For the first three years of his life, Michael Fleischer couldn't hear at all. Now, 19 years later, the College sophomore loves to play the clarinet and listens to music every chance he gets. After miraculously regaining his hearing at age three, Fleischer was diagnosed with a number of learning disabilities, ranging from one that limits memory retrieval to another that hinders handwriting and other motor skills. Growing up with learning disabilities posed a challenge for Fleischer, and now, years later, Fleischer is using that experience to tackle learning disabilities at Penn. Fleischer was a student representative last semester on the Services for Students with Disabilities Review Team, which was charged with evaluating services for students with learning disabilities, among other things. "You're not considered smart enough" when you have learning disabilities, Fleischer says.
Growing up
At times, Fleischer says, children with learning disabilities think that they are less intelligent than other children. "You don't want kids to fall into that funk that they're all stupid," Fleischer says. As a child, Fleischer said, his parents made sure to inform him about his learning disabilities rather than keeping the information to themselves. But he emphasizes that students with learning disabilities have to take the extra initiative to learn how to seek help on their own, without the aid of parents and teachers. On many days, while his friends went out to play a game in the street or attend a Friday night party, Fleischer did the work he had to do to keep up with school. "Students with learning disabilities should be their own advocates," he says. "When you grow up in life... your parents aren't with you."
Coming to Penn
Things got a little more complicated when it was time to move on to college. In addition to finding a school which suited his academic interests, he also had to find a place that provided services for his learning disabilities. "I had to find a school that would be able to accommodate things I need in college," he says. Once Fleischer arrived at Penn a year and a half ago, he found challenges in securing accommodation for his learning disabilities. With learning disabilities services like tutoring and notetaking spread widely across campus, Fleischer admits it was daunting at first to find the people he needed to talk to. "I guess it was just confusing," he says, "It seemed really complicated." Fleischer did point out, however, that the services are there -- where to find them is the problem. "Now I know after two years," he says, noting it took him days of exploring to figure out where the services he needed were. And during his freshman year, he was faced with "another road block that didn't need to be there." The "roadblock" occurred when the NCAA would not initially accept Fleischer's SAT scores for freshman crew team eligibility. There was an asterisk next to his scores because he qualified for unlimited time in taking the college admissions test, and the NCAA's policy is to initially reject any asterisk scores. The NCAA would only accept Fleischer's well-above-minimum scores after he and his family provided the athletic body with all of his learning disability documentation -- which they had already given to the SAT administrators. "Initially, we didn't understand," Fleischer says, "We didn't feel [the NCAA] had a need for it," referring to the documentation.
Settled in
Well into his career at Penn, he has settled in, having found the necessary accommodations, friends and classes, just like any other student. But Fleischer notes that he still knows of problems with some professors. He says that if a student seeking accommodation believes he or she will run into a problem with a professor, it might be better to save the headache and switch out of the class. He, however, said his own experience with professors has been extremely positive. "'Tell us what you know,'" Fleischer says most professors tell him before an exam, highlighting the fact that they were not out to cause him to score poorly. "I thought very highly of Mike in class," said History professor Robert Kane, who taught Fleischer. "I wouldn't have known [that Fleischer had a learning disability] if I hadn't received a letter from the dean's office," Kane added. "I've basically just been lucky," Fleischer says. As a member of the disabilities services review team, Fleischer vows to continue his work on improving awareness of and services for individuals with learning disabilities here at Penn and beyond. "I've been so involved with [learning disabilities issues]," Fleischer says. "It's been a part of me my entire life." And while his learning disabilities pose challenges, Fleischer says he would not trade them for the situation he faced earlier in his life. "If I have learning disabilities because I got my hearing back, then I'll take them."
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