I know the title of this article is quite strange. Do I really want to have a disorder? Probably not! Still, there is something that really intrigues me about this one.
Sometime back, I watched this Indian movie: ‘Like Stars on Earth’, and I have to say, that movie hurled me into a deep thought that totally transformed my mindset—and yes, it is an amazing Indian movie. Before watching it, I had heard of the learning disorder, dyslexia, but this movie
made me see it in a new light. ‘Like Stars on Earth’ is the story of a young boy who probably has
the most incredible and artistic mind I had ever seen—yet he had dyslexia, an impaired ability to
read and write. He could make amazing art out of anything—but words and numbers, not so
much. See, academically, he had the mind of an infant but artistically, his artwork spoke volumes. You can of course imagine how almost impossible it was to fit into the school system of learning and grading. He was constantly ridiculed and mocked until someone helped him discover his true potentials. After watching that movie, I went back to do a deep study on the
disorder. You should have guessed by now that this article is about Dyslexia. What really
prompted me to do this was when in the movie a good number of iconic personalities were listed
as having dyslexia: Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Agatha Christie, Pablo Picasso, and
Leonardo Da Vinci etc. My discovery completely blew me away! I encountered notable
personalities who I had previously never imagined having dyslexia, and all that kept
reverberating through my head was: What!!! How? What could possibly have made the difference? So after a lot of research, I came up with a thought that I just had to share. I need to note here that this article is a very passionate and thought provoking piece and will challenge some ideologies.
What is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is simply an impaired ability to read and write. Generally, people with dyslexia appear bright and intelligent but are unable to read write or spell
well. It is not a behavior problem, though people often mislabel it as one; it is a learning
disorder. Writing is almost always incoherent – letters inverted, words misspelt or reversed etc.
(e.g. ‘b’ instead of a ‘d’, ‘tac’ instead of ‘cat’). It is often difficult to pronounce properly and read
as words often appear to ‘swim in the text’. Numbers as well suffer the same fate. Dyslexics find
it hard to exhibit ordinary motor skills like gripping a pencil and writing. Generally, dyslexia can
be helped but not cured and people who have dyslexia can only learn through creative learning techniques.
Famous Personalities with Dyslexia
The first thing that literally blew my mind was this long list of persons that have, had or are suspected of having dyslexia and I will list here just a few of them:
Albert Einstein (record breaking IQ)
Pablo Picasso (amazing artist)
Tom Cruise (actor)
Thomas Edison (the light bulb)
Leonardo Da Vinci
Agatha Christie (bestselling novelist)
Alexander Graham Bell (the telephone)
Walt Disney (animator)
Winston Churchill (one of the greatest political leaders and Nobel prize winner)
Steve Jobs (Apple)
Ludwig van Beethoven (Classical pianist)
George Washington
Whoopi Goldberg (actress)
Henry Ford
Warren Buffet
Nelson Rockefeller
Even Bill Gates admitted to having Dyslexia! Allow me to zero in on Agatha Christie for a
moment. She is my favorite writer of all-time. She specifically writes mystery and investigative
novels and among some of her most popular works are: ‘Murder on the Orient Express’, ‘The
Mysterious Affair at Styles’ and ‘The Murder of Roger Ackroyd’. And wait for it…her books are
outsold only by Shakespeare and the Bible! She holds the Guinness World Record of being the
bestselling novelist of all time. As a lover of mystery and investigative novels, I have yet to see
the kind of creativity she employs anywhere else, and after reading, I always think to myself, ‘what kind of mind could this have come from?’ Yet Agatha Christie had dyslexia. In her words, “I, myself, was always recognized…as the „slow one‟ in the family. Writing and spelling were always terribly difficult for me”. It is pretty mind blowing how such a renowned writer could have had difficulty reading and writing!
Like I said when I started, the question that really plagued my mind was ‘what could possibly have made the difference?’ because it pretty much seems like so many marks had been hit by people who have an impaired ability to read and write that many other ‘normal’ people haven’t even dreamed of. What exactly is the difference? Is there something here to learn? Could it be that dyslexia is a good thing? (I trust my fellow Nigerians to readily utter ‘tufiakwa – God forbid!’) But then, if there is an advantage that these guys have, why are we not seeing it and how to we exploit it so that across board, we can all make serious impact. I set out to answering these questions and I stumbled on a very ‘crazy’ thought (by crazy here, I mean unusual and rather remarkable). Here is what I think…
Uchenna Umeano is a freelance writer, from Anambra State.
