DYSLEXIA RULES! KO?

We hear lots of criticism these days about the standard of education and I often have doubts as to where the truth lies. Pupils leaving school without a good understanding of spelling and numbers quite naturally grab the headlines but I feel that the hundreds of thousands who perform well are under-reported. Indeed, when they do well in examinations often the same people who highlight the low achievers start screaming that standards of marking have fallen and the examinations are too easy. Sorry Kids, you are going to be at fault whatever you do in some people's eyes, it's called being young!

The example is often given of the old-fashioned schooling that many pupils got 50 years ago. Well, I can go back further than that. Seventy years ago when I was at Hope Memorial Church School in Heaton Norris, Stockport we definitely got an 'old-fashioned' education and I suspect many of my older readers shared the experience. We weren't abused by the standards of 1940 but a clip round the ear, a good shaking or even a caning on the hand was commonplace and today would be seen as cruelty. This may be true but I can't honestly say I was scarred for life. What is certain is that I got a good basic education by the age of nine in 1945 and when I went on to my next school for two years before taking the entrance examinations for the Grammar School the teachers there found I was so far in front of the other pupils that all I did for two years was read and learn poetry and pop to the shop for the headmaster's tobacco. Mr Bowers sat in his little office and smoked like a factory chimney all day, in itself an anachronism these days.

However, it isn't standards of education that interests me today, I have another matter in mind. How many of you had a classmate who was regarded as 'slow', someone who didn't seem to be able to learn like the other children. In Victorian times such children were often called 'congenital idiots' and abandoned by the system. Indeed, many ended up in workhouses or long-term care in mental institutions. Thank God, today we are more enlightened and have recognised a wide range of minor disabilities which, if picked up soon enough can be overcome by specialised teaching. One of the most common is what we now call Dyslexia. Broadly speaking this is defined as a difficulty in learning caused by different brain patterns, not being wired up in the same way as 'normal' children. It doesn't always manifest itself as a learning deficiency but can take other, less obvious forms. As we have become more aware of the condition and research has been done we now have a far better handle on what Dyslexia is.

So what got me off on this topic today? Two things really, one was a splendid discussion on my favourite BBC programme, Woman's Hour and the other is the fact that I have suspected for a long time that I am mildly dyslexic. According to the latest research I may not alone. It is thought that that as many as one person in five has some degree of dyslexia, many of these being so mild that they are never recognised. For many years I was puzzled by the fact that I couldn't get my head round certain things, changing time zones when travelling by air was one of them. I remember a lady trying to explain how it was possible for me to get on a 'plane at Perth in Western Australia and arrive in Los Angeles one hour afterwards on the same day. I have always had a problem with what I call reversals, like the relationship between the hole in a bed of foundry sand and the shape of the casting that comes out of it. In the Shed I tend to make mistakes with orienting parts correctly and have to be very careful. I sometimes make spelling mistakes and don't even see them when I proof read a piece. I know that my youngest daughter, though incredibly intelligent, has problems at times relating her knitting to the pattern so it might run in the family.

I am lucky, none of this has ever been a handicap, indeed, it took me seventy years to recognise it. So it was nice to hear a good discussion the other day on Woman's Hour which included a man who, though quite severely dyslexic, was a successful and very creative director. The point that the expert was making was that dyslexia should not be seen as a wholly negative influence. According to her many dyslexics have compensations, they can be extra-creative, good story-tellers and very good at lateral thinking, examining problems from a different angle, 'thinking outside the box'. It could well be that some of the discards from education in earlier years, the 'slow' and even 'the congenital idiots' may have had within them hidden seeds of genius that were never encouraged or developed. Even today, there may be such children who, even though recognised as simply being wired up differently never get the help to develop their inherent skills.

Part of the problem is I suspect very deep-seated. Animals have a long history of disliking anything that is 'different'. Think of Albino Crows being mobbed by other crows and old women being burned as witches because they didn't conform to society's norms. This is why I found the discussion on Woman's Hour so positive, they were looking at the advantages that could be gained from thinking differently and not regarding it as a handicap. Of course I could be wrong about my self-diagnosed condition but I don't think so. I have friends who are writers and when we talk about the process they are always surprised by how easy I find it to get ideas out of my head onto the page. Something is different.

So, if any of this rings a bell with you, think of any possible mild dyslexia as a bonus if used properly. It is not a 'handicap', it is merely a difference and it may be that some degree of this 'difference' is what makes us individuals. Dyslexics are just more individual and I wish them well!

The Wesleyan School in 1983. How many gifted children slipped through the net?


Stanley Challenger Graham




Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk