Ranting and Idiots

Honestly how much intelligence does it take to become a member of parliament these days? Graham Stringer, MP for Blackley in Manchester, (Labour party by the way) has called dyslexia 'fiction'. Made up to cover for poor teaching methods and costing the taxpayer thousands.

Well thanks for that! In his column on Manchester Confidential he extols the virtues of synthetic phonics and assumes that better teaching will cure all illiteracy, like it did in the East Dumbartonshire example. Yes we shouldn't have the same high levels of illiteracy that we do and that maybe more flexible teaching practices would help. It might have helped me or, you know, maybe not.

I don’t know about anybody else but I want my doctors, and for that matter, engineers, teachers, dentists and police officers to be able to read and write.

Hey Graham, look, I'm dyslexic and (your worst fear it seems) nearly a qualified nurse. I can read and write but there's far more to it than my garbage spelling. OK here's the thing to get a degree or diploma or pass the entrance exams you kind of have to be able to read and write. In fact it's kind of hard to get into college or uni without being able to do that.

He went ape about the med student that took the BMA to task about not 'written' exams but multiple choice. See he couldn't even get that right. She likes written exams and essays. I hate them. Easy mistake to make. I even moaned about that then. This isn't even a very original rant for this blog.

The British Dyslexia Association puts it far better than I can...

Mr Stringer needs to realise that dyslexia is not just about reading. Although, being able to read is often problematical for those with dyslexia it also sits alongside a range of other processing skills including organisation, sequencing, retrieval of information, short-term memory, spelling, writing and numbers.

See! See! He also states that dyslexia doesn't seem to appear in the likes of South Korea or Nicaragua. It probably is there of course they don't have one of the most difficult languages to learn and speak as their first language. English is difficult. Look at how many words sound the same but a pronounced differently or vice versa. I would like to see him live one day with my brain.

The problem is of course that I can say all this but my brain has never been 'normal'. It's not like a stroke or heart attack where there is a tangible difference between 'before' and 'after'. I've always been this way. Sometimes I can spot the difference between me and other people, it's awkward especially when they notice the difference. This is why I'm so good these days at compensating. And they wonder why I've learned not to care about doing over time when I've not finished something I said I was going to do.

I'm going to have to take a coffee break..... I'm still mad at this eejit.