Try to Remember That You Are Unique

Hi Everyone

As a boy at school, I did not appear to have had a problem learning to read and write. This week one of our best celebrity chefs appeared in an hour long documentary to highlight the fact that he was dyslexic and that all the cookery books that he had published were spoken into a dictaphone. His real mission was to highlight the problem of dyslexia, stating that approximately 20% of schoolchildren suffer in some way, and that a staggering 50% of our prison population have some form of dyslexia. Obviously, in his case, a career as a chef was a way out of the problem, but for many others, it can seriously affect their life. As he pointed out, intelligence has nothing to do with dyslexia. Back in my schooldays, no doubt some of my friends missed the opportunities that I had as the word was never used and teachers branded them as slow learners or, worse still, dim. The Main Contractor confirmed that in her years working in schools, teachers did not acknowledge that such a thing existed, and the documentary confirmed that during the time that teachers are trained, the problems of dyslexia were given little or no attention. Now our celebrity chef is trying to persuade educators and the government to take the problem seriously, identify the problem early, and provide suitable help and support. In his discussion with the minister of state for education, she promised to take the matter forward without, as usual, actually promising hardly anything. Dyslexia was first discovered in 1866, just about 150 years ago, although at that time it was called word blindness. Yes, 150 years for someone to highlight the problem and seriously campaign to get help for so many people. In an age when everything seems to take too long, let us hope that someone will not only listen but also act quickly.

As you know, I worked in 1960 for a joiner/funeral director. One morning he was in a particularly good mood as the lady who lived across from our offices had died. Dressed in his black, he was off to arrange the funeral. On the day of the funeral, the hearse drew up at the house, followed by four funeral cars. All appeared to be running smoothly, which was unusual, when the funeral director dashed in with a spare long black coat, asking me, no, instructing me to drive the last of the funeral cars. As I sat waiting in silence with the other mourners, suddenly, who I thought was the vicar walked across the road from our offices. My first thought was that below his black cassock, he was wearing khaki trousers which did not seem to be in keeping with his profession or the occasion. Then, amongst the mourners, I was trying to contain my laughter as the man in the khaki was our foreman joiner who had been instructed to drive the first funeral car. I never discovered how four funeral cars appeared behind the hearse with only two drivers.  

Occasionally, you read something and think that it is me they are talking about. This week, I read that a study in Evolutionary Behavioural Sciences concluded that people like me who love jazz are often more intelligent than most of you lot. As you might expect, that was music to my ears if you get my drift. They found that there was a strong link between higher intelligence and a preference for complex, novel music. It all looked good so far until I remembered that my love of jazz hardly ever extended into the more modern and contemporary spectrum of the music, so I am happy to report that I am still just an ordinary Joe drifting towards middle age.

Just a Thought:

Dyslexia is an island of weakness in a sea of strengths.

My friend is a funeral director. That must be quite an undertaking. 

What is the difference between a rock guitarist and a jazz guitarist? A rock guitarist plays 3 chords to 50,000 people, a jazz guitarist plays 500 chords to 50 people.    

Brian