Henry Winkler and First News editor Nicky Cox with Torriano Junior School pupils

Published: 14 June, 2012
by PAVAN AMARA

CHILDREN at a Kentish Town school looked to The Fonz for inspiration this week.

Hollywood actor Henry Winkler, who played the Happy Days heart-throb, brought a buzz to Torriano Junior School when he told pupils he “got a bad grade in everything but lunch” during his own schooldays in New York City.

The star is touring more than 100 schools throughout the country to talk about being diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of 31, as part of the My Way! campaign organised by First News children’s newspaper.

“School was unbelievably hard for me,” said the 66-year-old.

“Teachers didn’t know what dyslexia was at that time so I was labeled a troublemaker, a class clown.

"I was told I was stupid, lazy and would never do anything with my life.

"I was a child so I believed it all.”

He told pupils at the Torriano Avenue school: “I need you all to understand that just because you learn differently to someone else, you are still incredibly smart.”

It took Mr Winkler four years to pass his high school maths exam, and for years he could not count the change he was given in shops.

“I just had to trust people were  being honest because my brain just didn’t understand it,” he said.

The father-of-three described how as a boy he was told off by his parents for not doing well at school.

“For years I didn’t even see the moon because I was kept indoors as punishment,” he said.

“Then when I started playing Fonz. I couldn’t read the lines, so I had to memorise them from the moment I got the script and someone read them to me.

"It’s then that I was diagnosed with dyslexia. I was angry. I thought: ‘I went through all this just because my brain is wired differently from other people?’

“But now the jacket I used to wear as The Fonz is in a Washington DC museum, I’m that cool.

"So if I can be that cool after I was told I’d fail, then you can too.

"You’ve got to be strong-willed, but also grateful for everything you’ve got. Keep going.”

Mr Winkler signed copies of his new book, Ghost Buddy, about a ghost who befriends a boy being bullied, and his The World’s Greatest Underachiever books.

Head of school Helen Bruckdorfer said: “We prepared all the kids by getting them to watch Happy Days, because at first a few of them didn’t know about The Fonz.

"The kids were excited but the parents were more excited. There were quite a few who wanted to see the assembly more than their kids.”