Reading and hearing the words of famous people with dyslexia and witnessing the pain they experienced as a child is heartbreaking. What is even more heartbreaking, however, is the fact that not much has changed in our school system.
Children with dyslexia are still suffering in school and dropping out. How many psychologists are able to trace a child's depression, alcoholism, drug abuse or even suicide to the fact that the child was actually dyslexic -- but never diagnosed?
If, as Canada reports, 1 out of 5 children is dyslexic, imagine being a teacher in a classroom of 25 students. Even if one child is being diagnosed as having dyslexia, what happens to the other four children?
Dyslexia and what's the deal with learning disabilities?
Below is an excerpt of our book What's The Deal With Learning Disabilities? Since we have discontinued the publication of the book due to costs, we do want to share some of its insights in the hope that it will make a difference in the lives of children with learning disabilities.In contrast to most books about learning disabilities like dyslexia, our book actually focuses on the amazing abilities in the word dis-ability.
After sharing some of the painful experiences of famous people with learning disabilities, the book actually focuses on what amazing abilities they discovered in their "dis-abilities" -- and what made all the difference in their lives.
Here are the painful voices of famous dyslexics:
“When I was growing up, no one knew what learning challenges were. So, I was called ‘stupid,’ ‘lazy,’and ‘not living up to my potential’ … Inside you feel one way, and people are telling you that you are
another way, and I couldn’t reconcile that.” (Henry Winkler, The Fonz)
“I only remember one B in my life. The rest were a few Cs, mostly Ds, and lots and lots and lots of Fs. …Throughout college, I learned a lot but I kept flunking out. I still couldn’t memorize. It was also hard for me to keep up with lectures. In chemistry, I remember my teacher writing on the board and talking about something else at the same time. I couldn’t follow either. And I could never keep up with all the reading.” (Dr. John (Jack) Horner, a consultant to Steven Spielberg for the movies, “Jurassic Park” and “The Lost World” was the real life model for the paleontologist in the movie Jurassic Park.)
“When I was young, I went to a million different schools. I kept falling further and further behind in my schoolwork because of it. My spelling was terrible; I couldn’t read quickly enough to get all my
homework done, and for me, math was like trying to understand Sanskrit. It was embarrassing for me not to be able to do the schoolwork that everyone else was doing. Was I stupid? I didn’t think I was. But all the signs pointed in that direction. I didn’t like authority, and I couldn’t understand the lessons.” (Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPiere, better known as Cher, did not learn that she was dyslexic until she was 30.)
“It’s painful to think about it. The nasty little secret was that I couldn’t read worth a darn.” (Charles
Schwab, 66, dyslexic financier, in an interview with the New York Times.)
“He told me that his teachers reported that…he was mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in his foolish dreams. Apparently nothing came easily, except, I suppose, Physics, when he finally got there. In the meantime, he could not remember the time’s tables, he couldn’t read very well, and spelling defeated him. It was even suggested that Albert might be mentally handicapped.” (Hans Albert Einstein about his father.)
“Young Anthony was a sensitive kid, happier drawing, painting and playing the piano (he's now a
virtuoso) than hanging with the other kids. A dyslexic, he was poor academically, once saying of himself ‘I was lousy in school. Real screwed-up. A moron. I was anti-social and didn't bother with the other kids. A really bad student. I didn't have any brains. I didn't know what I was doing there. That's why I became an actor.’ To separate him from the many other Hopkins at school, he became known as Mad Hopkins.”( Anthony Hopkins Biography)
“Despite Andrew Jackson’s intellectual promise, he never showed much ability to write, and his poor
spelling appalled his friends.”King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden has had some "hard and bitter" experiences in his struggle with dyslexia. Queen Silvia, in a TV interview shown Thursday in Stockholm, spoke publicly for the first time about the king's learning disorder. It became publicly apparent during a visit to a copper mine in 1973, when he signed his name on a rock wall and misspelled it.
“Whoopi had a lot of difficulty in school, but it was not until she was an adult did she learn that she had dyslexia. When Whoopi was growing up, she remembers being called dumb and stupid because she had a lot of problems reading.” (Whoopie Goldberg, actress and entertainer.)
The future of dyslexia
Unless we want children to continue to suffer like the above famous people with dyslexia, schools, teachers, parents, and society in general have to change.Our book about the amazing abilities in students with dyslexia or other learning dis-abilities (including emotional disabilities) is not for sale. Our school, the Academy of Exploration International, is closed for the major part.
However, we are continuing our work in trying to make a positive difference in the lives of children with dyslexia.
As such, we will be posting more excerpts from the book - which focuses on the abilities and not disabilities -- on our JTNews19 blog.
If you are interested in receiving the eBook copy of the book for FREE, send us an email to Exploration@cox.net. The discussion about the amazing abilities in children with learning dis-abilities is also continuing on Twitter.
The only thing we wish is that you will respect the purpose of the Academy of Exploration International -- to make a positive in the difference in the lives of children with learning disabilities like dyslexia.
