Did David have Dyslexia? (November 19,2018)

Did David have Dyslexia

Willits's Weekly Wonderings Six (4.3)

Would you wish your student has dyslexia? Would having dyslexia increase the likelihood they finish college? Let me try to connect some dots . . . Each school year, I ask every 8th grader what they are planning on doing after high school (completion). I am happy to report, the strong majority of them say, "college." This is a good thing, as there are many good reasons to go to college. I went on to discuss my desire for them ​to not just ​go ​to college, but ​finish​ college. Doing so would put them in the minority. According to a study conducted by the Iowa School Counselor’s Association: 90% of Iowa students graduate high school; 71% enroll in postsecondary education; 43-47% complete postsecondary credential I have little doubt there are a number of mitigating circumstances that cause a strong majority of students to ​quit before they graduate. I wonder where, "This is too hard/I’m not prepared" would fall on the list of reasons for failure. I fear, too high. I believe the challenge has less to do with academics and more to do with . . . something else. According to one principal's report, colleges are referring to current students as "teacups," students who appear externally beautiful but are likely to chip/break when subjected to (everyday) stress/challenge. How do we appropriately prepare our students for the challenges, be it college or otherwise, in their future? Or do we do all we can to ensure our students' futures are challenge-less? Malcolm Gladwell, in his book David & Goliath, explores the relationships between the advantaged and the disadvantaged, exploring when the latter might become the former; or, can having a “disadvantage” be advantageous? Gladwell gives specific consideration to dyslexia. Here are a couple excerpts from the book:

Can dyslexia turn out to be a desirable difficulty? It is hard to believe that it can, given how many people struggle with the disorder throughout their lives—except for a strange fact. An extraordinary high number of successful entrepreneurs are dyslexic. A recent study by Julie Logan at City University London puts the number somewhere around a third. The list includes many of the most famous innovators of the past few decades. Richard Branson, the British billionaire entrepreneur, is dyslexic. Charles Schwab, the founder of the discount brokerage that bears his name, is dyslexic, as are the cell phone pioneer Craig McGaw; David Neeleman, the founder of JetBlue; John Chambers, the CEO of the technology giant Cisco; Paul Orfalea, the found of Kinko’s—to name just a few. The neuroscientist Sharon Thompson-Schill remembers speaking at a meeting of prominent university donors—virtually all of them successful business people—and on a whim asking how many of them had ever been diagnosed with a learning disorder. “Half the hands went up,” she said. “It was unbelievable.”

There are two possible interpretations for this fact. One is that this remarkable group of people triumphed in spite of their disability: they are so smart and so creative that nothing—not even a lifetime of struggling with reading—could stop them. The second, more intriguing, possibility is that they succeeded, in part, because of their disorder—that they learned something in their struggle that proved to be of enormous advantage. Would you wish dyslexia on your child? If the second of these possibilities is true, you just might.—pp. 106-107 (my emphasis added).

Another excerpt quotes Gary Cohn:

“My upbringing allowed me to comfortable with failure,” he said. “The one trait in a lot of dyslexic people I know is that by the time we get out of college, our ability to deal with failure was very highly developed. And so we look at most situations and see much more of the upside than the downside. Because we’re so accustomed to the downside. It doesn’t faze us. I’ve thought about it many times, I really have, because it defined who I am.

I wouldn’t be where I am today without my dyslexia. I never would have taken that first chance.”—p. 123

I wonder how many of us can look in the rear view mirror of our own lives and give testimony to the challenges, adversity, and struggles evident in shaping our current standing. On this (hindsight) side of those struggles, would we undo them? What about the challenges, adversity, and struggles of our students? Ought we to wish them away? Or leverage the disadvantages to become advantages while we overcome our failures in pursuit of something more? I love being your student's school counselor. If there is something you want me to know to do it better, please hit "reply." Grant W. Willits 5-8 School Counselor (712) 722-3783 (x2120)