Henry Winkler - Great Ambassador

Henry Franklin Winkler, OBE is an American actor, director, producer and author. Winkler is best known for his role as Arthur Fonzarelli in the 1970s American sitcom Happy Days

 Henry Winkler as the cool dude we all knew as the "Fonz", is a great ambassador for upholding the rights of children. He has shown remarkable empathy for the woes of children in the education system. Children that want to do well but are held back by their lack of ability or even disability such as Dyslexia.

Henry Winkler has Dyslexia himself and suffered greatly in his younger days and this is why he can empathise with children and adults that have problems with learning. He goes on to say that children want to succeed and are desperate to achieve and instead of being regarded as lazy if they cannot keep up with the academic regime that they are subject to, it is more likely that they have a problem with learning.

All children are different and have different abilities and should not be castigated for being unable to achieve high standards in something that perhaps they do not have the ability to do. He mentions that everyone (adults included) are great at something and can quite possibly excel at it given the chance to shine in that particular category of learning, craft or vocation.

Children's self esteem can quite literally be destroyed by over zealous teachers that measure a child's performance by the curriculum or by the official stance on the subject. When Henry Winkler asked a class of children "what do you think you are good at?" the answers were quite remarkable. One child even said; "at being myself" another said "at math". These answers are poles apart but suggest that this is exactly what is found in real life; people are good at what they are good at and they cannot be forced into an artificial mold.

The damage that trying to force children to achieve is more likely to destroy their self esteem and once that has been destroyed then it is extremely difficult to recover. Henry Winkler himself went through this challenge and can testify to just how difficult it was for him to recover his self esteem and confidence. As he himself says "I have had to learn to be confident". He goes on to say that once you know that your lack luster performance in school was not your fault, then you can begin to move on an recover your self esteem and confidence as it should have been.

I personally can identify with all of what has been said above and after a head injury at the age of six I can see that my limitations were never my fault. Had I known this all those decades ago, things might have been different. I was always good at making things. I was artistic too but instead of following this trend where my heart was leading me, I tried to do things that I did not have the ability to do which in turn ruined my self esteem and confidence. An academic future was highly prized and a future as a carpenter was looked upon as second best. How I wish the "Fonz" was there to give me a boost when I needed it but as he would say in his catch phrase...."Aayyyy."