Posted January 15, 200916 yr Dyslexia a cruel fiction, says MP A Labour MP has claimed dyslexia is a myth to cover up bad teaching of reading and writing. Graham Stringer, MP for Manchester Blackley, also suggested there was a link between illiteracy and crime - as prisons were full of people unable to read and write. He described the condition as a "cruel fiction" and suggested the dyslexia "industry" should be "killed off" through the "magic bullet" of teaching children to read and write by using a phonetic system of sounding letters and words. He made the comments while writing a column for Manchester Confidential, an entertainment and review website about the city. Mr Stringer said he has visited Strangeways jail in his constituency and of the prison population, roughly 80% of inmates are functionally illiterate and a similar number are drug abusers. "I don't believe in panaceas, but I am confident that if the rate of literacy were improved there would be an inevitable decline in crime. Children who cannot read or write find secondary school a humiliating and frustrating experience. Their rational response, with dire consequences, is to play truant. "Drugs, burglaries, robberies and worse, then, often, follow." Shirley Cramer, chief executive officer of the educational charity Dyslexia Action, said: "Once again dyslexia seems to be making the headlines for all the wrong reasons. "It is frustrating that the focus should be on whether dyslexia exists or not, when there is so much evidence to support that it does. It is true that there is a strong link between literacy and unemployment." "And we know from our own research that there is a higher percentage of offenders amongst the prison and probation populations who are dyslexic or have literacy difficulties. "However, these individuals are no more likely to commit a crime and the associated links are the result of reduced opportunity due to poor educational attainment." Source: MSN Yes a LABOUR MP said this <_< As someone who suffers from something similar to dyslexia (dyspraxia) I'm appalled that someone who's an elected MP let alone a Labour MP (you'd expect this from a Tory) would be so ignorant to say that problems that affect people's daily lives don't actually exist :angry: If you think teaching if so poor then why don't you sort it out like you bloody said you would eh? :rolleyes:
January 15, 200916 yr the bloke is simply an ignorant idiot... my youngest has a dyslexic/dysphraxic mix meaning when he was at school certain things he found very hard to comprehened. i spend hours trying to make him understand basic maths (times tables) but he just couldnt grasp it. although he excelled in other areas.
January 15, 200916 yr I work with Disabled, Dyslexic and Dyspraxic students as a Mentor/Note-taker/Scribe, this man is an utterly offensive, ignorant arsehole who makes Harry and Charles look like total paragons of virtue... How DARE he, as if people with these very REAL problems dont have enough to cope with.... What the hell actually qualifies him to say this...? Does he have a medical degree..? Does he work in education or occupational therapy...? Does he work with students who have had this problem their whole lives...? NO HE DOES NOT..... He's basing his incredibly foolish assumptions on apparent claims from countries such as South Korea of 100% literacy rates... Yeah, right, 100% literacy rate in ANY country I just dont believe for a start, so, what we're saying is that South Korea has no BLIND people either..... :rolleyes: Bollocks..... This man is an idiot, simple as.... Sure, there might be thicko chavs playing the benefits system by claiming to have Dyslexia, but this is a VERY FAR CRY from his ludicrous assumptions that Dyslexia and Dyspraxia dont exist, which is what he's implying....
January 15, 200916 yr A Labour MP has claimed dyslexia is a myth to cover up bad teaching of reading and writing. If that's the same, how come Claudia is dyslexic and I'm not, despite her English teacher also be mine straight the way through school?
January 15, 200916 yr This man is speaking out of his ass. Dyslexia is not a myth, it is a problem, my brother has it, and my parents used to spend hours on end helping him with spellings. He didnt improved much but its just a problem that nobody can help. This MP is a terribly ignorant, rude man. Horrible thing to say.
January 16, 200916 yr If that's the same, how come Claudia is dyslexic and I'm not, despite her English teacher also be mine straight the way through school? Exactly... If it was a problem with teaching standards, then a whole CLASS would be having the same problems.... The "cruel fiction" was the one spread about in the 40s, 50s and early 60s that kids with, then undiagnosed, Dyslexia or Dyspraxia (and indeed other problems such as Aspergers, ADD and Autism) were educationally/intellectually sub-normal and weren't worth the effort of trying to teach, a totally WRONG assumption given that so many with these problems go on to do well in further education, they just need a little help to facilitate their learning is all.... And this was supposedly the "golden age" (according the the Tabloids) of British education back then, that just wrote off thousands of kids who had very serious, very real problems.... This utter garbage he's spouting is almost going back to the stoneage if you ask me.... In days gone by people like him thought that schizophrenics and epileptics were "possessed by demons"...... <_<
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