(Image stolen from a very funny page).
An MP (note, not someone with any medical or psychiatric training) has declared that dyslexia doesn’t exist. It’s all just a made-up excuse for people who can’t be bothered learning to read.
Well, it does exist. I’ve met a few people with genuine dyslexia, who have actually done rather well for themselves since the appearance of word processors and spell checkers. They’re not likely to be bestselling authors but they do okay. Dyslexia is not illiteracy, which is what this MP is talking about. Dyslexia limits written communication, less so now that computers will handily fix most spelling errors, but dylsexics are not necessarily illiterate.
On the other hand, one of the courses I used to teach on had a very small Honours year. We’d get no more than eight students on that year, sometimes only two or three, but every year, without fail, at least one would claim dyslexia.
The condition exists but it’s not common. Certainly not one-in-eight common. Most of those claiming dyslexia just couldn’t spell. They didn’t write letters or numbers reversed, they didn’t just mix up letters within a word. They simply could not spell. Shown the correct spelling, they could get it right from then on. A dyslexic could not.
Lunatic teaching experiments in schools left many with only phonetic spelling ability or none at all. Attitudes such as ‘we aren’t concerned about spelling’ left many with no ability to read, because they had never been taught the correct spellings of words and could not recognise them in print.
At the other extreme we have the dyslexia industry. Centres, charities, associations, and a lot of money made, somewhat ironically, from writing many, many books about dyslexia. So many Righteous now ride this particular wave, it’s no wonder they don’t want schools improving literacy levels. The few real dyslexics won’t keep all these busybodies occupied. They need an army of bad spellers they can excuse as dyslexic to swell their client base.
So we have an education system that de-emphasises spelling ability, followed by a troupe of Righteous ready to seize on these uneducated kids and label them with a condition they don’t have. They then encourage those kids to feel sorry for themselves, to become dependent and to feel Entitled to all kinds of benefits which are naturally, funneled through these same Righteous. It’s a big industry.
Naturally, this industry doesn’t like being interfered with.
About 6 million people suffer from the condition, according to the charity Dyslexia Action.
Six million dependents. They won’t be letting go easily.
“Once again dyslexia seems to be making the headlines for all the wrong reasons,” said Shirley Cramer, the charity’s chief executive. “It is frustrating that the focus should be on whether dyslexia exists or not, when there is so much evidence to support that it does.”
Yes, there is evidence to support that it does, but it’s been extended to cover plain old illiteracy as well. It’s used as an excuse for poor spelling and worse teaching. It’s used to excuse the experiments the socialists have played with in our schools, and which have failed, and which are then replaced with even more idiotic ideas. It’s used to feed the Righteous lust for control.
There are a few real dyslexics but the Righteous have extended this to be one in ten of the population. One in ten! Does anyone really, honestly believe that’s possible? When Nicaragua has nearly 100% literacy, how can one in ten of the population be dyslexic?
Dyslexia is not illiteracy. The former is a rare condition caused by a small brain defect, it’s controllable and manageable and most of those who have it find a way to get by. The latter is a common situation in the UK, and it’s entirely caused by socialist meddling in education and exacerbated by Righteous people-collecting programs.
The MP is wrong to say the condition doesn’t exist, but he is quite correct to call the surrounding masses of support groups an ‘industry’.
It’s not the only one, either.