Writing your name

What is the most valuable skill I have ever learned? While cooking, driving a car, dressing yourself, or rolling up the rim on your cup from Tim’s might readily come to mind, what about the ability to write your name?

It’s probably not a skill we give a whole lot of thought to once we have mastered it. But your name is so important, because your name is your identity. Your name is what you put on bank accounts, house mortgages, cheques and rental agreements. You sign your name on greeting cards communicating your love and appreciation for others. Your name is signed on many documents linked to important decisions. If you think about it, the ability to sign your name is the gateway to inclusion into society.

But learning to sign your name can be harder for some than it is for others. This is particularly true for people who have fine motor disabilities. For my own part, as a person with cerebral palsy, the ability to sign my name was probably one of the biggest obstacles that I ever converted into an opportunity.

Each letter took about six months of practice to form. I remember my teacher saying, “thank God you have two “R”’s in your name Terry, you just saved us about six months work.”

But I am grateful that my teacher and I persevered to learn to write my name especially when I think about all the doors of opportunity that the ability to write your name opens.

Recently, I had the privilege of being the guest speaker at a conference for education professionals. I told the story of the time and effort it took to write my name. One of the delegates told me after the presentation, that she is trying to teach a young man named Brandon how to write his name.

She was about to give up. But having been reminded that your name is the gateway to being included into society, she changed her mind, and is going to approach the task with renewed vigor.

Even if learning to write his name is the only obstacle that Brandon and his teacher ever overcome, they will be opening up doors of endless opportunities for him, spanning over a life time. Who knows? Brandon may be signing copies of his autobiography one day.

- Terry Harris

Diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy when he was two years old, Terry Harris in the opinion of many experts within the medical and education professions, would never walk, talk, read, write or go to a regular school. It was recommended to his parents that he beplaced in an institution. In 1995 Terry graduated from Brock University with a B.A. in English Literature and obtained a degree in marriage and family therapy in 1999 from Tyndale Seminary. Today Terry coordinates an academic support program for children of offenders with the John Howard Society of Kingston.