profile of Jeffrey Mehl's hardship
(summary of his essay)
There are many, many bright students that struggle their way through school.
Teachers tend to look at them as either not trying, not caring, or stupid.
This, however, is not the case.
Jeffrey Mehl had a lot of trouble reading and writing initially.
For Jeffrey, the school first said that he couldn't read because of anger he felt toward his father for having walked out when he was in the first grade.
It took a while before they were willing to test him for learning disabilities. He scored perfectly on the tests for severe dyslexia.
He, like many other children, had just thought himself to be stupid. It doesn't help that teachers and peers tend to give that impression.
Some teachers try hard to convince their students that the condition is something that can and should be 'fixed'.
Dyslexia, however, like any other learning difference is not a condition that either can or need be 'fixed'.
Few really understand that although dyslexic students frequently struggle with their grades due to a difficulty reading and writing, they usually have above average intelligence.
They are often taught to use the commonly above average visual reasoning skills to use shapes to recognize words phonetically.
Not many people actually pay attention to the fact that there is a disproportionately high number of dyslexic leaders in the world.
Even fewer realize that the above average intelligence is commonly a result of conditions linked to the dyslexia itself.
In short, it is merely a different way of thinking.
Society, however, tends to try to label these students simply as disabled.
It can be very hard to get a teacher who really understands.
Ultimately the problem is that the system is stacked to prevent a dyslexic student from having easy access to a dyslexic teacher.
This would be the single most beneficial thing.
Jeffrey had to go through the long and hard process of figuring out how to develop 'coping' strategies mostly on his own.
Determined to graduate with at least a 3.0 GPA, Jeffrey looked for any way to improve his test scores.
During high school, Jeffrey was able to be on the student body government, and eventually managed to surpass his goal, demonstrating that a difficulty with reading does not necesarily have anything to do with overall intelligence and academic ability.
