The well-known actor faced numerous challenges throughout his life. He struggled in school which resulted in harsh punishment from his parents, and after awhile the putdowns and name-calling, something he vowed he would never do to his own children, affected his confidence.
Winkler is an accomplished actor, but it did not come easy to him. In fact, he had to work extremely hard for all of his accomplishments.
And it all began when he was a child.
His childhood was filled with high expectations, particularly in education, due to his parents’ beliefs.
“My parents were very, very, very, very, very short Jews from Germany,” Winkler told The Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity. “They believed in education. They thought I was lazy. I was called lazy. I was called stupid. I was told I was not living up to my potential.”
But Winkler refused to believe his parents. He felt he was trying as hard as he could.
‘I don’t want to be stupid.’
Though Winkler tried nearly every trick in the book, he found it extremely difficult to succeed in school, which not only resulted in punishment from his parents, but kept him from participating in school dances or plays.
“I was grounded for most of my high school career. They thought if I stayed at my desk for 6 weeks at a time, I was going to get it and they were just going to put an end to the silliness of my laziness. That was going to be that.”
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Despite these challenges, Winkler managed to graduate from Yale University with a Master’s in Fine Arts.
However, he encountered a new hurdle after graduation – reading scripts.
“You learn to negotiate with your learning challenge. I improvised. I never read anything the way that it was written in my entire life.”
“I could instantly memorize a lot of it and then what I didn’t know, I made up and threw caution to the wind and did it with conviction and sometimes I made them laugh and sometimes I got hired,” he said.
“When we did Happy Days, I embarrassed myself for 10 years reading around that table with the producers, the other actors, the director, all of the department heads. On Monday morning, we read the scripts. I stumbled over every word. I was completely embarrassed. Memorizing, if it’s written well, my brain is then able to suck it up like a vacuum cleaner.”
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It wasn’t until his stepson experienced similar struggles in school that Winkler began to suspect he might have dyslexia too.
“I went, ‘Oh my goodness. I have something with a name.’ That was when I first got it.”
Winkler was 31 years old at the time.
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“I didn’t read a book until I was 31 years old when I was diagnosed with dyslexia. Books terrified me. They made me nervous,” he said.
After learning his struggles with reading were due to a learning disability, Winkler became angry.
“I got very angry. Because all of the arguments in my house with the short Germans who were my parents were for naught. All of the grounding was for naught.”
But then he used his diagnosis to inspire others, especially children, and he did it by writing a children’s series featuring a boy named Hank, an elementary school student with dyslexia.
The series has connected with many as Winkler said he often receives letters from children.
“Every child who writes me a letter about Hank Zipzer, I write back. In every letter I include, ‘your learning challenge will not stop you from meeting your dream. Only you will stop yourself from meeting your dream.’”
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Despite his ongoing learning challenges, Winkler has achieved remarkable success. In addition to winning numerous awards for his Hollywood career, he has written several books, and it was just recently announced his memoir would be released in 2024.
Although he has accomplished so much, he said, “Outside of my family, my proudest moment, no matter what I have achieved, are the books.”
The post Overcoming Challenges and Inspiring Others appeared first on Timeless Life.
Before we begin with the history of Ibadan, let us set some facts straight. Ibadan, (pronounced E- baa- dawn) the present capital of Oyo State, is the third-most populous city in Nigeria (with over 3.5 million dwellers) after Lagos and Kano.
Ibadan, the capital of Oyo state, is the third-largest city in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano. The city is popularly known for its rich and fascinating history, culture and amazing tourist destinations. One of the most visited tourist destinations in Ibadan is the University of Ibadan Zoological Garden which was established in 1948. It is home to a wide array of animals comprising mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians.
Mum-Zi was a member of Chief Akkiri’s harem in Akwa Akpa (now Calabar), who would later be the father of her daughter. Pic credit: Twitter
Who Was Mum-Zi – The Youngest Grandmother in the World?
Mum-Zi was just eight years and four months old when she gave birth to a baby girl in 1884.
From Nigeria, on an island called Akwa Akpa, now known as the city of Calabar, Mum-Zi’s daughter followed her mother’s footsteps, becoming a mother at the age of eight years and eight months thus making Mum-zi the youngest Grandmother in the world…Click Here To Continue Reading>> …Click Here To Continue Reading>>
Over the years, it has not been uncommon to find young parents out there but what is perhaps unusual is to find young teens – as young as 17 – as grandparents.
In recent times, most people at that age are looking to complete their education or to graduate from high school. The thought of even becoming a parent is rare, thus, having grandchildren is often out of place.
But this was not the situation for Mum-Zi and her daughter, as well as, other young girls in the 19th Century.
According to Lyall Archibald’s 1936 book, The Future of Taboo in These Islands, Mum-Zi was a member of Chief Akkiri’s harem in Akwa Akpa (now Calabar), who would later be the father of her daughter.
Since the 16th Century, Calabar had been a busy international seaport, shipping out goods such as palm oil.
Historical accounts state that during the Atlantic slave trade, it became a major port in the transportation of African slaves, with most slave ships being owned by Bristol and Liverpool.
Some missionaries would later record the challenges of poor water supplies, malaria, and the presence of some tribes who were sometimes not too welcoming to evangelists and other slave traders.
What was common, however, was the fact that chiefs kept a harem of wives and slaves.
The harem is basically a female backyard or household largely reserved for princes and lords of this world.
In most parts of Africa and elsewhere, a harem, in terms of royal harems of the past, may house a man’s wives and concubines, as well as, their children, unmarried daughters, female domestic workers, and other unmarried female relatives.
Mum-Zi was one of the many women and girls who lived in a harem belonging to Chief Akkiri. After giving birth at 8 years and four months, with the chief being the father, her daughter would also become a mother exactly eight years later. She was reportedly impregnated by the same chief who happens to be her father.
She gave birth at an age slightly older than that of her mother’s, as she was 8 years plus 8 months. Nevertheless, this remains one of the shocking moments in history.
Ever since the 1700s, a number of cases have been highlighted to show how girls and women across the world suffer just because of their gender.
Among these forms of gender-based violence is child marriage, which denies children the right to be children and take away from them the opportunities for education and a better life. It also exposes them to risk of violence at the hands of their usually older and powerful husbands.
A recent report by Girls Not Brides revealed that globally, more than 700 million women alive today were married as children and 17 per cent of them, or 125 million, live in Africa.
It added that about 39 per cent of girls in sub-Saharan Africa are married before the age of 18 and all African countries face the challenge of child marriage.
According to the report, Niger has the highest number of child brides, with three out of four girls married before they are 18.
The Central African Republic follows. There, the legal minimum age for marriage is 18, however, girls can get married at 13 years if it is approved by a court and/or if the girl is pregnant.
In some cases, earlier marriage is allowed if a parent consents to it. At third place is Chad, which has a rate of 67 per cent.
Some of the drivers for child marriage in these countries are poverty, upholding social and religious traditions, as well as, conflict, which forces many parents to consent to child marriage as a way of protecting their girls from violence and sexual assault.
