Faking it

Faking It is Chris Lee's story of almost two decades of frustration in school matched by remarkable persistence, resilience, and ingenuity. The title is bluntly fitting; if Chris hadn't faked it through school, he wouldn't have made it through school. But he also knew that he couldn't fake it through life. The story Chris tells of what happened to him when he wound up in the University of Georgia Learning Disabilities Adult Clinic, where he met Rosemary Jackson, is both a moving account of how people with his problems can be helped to overcome them and, at the same time, a powerful indictment of the system--and it is nationwide--that leaves people like Chris feeling incompetent and stupid. Chris was considered "disabled" because he could not see or hear letters correctly; his processing of written language interfered with his ability to use both written and spoken English, and for this reason the system labeled him handicapped. He labeled himself stupid. Fearing every encounter with the English language, he devised his methods of faking his way through school sufficiently well to be admitted as a special student to the University of Georgia. There he found his faking wouldn't work--he had to recognize and deal with his problem. But he also found support and encouragement from people who not only understood his problem, they understood him. After five years of intensive work with Rosemary Jackson at the Clinic, he graduated from the University. He lost the need to fake it. And he wrote this book.