Re: [LUG] Etiquette was Re: Lightening this morning ...

On 7 January 2014 18:45, bad apple <mr.meowski@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 07/01/14 18:05, Gordon Henderson wrote:

> I was physically abused with the belt and yard stick and verbally abused

I find it terrifying that that sort of thing actually happened in living
memory, over something as trivial as spelling errors. It's amazing to me
that dyslexia only really started to be appreciated for what it is so
recently, and so many bright but dyslexic people got so much stick
(literally) for it all the way up into the 70s? 80s?

I believe the turning point was the early 90s. Certainly in the 80s very little was understood at a teaching level, although the condition was diagnosable.

I am also dyslexic, being diagnosed early in the 80s (my mother having to travel to Bath to find a specialist!) and during my time at Westlands in Torquay I was continually told I was stupid by some (not all) teachers and my Set slipping from 2 down to 5 as my test results were so poor and I was unable to concentrate in class. I am 100% positive this was due to ignorance of the condition and no teacher having the ability or tools to provide an environment where I could actually learn. Apart from the basics (and some O and CSE results that surprised everyone, but were still below my capacity), I learned very little at school and it was a thoroughly miserable time - although there was no physical abuse from the teachers like Gordon had. Westlands had the threat of the cane, but to my knowledge not one pupil was ever caned during the 80s.

I did, however, begin to learn rapidly after I left school when I wasn't being continually told I was thick. I also learned how to learn; By myself and at my own pace, generally several things at once. Now in my 40s I still have a huge curiosity about how the world works that drives this.

My writing level is also fairly good now through consuming paperbacks voraciously in my teens and 20s, but like Gordon, sometimes I cannot tell that a word I've spelled correctly hundreds of times isn't right this time, no matter how often I look at it; although sometimes it will look 'wrong' and I swap letters at random until it looks right, not quite fully understanding why.

In this exact example - lightning I now know how to spell because I mis-spelled it when writing text adventures in the late 80s and one of my playtesters (A Scottish librarian named Lorna) very kindly taking the time to explain to my why it was spelled that way, and it's stuck.

I don't enjoy jokes about dyslexia, but it doesn't offend me much. I find it curious that people who otherwise wouldn't otherwise dream of causing offence are so easy about using this as a joke about bad spelling, as if it's somehow not real.

Everyone has their drawbacks and problems. At least I've got a name for mine. It's great that nowadays much more is understood about it and kids get a lot more support and understanding, and the then accepted habit of grown men standing over and shouting at little boys who can't understand something for five minutes in front of a whole class has largely disappeared.