hen Eleanor Milne began her schooling at Saint Paul's Academy in Montréal, she experienced difficulty learning to read. Her family refused to believe that this bright and capable girl was academically challenged, and they insisted that she continue attending school, although the suggestion had been made that she be educated at home. When Milne went to boarding school at the Sacred Heart Convent in Ahunsic, she was lucky to fall under the supervision of Mother MacCafrie (who had obtained a Masters degree in European History). In Mother MacCafrie's small class of five students, she believed that Milne was bright and gifted, and worked with her on an individual basis.

Milne jokes that once she scored zero on an I.Q. exam as a result of her dyslexia, which causes her to read diagonally, rather than in a linear manner. Despite early setbacks she feels her dyslexia has proven helpful in terms of her design work. Milne is able to visualize beyond normal capabilities, rearranging objects in her head and then transferring them perfectly to paper. As Dominion Sculptor, this allowed her to stop working in the traditional manner of modelling before sculpting, and she began to work directly on the stone. Previous to Eleanor Milne, carvers would work from elaborate plaster models, often designed by the chief architects of Parliament Hill.