COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- John James Fisher Jr. frequently found himself in trouble for not listening when he started the first grade in his hometown of Clarksburg, West Virginia.
His teacher, Mrs. Moore, would call on "John" in class, and he wouldn't respond, wouldn't follow directions and wouldn't do what he was told.
"I was getting whippings, getting put in the corner, all that," Fisher recalled of his school days in the early 1970s.
Finally, Fisher's aunt, Juanita (or Ninny as he called her), went to his teacher to see if she could help with the situation.