Dyslexics, who they are?

About 10 percent of all students in public schools have special needs that are fulfilled through special education.

A few percent are gifted children who lose patience learning with their mainstream classmates. Special programs, Enhanced Learning (EL) in elementary schools and SEEK in the middle and high schools, are offered for them.

About 5 percent are students that have different kinds of problems, including mental illness.

About 5 percent are dyslexic. Usually, they are normal, intelligent children, a majority of whom are very smart. The only difference is in their way of learning to read, write and solve mathematical problems. The problem is that they cannot learn the same way as mainstream children. Years pass before they are diagnosed as dyslexic. Some of them manage to graduate from high school being barely able to read and write. In most cases they considered stupid, and a majority of dyslexics believe this themselves. Usually, they are the targets of teasing and humiliation from their classmates or even teachers. While many dyslexics became great people, the fate of the majority of them is very dim.

Who are dyslexics? While the term dyslexia has been used since the late 1880s, a serious and complete definition was adopted by the International Dyslexia Association in 1994 that states:

Dyslexia is a neurologically based, often familiar disorder which interferes with the acquisition and processing of language. Varying in degrees of severity, it is manifested by difficulties in receptive and expressive language – including phonological processing – in reading, writing, spelling, handwriting, and sometimes in arithmetic. Dyslexia is not a result of motivation, sensory impairment, inadequate instructional or environmental opportunities, or other limiting conditions, but may occur together with these conditions. Also dyslexia is lifelong, individuals with dyslexia frequently respond successfully to timely and appropriate intervention.

“Leonardo da Vinci, Hans Christian Andersen, Albert Einstein, and Niels Bohr are supermen who survived the handicap of dyslexia” claims the Dyslexic Society. Michael Faraday, George Patton, Lewis Carroll, and many other famous people can be added to this list.

Here are some of the most famous dyslexics:

Thomas Edison, the greatest inventor (1847-1931). In 1855, at the age of eight, Thomas went to school for the only time in his life. His curiosity, poor hearing, and playing tricks soon got him into trouble. After only three months the schoolmaster said he was retarded and his mother took him away from the school. She taught Thomas at home.

Albert Einstein, the greatest physicist (1879-1955). In line with family legend, when Hermann Einstein asked his son’s headmaster what profession his son should adopt, the answer was simply: “It doesn’t matter; he’ll never make a success of anything.”

Professor Hermann Minkowski described Einstein to Max Born as "The 'lazy dog' who never bothered [with] mathematics at all. Minkowski was Einstein’s teacher at ETH in Switzerland. Einstein’s schoolteachers and college professors did not recognize that he was dyslexic. They consider his poor learning success as laziness while his questions and arguments with professors showed his deep understanding of subjects and irritated his teachers. After Albert Einstein graduated ETH, he could not find a teaching job because his professors gave him negative references.?