julietsierra
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Joined: 9/26/2004
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quote:
ORIGINAL: DominaSmartass
That doesn't mean I can't still express my distaste at being presented with something by a grown adult who doesn't know how to spell words we learned in elementary school. I also know many people with learning disabilites and dyslexia and I SWEAR none of them are as bad as the people who type on this forum sometimes. I went to a special high school in fact, where I was surrounded by people with one form of learning disability or another (mine happens to be in math) and since I tutored many of my peers and also proofread and edited their papers, I consider myself familiar with and tolerant of those things. It was very common to see someone mistake words like there and their or here and here but it was not at all the norm for students' papers to read like a 4th grader using the hooked on phonics or "huked on foniks" as they might write it, system. There's my rant for the day.
Just because it was "not at all the norm" for you doesn't mean that the people who have difficulties don't exist. There are some on these boards. I work with people who are significantly impaired when it comes to their spelling abilities.
I recently asked someone if all the teaching anyone ever did and all the self-teaching he ever did on himself had any effect on his ability to spell. His answer: "No. Not a bit. Not at all. For some people phonics sometimes works, but not for everyone."
And the man is brilliant - and in charge of other teachers.
There are presidents of universities that are dyslexic. There are CEOs who are dyslexic - and some of these CEOs are in charge of large well known companies. They are by no means, slackers when it comes to intelligence - even if they can't spell words that most people learned back in elementary school.
Look at 100 people with dyslexia and I can pretty much assure you that you will find 100 different manifestations of dyslexia since it is an umbrella label and not a description of specific difficulties. Flipping ds and bs are just one manifestation. Being unable to set up sentence structure in a "proper" form is another. Being unable to discern one homophone from another (like gait and gate) is another. The inability to differentiate between two similar words (Harry and Larry) is another, and sometimes someone's dyslexia encompasses ALL of these things - including the inability to recall grammatical rules and their myriad of exceptions.
Furthermore, in studies of dyslexic people it's been found that their brains process about 4 times faster than what is considered "normal." This means that they're certainly not stupid by any means, and if their ability to write could keep pace with their ability to think, it's US who would be considered to be "disabled."
When it comes to spelling though, instead of seeing the word in their heads like most of us learn to do, they see the picture, and then have to sort through things to find the word for what they see, then try to remember how to spell that word, and THEN get it down on paper. Meanwhile, they've just seen 5 more pictures in their heads. An analogy to what they're required to do that we do without even thinking is akin to rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time. Some people can, most people can't.
Test yourself. Go watch the movie "Man on Fire" and give a detailed description - in writing - of just one of the scenes that they present in time-lapse photography before the next scene shows up. You'll get just a TASTE of what a dyslexic goes through on any given day.
So, while it may not have been the norm *for you* to have seen this in your school, that does not say that these situations don't exist for others, and relating EVERYTHING you see in terms of only what you know without regard to the possibilities creates a very small world indeed.
But you're absolutely right...there's nothing out there that says you can't express your "distaste." However the fact that someone's disability is "distasteful" to you says an awful lot. What a shame that "your poor brain" might have to be subjected - even for a short amount of time - to someone else's disability. I feel for you. I really do. Then again, as those people with this disability work hard to make things easier for "your poor brain," I wonder, how their brain feels...
juliet
< Message edited by julietsierra -- 1/3/2007 9:23:07 AM >
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