sharing our experiences

Christine's Story

Has violence affected my education? Absolutely! As a sexually violated child, I kept the family secret, the family "respectability," while my abuser indulged in his power trip within our home.

To the rest of the world, he was an excellent mathematics teacher, head of a large department in an inner-city school in a large Canadian city, mathematics consultant to the Board and Education and President of the Masters Association. What a master!!! The arbitrary, excessive, psychological control of my mother, brothers and I made disclosure of my private invasion unthinkable for my first twelve years.

But I screamed silently and found a powerful revenge by not succeeding in his discipline! I was hopeless in math and we were all convinced, including myself, that I had not inherited the ability to succeed in the subject. My standard testing scores administered in Grade 13 confirmed our conclusions: only twenty-third percentile (so at least 77 people out of 100 scored higher in math than me).

Years later, I received excellent, extensive therapy to come to terms with my childhood abuse. Subsequently, I took standardized tests at a technical institute, tests which were comparable to my grade 13 tests. My math scores were all in the 90-98 percentile range. I believe my original potential has been unlocked and is fully available to me because of the healing I have experienced regarding my childhood sexual abuse.