Dyslexia is NOT a Disorder

Dyslexia is NOT a Disorder

Nerds love to label things. We like to give things names and put them in boxes so we know where they go and what to do with them.

When a personality type or phase is labeled as a disorder, who benefits?

For example, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is just a fancy way of saying that when really bad stuff happens, it screws up your life. You can’t sleep, can’t eat, can’t work, can’t stop thinking about it...

- does it really take a medical diagnosis for us to acknowledge that a person who’s been through a bad experience will be negatively affected as a result of that bad experience?

I understand that these medical terms supposedly make it easier for people who have “disabilities” to obtain much-needed accommodations. . .

- something I seriously doubt because it seems that every corporation and institution has
managed to find loopholes and tricks to avoid recognizing disabilities

- like high schools that conduct testing for learning disabilities using 5-minute tests that cannot possibly screen for ADHD or dyslexia, allowing the school to only grant ADA reasonable
accommodations to students who are severely mentally handicapped/impaired.

So from my standpoint, the only people who benefit from calling and treating dyxlexia as a “disorder” are the people who sell “cures” and “learning systems.”

Of course they want you to think something is wrong with you, or your child. If you didn’t think anything was wrong, you wouldn’t give them your $$ !

I don’t believe dyslexia is a “disorder” at all. If dyslexia is a disorder, many academics have whatever disorder is the exact opposite of dyslexia. Instead of focusing on what dyslexics can’t do, try making a list of what they excel at, and compare it to the nerdy kids who always get praise from teachers and parents.

Here’s my grand theory:
Dyslexics are biologically engineered to be hunters, warriors, scouts, explorers, and risk-takers.

They drive better than I do, run faster, have keener spatial perception, fight better, and last a helluva lot longer without food. (Although when they do eat, they eat much more than I do!)
They’re also less prone to getting sick.

Now, I know that my kids aren’t representative of all dyslexic children, because they’re the kids who’ve already gotten in trouble a lot. But I must also point out that the only kids with “learning disorders” who don’t get into trouble a lot, are those who have parents with the financial means and time to surround them with intensive support. So who knows how those kids would have turned out without the massive efforts of their parents and the various aids/tools they enlist?



If you’re in the forest, a member of a five-man team hunting for food, does it matter if you can’t read a book? (A really boring, tedious book?)

No. What matters is that your senses are keen, you’re alert and on your feet, you’re able to scan the area for your target and any additional dangers, and you’re strong enough to face anything that comes your way.

Oh, I should mention at this point that most of my kids had ADHD too. So that might mix up the variables a little as well.

My point is that not all kids belong in a physical classroom. Only the academics are supposed to be cramped in desks listening to a droning voice...it’s what we’re good at.

But it’s absolutely ridiculous to torture a child by trying to squash him into a box that wasn’t meant for him.

Sure, I could learn to be a race-car driver if my parents really wanted me to be and spent tons of money on special instruction and maybe even drugs. But I’d be absolutely miserable. I don’t like risk, I don’t like physical danger, and going fast in a car makes me want to either wet my pants or throw up.

Why don’t parents whose children are good at academics but bad at sports feel ashamed?

Why aren’t they called into conferences at school and pressured to enroll their children in costly after-school athletic training?

If you ever saw me play sports, you'd question this too!

My dyslexic kids are the ones who pull me out of the way when I’m not paying attention and almost step into the path of an oncoming car. They’re the ones whose resourcefulness and ingenuity come up with McGuyver-type contraptions to fix any number of situations. (They love rubber bands). They’re the ones who remember things I’ve said without having to write them down (which is embarrassing, because I have to write things down in order to remember them).

They can watch TV all day without going nuts. I can’t. Strangely, that makes me a lot less cool in popular society.

As smart as society (especially parents!) may say I am – and you don’t know me, so you may not agree, but if you saw my credentials you’d be tempted to – the truth is that if I was stuck in a forest, I’d be next to useless. If we were in a disaster movie, I’d be the one doing something in the lab that’s only cool at the very end, while the cool guys and girls are out there getting to shoot guns and rig up explosives through the entire movie. If my child fell off a cliff and was hanging on a branch, I’d be ABSOLUTELY useless.

Dyslexia is not a disorder. It’s a personality type. It’s time we stopped letting moneymakers trick us into focusing on the negative and not the glorious positives.

P.S. – I’m fairly sure that the military knows all the awesome applications of dyslexic and ADHD children...which is why many teenagers who don’t do well in school or get into trouble are “encouraged” to join the military or law enforcement.

P.P.S. – In case you don’t get the point, that means that the government is tricking YOU into thinking that there’s something wrong with you or your child, and pressuring you to spend money to change them (make them like “everybody else”) – all the while KNOWING that you or your child could be a superstar if you were only on the right path.

P.P.P.S. – For example, ADHD kids don’t have trouble paying attention. They just pay attention to too many things at one time. Which kinda makes it hard to prioritize the teacher’s voice in a room bursting at the seams with distractions. In the field, this ability keeps people alive. It’s not a lack of attention, it’s bionic powers of perception!


Children with ADHD/dyslexia (I haven’t figured out which one causes it yet) also have trouble acting independently. They need constant supervision and instruction. I’ve narrowed it down to a 2-3 hour time period. Give them a simple list or one task and send them out, and they’ll come back in 2-3 hours for more directions. How perfect is this for the military, where soldiers live in pre-defined blocks time?

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future