The teacher kept saying it would suddenly dawn on me. That there would be a cloud-clearing, sun-streaming moment of revelation and I would miraculously get it.

I [Elizabeth] was in the ninth grade and the "it" was working out proofs in geometry. For months I had been struggling to understand why the teacher and some of my friends could look at a problem and immediately visualize, then verbalize, how to get from A to B to C. No matter how many proofs I worked through with the teacher the moment I sat in front of one by myself I was clueless. I had never been any good at math and my frustration in geometry was simply another notch in the belt I wore that proclaimed, "I'll never get math!" Despite the teacher's encouragement I had absolutely no faith that I would ever "get it."

But she was …