Child Abuse

Dyslexics are anything but dumb

Dyslexics are anything but Dumb

Place the world?s most famous scientist in a room with the world?s most renowned inventor. Add some of the top executives in the world, along with generals, artists, sculptors, filmmakers, writers and rock stars. Ask ourselves what these original thinkers have in common. They will all have fiercely independent minds. They will all possess an ability to see outside the ?box.? They will all be dyslexic.

Incredible as it may seem, to be dyslexic is to be considered to have a learning disability. It is to suffer a stigmatism and even in some cases to be labelled remedial and even backward. This is a tragic mistake. It is a misconception that is back to front, crazy, and wrong. It might even be considered a crime against both children and adults. By any other standards they would be valued as talented and even exceptional. It is our shame that for so long we have treated these gifted dyslexics as people who need help, sympathy and pity. It is a scandal of the first order that anyone could consider calling or mistaking a dyslexic student, dumb.

The trouble is that we educate our children in a system that is narrow and perverse. We decide that an ability to read, write and add up numbers is the basis of our education. We think the clever children are those who read quickly. We are proud of those who write and are clever with numbers. ?Well done!? We say, ?aren?t they clever?? Conversely, we decide that those who cannot read nor have difficulty with reading are slow or remedial. In our narrow conventions, we think they must be stupid and have learning difficulties. More often than not our first response is to place these children into lower, ?difficult? groups.

If you can read, then you can learn. Reading is our primary method of picking up and transferring information. What if you struggle with words not because you are stupid but simply because your brain works in another way? What if words,... [continues]

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