D. H. Whyatt

My Story

“The creation of Miranda’s Green hair inspired me to explore children’s literacy. After discovering the “learning to read” crisis in our schools today, I committed myself to do what I can for this cause by creating new experiential, cultural and relational ways to improve children’s learning experience at home and in the classroom.”

Anyone who’s passionate about a subject, activity, or object, has a story that goes along with it. I am passionate about education. I grew-up along the banks of the Mississippi River in a small town approximately 40 miles north of New Orleans. I graduated Valedictorian and followed my counselors advise and attended a private university in the pursuit of an engineering degree. By the end of the semester, I had experienced what many big fish in small aquarium experience when they are released into the Big Ocean. Not only could I not keep-up, but I also couldn’t even catch up. Before I would be placed in remedial classes or placed on academic probation, I transferred to Louisiana State University. Please don’t think that I am saying that the state university was easier, let me explain further.

I graduated from High School at the age of 18 and married my high school sweetheart at the age of 19 (yes, we are still married). When my husband accepted a job in Barton Rouge Louisiana, we moved from New Orleans. Going back to college had left me a little gun-shy. The engineering classes were no easier (and it did not help that I was not only the only African American in several classes, but many times also I was the only female). Somewhere along the way, some wise counselor asks me if I might not find something in the medical field a better fit. The best way to know if you like something is to spend time with the people who do what you think you might want to do. I ended up volunteering at the hospital near the small apartment that we had rented. I mean really small; you know the small where the bedroom and the living room is basically the same room. It is amazing how being blinded by love will allow you to be happy and content in any space.

I grew up in a close-knit loving family with one brother and three sisters. One of the greatest things that my parents instilled in us is a strong work ethic. That work ethic simply means that you find a way to get it done. We only had one car, so I walked the two or three blocks to volunteer at the hospital and I took the bus to go to the university when I had classes. (I promise the point is coming.) I found a place in the world for me to be. Occupational Therapy (O.T.). I volunteered in the department, and I loved it, and I was very good at the job. I enjoyed the patients and the staff. When their assistant was accepted into O.T. school; I was given her position as Occupational Therapy Assistant, a job I held until I to was accepted into O.T. school.

I changed my major in college from engineering to O.T. I had found a new space for myself, and I was not only able to keep up, but I was also able to catch-up and even excel. While O.T. was heavy into the sciences I was able to focus and drag that heavy, awful GPA (that I could not believe was mine) and transport it to a GPA that allowed me to meet the requirements to apply to medical school. It was a very heavy load. Once I was accepted into medical school, my husband requested and received a transfer to New Orleans so that I could pursue a degree in Occupational Therapy at Louisiana State University Medical Center. In 1983, I received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Occupational Therapy. I would be one of two African American Therapist to have earned degrees that year in the state of Louisiana.

The point – I did not fail to become an engineer because my mind was not sharp enough. I failed because after adsorbing all that my high school had to offer; it was not enough for me to compete in the field of engineering where my fellow students probably had more than one class in calculus, physics, chemistry, trigonometry who knows what else. My high school was not college prep and thus the missing links were to many for me to pull the two parts of the educational chain together for completion. That being said, what I learned years later would lead to my understanding of the importance of a good education with reading and math being the foundation that must be laid early. As an O.T. I earned many hours in that area of Psychology.

One of the benefits of my courses was the enlightenment that my failure at the beginning of my college education was not one of lack of intelligence but rather one of lack of preparedness.

My passion would become this — When I would have children, they would be educated in such a manner that they would be able to compete with any student at any university in this country. I believe in a good public education (I paid for it); but when I couldn’t get what I needed, I paid for what was necessary.