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The traditional education system is discriminating against dyslexic students
20% of the population have dyslexia. People with dyslexia tend to be extremely intelligent. However, the traditional education system for high school and college are not designed for students with dyslexia. This makes learning incredibly challenging and can cause them to feel like they are less intelligent, when in reality they have a superior intellect which is being suppressed due to the flawed education system. Teachers and professors sometimes realize or admit that the education system is flawed, but they are required to teach using the traditional methods which have been used for years. Dyslexia is more of an advantage, but they are treating it like a disability. Dyslexic students shouldn’t need special help for their education, especially if they want to blend in with everyone else. This is discrimination. The education system should be changed so that students with dyslexia can thrive. This would also improve the education for the other 80%. Also, students with dyslexia are often very bad at taking tests or quizzes, even if they are amazing students. In general, good students can be bad test takers, and bad students can be good test takers. Teachers and professors know this, but they don’t usually do anything about it. The ACT/SAT is designed specifically for the 80%, and other tests which are similar to it. This also prevents people with dyslexia from getting degrees which they would thrive in, because the education to obtain that degree is not designed for them. Students are often expected to memorize large amounts of information. This can be difficult for any student, but for those with dyslexia it is a nightmare. Their memory works differently and they can't learn using these methods. They’re focusing on what they can’t do, instead of focusing on what they can do. Dyslexic students also have the abilities that the job force is looking for due to recent changes in it, but the education system isn’t teaching them correctly.
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I also think that the system of education is very difficult, but not only for people with dyslexia. I am an ordinary person, but it is very difficult for me to cope with the workload. That is why I use this service https://myhomeworkdone.com/pay-for.html to help me with my homework. I have more free time to study the subjects that interest me. Experienced writers who work there do everything quickly. The prices are quite loyal, depending on what you need to do.
20% seemed awfully high to me but is apparently the high end of academically accepted estimates… [Which likely means the actual number is somewhat lower.
q.v. The Prevalence of Dyslexia: A New Approach to its Estimation if inclned to wade through an academic paper.]
Of course, the modern "educational system" derives more from Dewey's desire to socialize children to be proper members of society than to teach how to think (or how to learn).
[q.v. 25. Phooey on John Dewey (and a number of other quite readable essays at the site ]
Also, dyslexics are far from the only group for whom the one-size-fits-none antics of the modern classroom are [to be excedingly diplomatic] sub-optimal.
Some indication as to what changes are seen as fixing/mitigating the problem would make the OP more interesting.
[And paragraphs and other organizational techniques would make it more digestable.]
q.v. The Prevalence of Dyslexia: A New Approach to its Estimation if inclned to wade through an academic paper.]
Of course, the modern "educational system" derives more from Dewey's desire to socialize children to be proper members of society than to teach how to think (or how to learn).
[q.v. 25. Phooey on John Dewey (and a number of other quite readable essays at the site ]
Also, dyslexics are far from the only group for whom the one-size-fits-none antics of the modern classroom are [to be excedingly diplomatic] sub-optimal.
Some indication as to what changes are seen as fixing/mitigating the problem would make the OP more interesting.
[And paragraphs and other organizational techniques would make it more digestable.]
The article itself is good, but I don’t support its conclusion. They suggest having special services for people with dyslexia, and I don’t think that is a good idea. Education has stayed roughly the same for over a 100 years. Cars have advanced, phones have advanced, but education is stuck in the past. They have introduced teaching through electronics, new types of curriculums, but their methods are still the same. People with dyslexia are just like everyone else, they just learn and think differently, so they are thought to have a disability. If everyone on earth was blind, but a small group of people could see, it would be considered a disability. The world wouldn’t be designed for a person who could see, because the assumption would be that everyone is the same.
Those who lack dyslexia tend to use common methods of doing things, while those with dyslexia are creative and innovative because their minds combine multiple different pieces of methods to make something new or solve a problem. In fact, many famous inventors and artists had this condition. They’re the ones who change the world, but the world is not designed for them. That is not saying that ordinary individuals can’t have the same impact, they just tend to use traditional methods to get the results.
The fact that 20% of the population have dyslexia is true, though it would realistically be slightly below that number. A lot of them grow out of their writing difficulties, so most don't even notice that they have it. It is thought that the condition is rare, but that is a myth.
Not much would need to be changed to be inclusive of those with dyslexia. It wouldn't be a one-size-fits-all approach anymore and would instead include lots of different education methods packed together to become a new type of one-size-fits-all. This would be in school, high-school, and college.
This could include:
Other education changes that should be made
Those who lack dyslexia tend to use common methods of doing things, while those with dyslexia are creative and innovative because their minds combine multiple different pieces of methods to make something new or solve a problem. In fact, many famous inventors and artists had this condition. They’re the ones who change the world, but the world is not designed for them. That is not saying that ordinary individuals can’t have the same impact, they just tend to use traditional methods to get the results.
The fact that 20% of the population have dyslexia is true, though it would realistically be slightly below that number. A lot of them grow out of their writing difficulties, so most don't even notice that they have it. It is thought that the condition is rare, but that is a myth.
Not much would need to be changed to be inclusive of those with dyslexia. It wouldn't be a one-size-fits-all approach anymore and would instead include lots of different education methods packed together to become a new type of one-size-fits-all. This would be in school, high-school, and college.
This could include:
- Using audiobooks.
- Including read-to-me on all online quizzes and text.
- Not having any schoolwork which requires memorization.
- Teaching more on mathematical formulas instead of teaching how to solve the problem. This is because it is very common for those with dyslexia to also have dyscalculia. Focusing heavily on formulas would allow them to understand the mathematical concepts. This would also be highly beneficial to other students too.
- When learning how to spell, teaching the correct direction of the letter could be included. Students could use this if they need it or just ignore it. This could include adding a mnemonic approach.
- Teaching how to spell words using the visual appearance of words, instead of relying on sounding out the word. This is because words look nothing like they sound, and it is even more difficult for someone with dyslexia. This could make getting a rich vocabulary easier.
- Having more assignments and less quizzes/tests.
- All online quizzes and tests should be a specific type of quiz which is sometimes referred to as a homework quiz, and can be a type adaptive quiz. These quizzes will test the individual on a specific problem until they get it right and understand it.
- Schoolwork could include multiple different methods of learning the same topic. This could include visual learning and audible learning, videos, and examples. This could be implemented instead of just having one method like a strict curriculum.
- The SAT/ACT is not designed for someone with dyslexia and it is discriminatory to require it. There should be a different solution for this.
- Language is being taught in a way where dyslexic students struggle with it.
- Learning should not be centered around reading and taking instructions.
Other education changes that should be made
- Another thing that needs to change about education is that students should be taught how to function in society. This includes buying a house, making a budget, and everything else a student would need to know what to do, so they don’t have to learn it when they are in college or when they’re on their own.
- Less mathematics should be required. Most individuals do not need advanced mathematics and it can be incredibly challenging.
- Students should be taught how to learn instead of being taught what to think. This doesn’t necessarily mean that a teacher can’t have their own bias, it just shouldn’t be the main focus.
- I know that many students struggle with handwriting because they’re physically incapable. I never struggled with this, but because many students do, something needs to be changed about this requirement. Some people’s handwriting naturally gets better as they get older anyways.
Very long, but a topic inportant enough to merit the attention… [IMO and, at least apparently, in yours]
Thank you for the extended reply (and for 'prettying-up' the formatting — I find this much more readable).
I would question the assertion that US education has remained unchanged for the last century, although many of the changes [eg. replacing phonics with 'whole word' (by any of it smany aliases)] have been detrimental. This difference may be due to our having differing ideas of what 'roughly the same' means; if you are meaning the group based, bell controlled, factory-like environment – I can see your point. Many other aspects have, however, shown significant change. [The shift of emphasis to science/math in the 50's (often attributed to the Cold War) and the decline/removeal of 'tracking' students (largely in the late 60's & 70's) being cases in point.]
"[H]aving special services for people with dyslexia" may have a similar issue as I am old enough to remember when 'special classes' meant specially advanced and what is currently called 'special' went by 'remedial' or 'fundamental' or 'practical'.
Ignoring that potential issue, even allowing, per argumentum, the 20% number this places dyslexics in the minority which means attempts to provided targeted help for this group will, by definition, not be mainstream.
To employt your analogy: we have soecial services for the blind [braille on ATM buttons / speaking elevators] but the base case in each remands that designed fro the 'normies'.
Avoiding the trap of the one-size-fits-none system would surely be beneficial to those with many different departures from the fantasy of the 'average/typical student' and a variety of approaches to implementing this should be tried. [Given the manefest failures of the current system (q.v. recent news out of Baltimore), there would seem to be little downsidfe to making the attempt.]
Numbered ideas:
1&2) These are often already available for visually impaired students, although I am under the impression that much of the resistance to making them more widely available comes from the fear that they will become permanent crutches for students for whom reading is more difficult.
Given that normal concersational speech is generally considered to be ~250-300 wpm [words per minute] while 600 wpm reading was not considered extraordinary for college educated adults (college education being believed to indicate more practice – although, alternatively, it may represent a filter for 'good' readers.)
EDIT: Did a bit of quick searching and found modern estimates have fallen to under 200 wpm, although some sources suggest increases to 500-750 wpm without loss of comprehension are commonly acheivable with practice. This strikes me as odd as many of the students in my college prep classes had speeds above 1200 wpm.
Even allowing that reading speeds were somehow mis-measured 'back in the day', the ability to easily check back on what ws said in a previous paragraph and the minimal 'tech' needed to access printed material would make facile reading still appear to be a critical skill to master.
3) My personal slang for memorization (both as student and teacher) was/is 'mesmerization' a deliberate malapropism intended to denigrate the practice.
That said: any field will have at least some material which committing to memory will greatly ease further learning. As examples: single digit addition and multiplication tables; symbols for chemical elements; color coding for the values of resistors in electronics; area and volume formulas [eg volume of a sphere 4/3Πr2]
4) I don't understand what you mean; when/where I was educated, learning 'how to solve a [type of] problem' was learning the relevant formula and how to find what numbers plugged into which variables…
5) This used to be a standard part of education: I remember 'b' vs. 'd' and 'q' vs. 'p' from preschool. If the practice has lapsed, it ought be brought back.
6) This strikes me as being a description of the failed 'Whole Word' technique. This does not means it may not be generally useful for some students [potentially dyslexics] (and occassionally usefull to others), but 40 years of declining reading competence strongly correlated to incresing use of 'Whole Word' programs renders me quire skeptical of it producing general success.
7&8) Absolute disagreement. Even granting that students don't cheat on homework assignments [and that is a very real problem], the abilty to internalize material and be able to access and deploy knowledge from memory is a critical ability.
The form of quizzes/tests, however, is ripe for reform/restoration. Multi-guess, fill-in-the-blank, and similar froms (often referred to as regurgitaion testing) are greatly preferred for ease of grading.
[250 100 question ScanTron™ sheets take ~1min vs. a few hours for 10 open answer questions.
There is also the issue of unarguablity; helicopter parents have a much harder time disputing marking 'A' vs 'B' than how much understanding a paragraph and some equations show.]
9) I'm unclear what is meant by "…one method like a strict curriculum"; 'proper' teaching [as one was expected to do in my day] included the idea that graphics and manipulatives were conducive to improved student performance is appropriately employed.
This, again, may be a differnce in our respective experiences, but — taking textbooks as example; between frequent sections/headers/subheaders, wide margins (sometimes with trivial glosses), and pictures (often only peripherally related to the topic) modern textbooks frequently have less than 25% of each page devoted to providing material but are vary 'pretty' [The industry term for this is that the books offer good 'filp-through'; that is a schhol board member flipping through the book (without reading) will be impressed.] Contrariwise, the texts from which I was taught where more likely to suffer from what is now called 'wall-of-text'.
10) I think the SAT/ACT (as well as the MCAT/LCAT/GRE) are overvalued, but some check is needed when schools consistently 'gradute' illiterates lacking even basic arithmatic skills…
11} Not sure whether you are referringto English or foreign language instruction.
12) Reading/taking instructions is a vital life skill [Failling to do so is why circular saws are referred to as 'finger-loppers' by some of the carpenters I know].
It ought not be the 'center' of instruction, but must be taught/practicesd.
Other changes section:
1) This sort of life skill should be taught by parents/other relatives. Given the all too frequent failures visible in modern society, I agree that somebody needs to step-up on this issue, but it ought not be inserted into traditional school subjects [Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Civics, Science].
Rather, one or more additional courses à la Health/Driver Ed/Consumer Ed. (Much of this sort of thing used to be covered in Home Ec, but that subject seems tp have fallen out of favor.)
Aside from not taking time from the core subjects, ther is tha issue that just because someone can teach Math or Chemistry, does not mean the person is competent to teach how to buy a car/invest money — much less that one would want that person teaching one's child these subjects.
2} Given the exceedingly poor arithmetic skills currently being produced, I would say more (not less) attention needs to be paid the subject.
What qualifies as 'advanced mathematics' is an open question, but at least some ability through at least basic algebra seems increasingly important as technology plays an increasing role in general life.
3) "Students should be taught how to learn instead of being taught what to think."
ABSOLUTELY! how to think is education, what to think is indoctrination. Sadly, the inherent need to teach "Thou SHALT question authority" as part of how to think seems a pill too bitter for bureaucrats (and all too many parents to swallow).
4) I did/do struggle with 'unreadable' [cursive] handwriting – to the point I was only let out of remedial instruction when it was realized thay I could do calligraphy with some skill. My issue was/remains that I cannot write (or type) as fast as I think, leading to sloppiness as my hand tries to keep up.
Heretical as it may be, I will concede that cursivemay be reaching the point where it joins cutting a proper quill as an interesting hobby, although being able to read cursive seems likely to remain a useful skill for some time.
Thank you for the extended reply (and for 'prettying-up' the formatting — I find this much more readable).
I would question the assertion that US education has remained unchanged for the last century, although many of the changes [eg. replacing phonics with 'whole word' (by any of it smany aliases)] have been detrimental. This difference may be due to our having differing ideas of what 'roughly the same' means; if you are meaning the group based, bell controlled, factory-like environment – I can see your point. Many other aspects have, however, shown significant change. [The shift of emphasis to science/math in the 50's (often attributed to the Cold War) and the decline/removeal of 'tracking' students (largely in the late 60's & 70's) being cases in point.]
"[H]aving special services for people with dyslexia" may have a similar issue as I am old enough to remember when 'special classes' meant specially advanced and what is currently called 'special' went by 'remedial' or 'fundamental' or 'practical'.
Ignoring that potential issue, even allowing, per argumentum, the 20% number this places dyslexics in the minority which means attempts to provided targeted help for this group will, by definition, not be mainstream.
To employt your analogy: we have soecial services for the blind [braille on ATM buttons / speaking elevators] but the base case in each remands that designed fro the 'normies'.
Avoiding the trap of the one-size-fits-none system would surely be beneficial to those with many different departures from the fantasy of the 'average/typical student' and a variety of approaches to implementing this should be tried. [Given the manefest failures of the current system (q.v. recent news out of Baltimore), there would seem to be little downsidfe to making the attempt.]
Numbered ideas:
1&2) These are often already available for visually impaired students, although I am under the impression that much of the resistance to making them more widely available comes from the fear that they will become permanent crutches for students for whom reading is more difficult.
Given that normal concersational speech is generally considered to be ~250-300 wpm [words per minute] while 600 wpm reading was not considered extraordinary for college educated adults (college education being believed to indicate more practice – although, alternatively, it may represent a filter for 'good' readers.)
EDIT: Did a bit of quick searching and found modern estimates have fallen to under 200 wpm, although some sources suggest increases to 500-750 wpm without loss of comprehension are commonly acheivable with practice. This strikes me as odd as many of the students in my college prep classes had speeds above 1200 wpm.
Even allowing that reading speeds were somehow mis-measured 'back in the day', the ability to easily check back on what ws said in a previous paragraph and the minimal 'tech' needed to access printed material would make facile reading still appear to be a critical skill to master.
3) My personal slang for memorization (both as student and teacher) was/is 'mesmerization' a deliberate malapropism intended to denigrate the practice.
That said: any field will have at least some material which committing to memory will greatly ease further learning. As examples: single digit addition and multiplication tables; symbols for chemical elements; color coding for the values of resistors in electronics; area and volume formulas [eg volume of a sphere 4/3Πr2]
4) I don't understand what you mean; when/where I was educated, learning 'how to solve a [type of] problem' was learning the relevant formula and how to find what numbers plugged into which variables…
5) This used to be a standard part of education: I remember 'b' vs. 'd' and 'q' vs. 'p' from preschool. If the practice has lapsed, it ought be brought back.
6) This strikes me as being a description of the failed 'Whole Word' technique. This does not means it may not be generally useful for some students [potentially dyslexics] (and occassionally usefull to others), but 40 years of declining reading competence strongly correlated to incresing use of 'Whole Word' programs renders me quire skeptical of it producing general success.
7&8) Absolute disagreement. Even granting that students don't cheat on homework assignments [and that is a very real problem], the abilty to internalize material and be able to access and deploy knowledge from memory is a critical ability.
The form of quizzes/tests, however, is ripe for reform/restoration. Multi-guess, fill-in-the-blank, and similar froms (often referred to as regurgitaion testing) are greatly preferred for ease of grading.
[250 100 question ScanTron™ sheets take ~1min vs. a few hours for 10 open answer questions.
There is also the issue of unarguablity; helicopter parents have a much harder time disputing marking 'A' vs 'B' than how much understanding a paragraph and some equations show.]
9) I'm unclear what is meant by "…one method like a strict curriculum"; 'proper' teaching [as one was expected to do in my day] included the idea that graphics and manipulatives were conducive to improved student performance is appropriately employed.
This, again, may be a differnce in our respective experiences, but — taking textbooks as example; between frequent sections/headers/subheaders, wide margins (sometimes with trivial glosses), and pictures (often only peripherally related to the topic) modern textbooks frequently have less than 25% of each page devoted to providing material but are vary 'pretty' [The industry term for this is that the books offer good 'filp-through'; that is a schhol board member flipping through the book (without reading) will be impressed.] Contrariwise, the texts from which I was taught where more likely to suffer from what is now called 'wall-of-text'.
10) I think the SAT/ACT (as well as the MCAT/LCAT/GRE) are overvalued, but some check is needed when schools consistently 'gradute' illiterates lacking even basic arithmatic skills…
11} Not sure whether you are referringto English or foreign language instruction.
12) Reading/taking instructions is a vital life skill [Failling to do so is why circular saws are referred to as 'finger-loppers' by some of the carpenters I know].
It ought not be the 'center' of instruction, but must be taught/practicesd.
Other changes section:
1) This sort of life skill should be taught by parents/other relatives. Given the all too frequent failures visible in modern society, I agree that somebody needs to step-up on this issue, but it ought not be inserted into traditional school subjects [Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Civics, Science].
Rather, one or more additional courses à la Health/Driver Ed/Consumer Ed. (Much of this sort of thing used to be covered in Home Ec, but that subject seems tp have fallen out of favor.)
Aside from not taking time from the core subjects, ther is tha issue that just because someone can teach Math or Chemistry, does not mean the person is competent to teach how to buy a car/invest money — much less that one would want that person teaching one's child these subjects.
2} Given the exceedingly poor arithmetic skills currently being produced, I would say more (not less) attention needs to be paid the subject.
What qualifies as 'advanced mathematics' is an open question, but at least some ability through at least basic algebra seems increasingly important as technology plays an increasing role in general life.
3) "Students should be taught how to learn instead of being taught what to think."
ABSOLUTELY! how to think is education, what to think is indoctrination. Sadly, the inherent need to teach "Thou SHALT question authority" as part of how to think seems a pill too bitter for bureaucrats (and all too many parents to swallow).
4) I did/do struggle with 'unreadable' [cursive] handwriting – to the point I was only let out of remedial instruction when it was realized thay I could do calligraphy with some skill. My issue was/remains that I cannot write (or type) as fast as I think, leading to sloppiness as my hand tries to keep up.
Heretical as it may be, I will concede that cursivemay be reaching the point where it joins cutting a proper quill as an interesting hobby, although being able to read cursive seems likely to remain a useful skill for some time.
For 11 I was referring to foreign language instruction.
