The Gift of Dyslexia

by | Dec 6, 2021 | Tutorial | 85 comments

No one would say that you are lucky to have a learning disability, let alone having any disability.  Few of us would say how incredibly blessed we are to have any kind of disability.

This very thing reminds me of something I had heard awhile back, when gluten-intolerance was beginning to be recognized and accepted for what it is and when gluten-free food was becoming widely available.

I’d hear about people saying, “You are so lucky to have to eat gluten-free.”

I’m sure that those with a gluten-intolerance and other dietary restrictions and requirements would be quick to disagree about how lucky others see them.

And that pretty much goes with having any kind of disabilities.

I was diagnosed as having dyslexia in my early twenties and it sure explained a lot of things about my earlier education.  When I became a teacher, I made sure my students knew I had dyslexia, a learning disability, and through hard work I made myself successful academically.

Many years ago I taught middle school social studies and those familiar with the education business know that parent-teacher conferences are commonplace, especially for failing students.

I sat in on many middle school parent-teacher conferences and many of those were interventions for failing students.  Parents seemed to be surprised and a little angry that I didn’t have the expected sympathy for their child who was failing.  Many hoped that their child had a learning disability!  That would explain their child’s substandard performance.

Parents told me, “Mr. Neil, you have learning disability.  How can you be so hard on my child who is failing, probably because they have a learning disability.  We sure hope they have a learning disability.”

My response was something like this: Yes, I have a learning disability and I worked very hard.  I probably had to work harder than my peers to achieve the same as them.  But I don’t see your child trying.  I see zero effort.  I really have a difficult time feeling sympathy for someone who fails and doesn’t even try.

I have yet to see someone try their best and fail.

Back in the day students didn’t have learning disabilities.  There were only lazy students who didn’t try hard enough.  That’s what I was told.

This was seemingly confirmed by my grades: top student in science and social studies, in the top five for math, but vying for the bottom in writing, spelling, and English comprehension.  The parents and teachers seemed convinced that I wasn’t trying hard enough in the subjects I was failing in.

Except that I was putting in more time and effort to fail writing, spelling, and English comprehension than I was to excel in science, social studies, and math.

I barely squeaked by writing, spelling, and English comprehension in high school and in college I was a straight B student in those subjects no matter how much effort I put forth.  Most of my other grades were A grades with much less effort put forth.

Those familiar with learning disabilities and with dyslexia in particular see through the inaccurate assumptions of the day.  Dyslexia is a perceptual disability and it affects how we take in information, especially the written word.  Reading for those of us with this disability takes much physical effort and concentration – much more than for the average non-dyslexic person.

But other subjects don’t require reading.  Science, social studies and math are visual without much reading.  Much of it is aural, so a combination of images with a verbal explanation was all I needed to understand a new concept.

Having a near-photographic memory certainly helped.  I’d memorize a board full of notes rather than try to understand a concept.  In fact, I passed math with flying colors not even understanding what I was actually doing.  I just memorized the process.

I wonder if my good memory was compensating for my perceptual disability.

Today I teach college Geography, a demanding physical science class.  I have earned a masters degree and two teaching credentials.  My students know this on the first day of class, that I have a learning disability and yet I worked hard to succeed.

While no one will say that I am blessed to have a learning disability, this has certainly led me to not take things for granted and to know my limitations.

Some might be wondering why I didn’t take advantage of disabled students services in college.  In fact, I registered and tested.  But I have been living in the non-disabled world so long and functioning quite well in it, that I passed the tests as a non-dyslexic person would have.

I had learned test-taking skills and comprehension skills, many of which are taught to learning disabled students.  I figured them out of sheer necessity.

Am I lucky to have dyslexia?  Definitely not.  Is having dyslexia a gift?  Not one that I would have asked for.

Does having a learning disability make me a failure?  Definitely not!  I have proven that you can succeed and thrive with a learning disability and I’m sure that goes for any type of disability.

All it takes is drive and ambition to succeed anywhere in life.  You just have to want it badly enough.

Learning disability or not, don’t sell yourself short.  You are much more intelligent and of much higher value than you may give yourself credit for.

85 Comments

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