Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Article on dyslexia

I loved reading this yesterday. Working with some dyslexic students, you get a real feel for the things that they go through. Dyslexic novelist Sally Gardner writes:

"We are very keen on a very straight track in learning. You get on a train, the train stops and there are lots of flowers outside. The 'proper' children stay in the train and look at the flowers. The dyslexic child jumps off and says, 'Wow, there's lots of flowers' and goes off to explore.

"The train goes through the stations, while the child meanders through stream and fields. Then the child joins the train miles up the road and there's been no logical steps along the way, and it drives teachers and educators demented. That dyslexic child is incredibly stupid and incredibly clever at the same time - you haven't done the obvious bits but you've found other stops which education doesn't credit you for."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Apart from the fact that you can't have a "very straight" anything because it is either straight or it is not, I am no wiser as to the problems of dyslexia after reading that piece of whimsy than I was before. Is that woman soft in the head?