Dyslexic Education

[YAid2002]

I question the sacrifice of time, money, and self-esteem required to achieve modest improvements in the reading skills of dyslexic students, who will never be any good at it. For eleven years, I reluctantly sent my seriously dyslexic son to public schools where his intelligence was squandered in the service of a hopeless and demoralizing effort to turn him into a "reader". Ironically, the accommodations he was given--more time for reading and writing--were not required by his dyslexia so much as by the insistence that he attend remedial versions of traditional classes where the format relied heavily on textbooks, written exercises, and timed written exams. The obvious solution--allowing him to learn by listening and demonstrate that knowledge by speaking--was denied him. Consequently, his education was largely limited to what he could learn by reading, and his intelligence was judged based on what he could communicate by writing. During the 20th century, there was a similarly regrettable movement in education when deaf children were routinely denied sign language in an effort to turn them into normal speakers. Sadly, we learned nothing from that.