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He had to work hard. He often woke up early to study before school and studied for hours in the evening. He went to summer school and retook tests.

He repeated kindergarten, then first grade, until he was in the same grade as his younger sister. But he continued to lag far behind his peers. By the time he reached sixth grade, he was still reading on a first- or second-grade level.

Thaller's story is familiar to many students with learning disabilities who must work two or three times harder than their classmates, often with less results.

"I found my first dinosaur bone at the age of eight during a fossil-hunting trip with my father...Kindergarten through eighth grade was extremely difficult for me because my progress in reading, writing, and mathematics was excruciatingly slow. I would never stand to read out loud in class, even if the teachers threatened to give me failing grades...Eventually, I managed to graduate high school, but just barely, having received Ds in all required classes, including English, in which my grade was a D minus, minus, minus. The teacher told me that this was essentially an F, but that he never wanted to see me again. That was indeed the last time I saw him, but I did send him a copy of my first book!

There was, however, one area of school besides P.E. in which I excelled: science projects."