY

One fateful day when I was 2 years old, I was in our back yard with my 9 year old sister. Mom had domestic help, a middle aged African American woman who came a couple times a week to help with cleaning and ironing. On this occasion she was ironing in a room which had a window onto the back yard. She looked up from her work and screamed “Mrs. Lundy the baby!” Mom ran into the back room and saw me hanging by the neck from the rope of the swing set, blue with foam coming out of my mouth. The ironing lady was already there untangling me from the rope. Mom, screaming, ran out, picked me up and carried me to the front yard.

At that moment my dad, a medical doctor, drove around the corner. He was coming home for lunch. He took me directly to the hospital emergency room. My sister, was supposed to be “watching the baby”, me, in the back yard. I wondered about how a two-year-old could get a swing rope wrapped around his neck. Years later, when I asked my sister about this incident, she told me that she was not in the yard when it happened. She said that she had gone into the house to get a soda. The most mom would say, regarding this question, was that following the incident, she and dad had a very long talk with my sister.

While I survived with no obvious damage, mom said that dad thought the incident had damaged my brain. It could be a reason that I had academic difficulties in grade school. When in the 9th grade, my last year at Roosevelt Junior High, I wanted to sign up for algebra. I was told I could not, that I would be taking an art class instead. A couple of weeks later dad called to talk with my younger sister and me, he had left the family several years earlier, he asked about school. I told him that I had not been allowed to take algebra.

Without letting me know, he contacted the principal of the school to inquire about my diversion. He learned that my school records included a note which had followed me from the first grade. That note, probably from my first grade teacher, stated “Don’t expect much from Tod. As an infant he suffered an accident which resulted in brain damage.” As a result of dad’s inquiry and complaint, the school district sent a psychologist to our school to test me. I knew nothing of this when I was called from my classroom to go to a conference room and meet with a woman.

I remember the meeting starting with a pleasant conversation in which she asked me questions. Then she explained that she had a few tasks that she would like met to try. She didn’t say why. I remember that one was to have me repeat back to her, a list of numbers. She started with a short list and proceeded to give me increasingly long lists until I failed to remember them correctly. She told me that she was surprised at how well I did. I felt good about that experience but had no idea why it had occurred.

A couple weeks after that strange meeting with the woman, dad called. He asked about my interviewed with the school psychologist. The question seemed strange as I had no idea that she was a psychologist. He explained that he had called the school principle and from him, had learned about a note in my student record. The note explained that to my subsequent teachers “You should expect much from Tod Lundy. He suffered brain damage from an accident when an infant.” This note had been read, at the start of each school year, by every teacher I had from second to ninth grade. Dad also said that the school psychologist had found me to be of normal intelligence and that the note had been removed from my student file. These revelations came too late for me to take algebra.

My first year of high school changed the course of my education. The most important difference was that the note was no longer in my school records, consequently, teachers’ expectations of me were the same as they were of other students. Another important occurrence, was that my English teacher gave me a small spiral-bound composition book in which she asked me to write daily. I was the only student with this assignment. She would sit with me after class and review my entries. She focused on spelling, grammar, and the clarity of my writing. At first, I felt it was an unfair burden, but I grew to think of it as an enjoyable special assignment. Another source of academic encouragement occurred in my junior year at Eugene High when I excelled in geometry. It was the first time I had experienced how it felt to be among the better students in a class.

Perhaps I do have some brain damage. I have always had trouble learning things by rote memory. I need to have some logical relationships among facts in order for them to be keyed into my mind. Possibly, if it weren’t for that learning quark, I would have been able memorize organic chemistry reaction sequences when in pre-med and would have become a doctor. As it was, I took courses in science and psychology while in my first two years of college. As a standard part of the General Psychology Course, I took the Stanford-Binet intelligence test. That test indicated that I had an IQ of 120. This was a pleasant and yet unbelievable surprise for me.

At the start of my junior year at University of Oregon, I took an introductory class in the architecture department titled “basic design”. It was recommended to me by a friend as a class in which you will be taught “a different way of thinking.” I loved it and discovered that this was a field for which my interests and abilities was well suited. As a result of a spur of the moment decision, I changed my major from Psychology to architecture.

I eventually became an architect. This was no small task, there was a sign above the door of the School of Architecture when I entered to register for my first class in Basic Design. It read “10% of the Freshmen who start college majoring in architecture will graduate in architecture, and 10% of those who graduate in architecture will become registered architects. I don’t know how accurate that sign was but it wasn’t far off. Around 60 students enrolled in architecture with me in the Fall of 1960. And about a dozen were in my graduating class in 1965. I am also proud of the fact that I was able to pass all seven of the architectural registration exams on my first try. This is not common. Google AI reports that the percentage of those taking that exam (NCARB) who pass all sections on the first try is between 2 and 6%.

I was once asked, after sharing this story, “Why didn’t any of your teachers recognize your intelligence?” Reflecting on this question, I realize the answer. Because of that note, which each of my elementary school teachers read at the start of the school year, they expected me to be a dummy and I didn’t present different behavior. They did not recognize my intelligence because I wasn’t. I was a dummy. Furthermore I was a dummy for a reason which most likely applies to most of mankind. We humans tend to become what we are considered to be by authority figures. In my case the authorities were the my elementary and Junior High School teachers.

Because of that note I was considered to be incapable of achieving the same level of academic performance as other kids, and so I was not pushed to do so by my teachers. Because of the teacher’s low expectations of me, I adopted the same attitudes about myself. After all it was easier to be the dummy. I would participate in regular classes, turn in my work, and take the tests. The result was that either Richie Farwell, who lived in a cardboard shack, or I would be the bottom of the class. It was what they expected of me and what I assumed to be my capacity. I was considered to be a dummy and acted the part.

This experience has made me aware of how oppressed people, such as women, and slaves, can be under achievers despite having a high intelligence. This experience also inspires in me great admiration for those who have the tenacity and self confidence to excel, in-spite of societal pressures to hold them down.

The note from my first grade teacher did not follow me into high school. There the teachers knew nothing of that assessment. However that note, and it’s effect on my prior education, had left me with an educational deficit, I realized that I had to work extraordinarily hard to do modestly well in my classes. By the second year of high school I was achieving average grades. I even had the experience of getting an A on a geometry test. It was my first. That “A” gave me an unfamiliar and wonderful feeling of pride.

My grades steadily improved through high school. They were good enough to gain admission to Oregon State College and to the University of Oregon, where I successfully completed two degrees: a bachelor of general science (chemistry and psychology) and a bachelor of architecture. I also received a master of architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania. I have taught architecture for 11 years, at three universities in the US and abroad. I have been a project manager for Kaiser Permanente, for a similar period, a job in which I was given responsibility of managing the design and construction of many projects including a medical office building and a radiology treatment center. As it turned out, I am not a dummy after all.