They Said He Couldn’t Do It

Today I met the most remarkable man who has a most remarkable life story. I went to Leesburg, a small town in Central Florida, to visit Beacon College, a fully accredited 4-year college that specializes in working with kids with learning disabilities and ADHD. I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. John Good, Vice President of Institutional Effectiveness and Outreach Programs, and he showed me around the school. As we walked around, he told me his life story which I will retell to the best of my ability and memory…..

When Dr. Good was growing up in a small town in Texas, he had such a significant problem with speech that he could barely speak. People assumed it was because he was stupid. His fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Chamberlain, took him under her wing and decided she would teach him how to articulate his words. She wasn’t a speech therapist, just someone who cared enough to give up her lunches and after school time to spend with him. And it worked….

But Dr. Good did have what he calls a “serious learning disability” that continued to challenge him all throughout school. Despite that, however, he dreamed of going to college. So he applied to a small college near his home in Texas. They turned him down. He applied the next year. They turned him down again. He tried even harder and applied a third year. Finally, as he tells the story, they told him to stop applying, that he would NEVER be admitted, he wasn’t smart enough, and that he ought to look for a job as a janitor.

So, he told me, he did get a job as a janitor in a local school. But he also went to college (I don’t know where he went or how that worked out – I didn’t get every detail!) and he earned his associate degree. That success felt pretty good and he loved to learn. So he kept going and got his bachelor’s degree. Then he got his master’s degree in special education, all while keeping his job as a janitor.

This got the attention of a school board member, who told the principal that he had a janitor with a master’s degree who would be better placed as a special education teacher in that school. The principal said something like, “Over my dead body” to which the board member offered to make good on that….So John Good was hired as a teacher in the school where he had been a janitor.

And he kept going with his education. His next goal – a PhD. Fast forward a few years, and he found himself at Beacon College in its early years. He has been there now for 13 years, guiding, teaching, inspiring, and helping other students to believe in their dreams.

We stood on the street corner for over 45 minutes in animated conversation as he enthusiastically told me about his love of learning, teaching, and reaching students. He would say, “I know you have to go, but just let me tell you about this….” And so it went, with one heartwarming story after another. I felt honored to be in the presence of this amazing man.

And about that speech problem he had? He now travels the world giving inspirational lectures on how to teach critical thinking skills to students with learning challenges. Once he learned how to learn and to express himself, there was no holding him back.

And they said he couldn’t do it.