err sin come to the blackboard and spell
telephone tele2 I gain t elee2000 l e ph
o n8 f sin can’t spell telephone Edison
can’t spell telephone err sing can’t
spell telephone that was the song being
sung in the playground that afternoon
and they were right I couldn’t spell
telephone and many other words my
parents and my teachers thought that
telling me to try harder would solve the
problem and when it didn’t the blame for
my failure was placed on my shoulders
instead of giving me support I was given
the label slow I was eight years old
I remember running home from school in
tears standing in front of my mum mum I
hate school I hate it I absolutely hate
it my mum would say but I’ve seen these
are the best years of your life so enjoy
it I wasn’t sure what I should be
enjoying the bullying or the labels
because school life for me was more like
a judicial system a court a place where
you go if you’ve committed a crime a
place where there’s a judge the jewelry
and witnesses the place where your
receive assent
my crime was not being able to learn at
the same pace as the other children in
my class my judge was my teacher Miss
Mac Fadem six-foot tall with a huge
beehive hairstyle and she spoke with a
20 partisan they made us stand out like
a sore thumb because we live in the East
End of London where everyone’s with a
right cockney accent have you ever come
across a mr. mcfadden in your life there
were witnesses to my crime the class
bullies who were quite willing to give
evidence against me person stupid
because whenever miss Alfred to go to
the blackboard and spell a word she
fails her seems lazy because miss keeps
telling her to try harder person slow
because whenever miss asks her to stand
up and read in front of the class she
takes so long miss tells her to sit back
down I had a good defense team my
parents hard-working people but nowhere
needs strong enough to stand up to the
chief judge miss McFadden who had
continuously sent home reports dating
very soon could do much notably better
big she paid attention person needs to
try harder my trial was a lengthy one
that continued throughout my school life
from time to time the judges and the
witnesses would change but the evidence
against me continued to mount up until
finally judgment they arrived no
surprises there
I failed my end of year exams and I was
sentenced to a lifetime of self-doubt
and shame my psychology was in turmoil
until a lot later on in life I
discovered I wasn’t stupid I wasn’t
I wasn’t slow I was dyslexic which meant
that like millions of other dyslexic
people around the world I process
information using the right side of my
brain developmental dyslexia is a
learning difficulty that affects over
15% of the population dyslexic children
have a normal or above-average IQ but
most will fail at school due to a lack
of understanding and support I believe
the MIS McFadden’s of the world have an
awfully lots of high demand a retrial I
demand my self-confidence to be
replenished I demand my university
degree it’s taken me over 50 years to
convince the child within me that it’s
not the end of the world if you can’t
spell as good as others because we all
have different abilities and talents
that’s what makes us who we are
Albert Einstein said everyone’s a genius
but if you try and judge a fish by its
ability to climb a tree it’s going to
live its entire life believing that it’s
stupid my story is just a small example
of how childhood experiences can have an
impact on once adult life as a child my
confidence was battered and bruised and
to this day I still suffer with anxiety
and self-doubt issues it’s taken me this
long to realize that failing at school
doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to
fail in life you just need to look at
the famous dyslexics around the world to
realize that Albert Einstein Tom Cruise
Jamie Oliver Steve Jobs Whoopi Goldberg
and many many others including Steven
Spielberg who actually only found out he
was dyslexic at the age of 16 he
each and every one of those famous
people have their own individual stories
about their school trials just like mine
and many other people like me as the
famous civil rights activist Martin
Luther King said I have a dream I too
have a dream to create an education
system where children can enjoy the joy
of learning without feeling judged or
having to compete against their peers
but first we need to understand one
important point and that is that there’s
a clear distinction between an inability
to learn and an inability to learn due
to the way you’re being taught because
many children are failing at school
because they’re not being taught in a
way that they can learn I personally
fought I’m going to go and do a little
bit of research how other countries
education systems are doing so I fall
where best to start where my English
teacher was Miss mcfadden the United
Kingdom and I only to discover that in
2016 research showed that 43% of primary
school children were failing to acquire
the required skills in math reading and
writing so I thought let me do a more
global search to see what comes up and I
discovered that Finland have been global
leaders in education for the past 16
years so what are they doing right let
me have a look first of all Finland
believe that stress is an important
obstacle in any child’s learning process
so they do their best to eliminate
stress children don’t start school until
the age of seven because they believe
that children aren’t ready to learn the
skills of reading writing and maths
until that age kindergarten is placed on
play because they believe that play is a
significant part of any child’s learning
process homework
hardly give any homework there’s no set
of statutory exams until they reach the
age of 16 there’s no culture of private
education and tuition teachers need to
complete an extra five years master’s
degree to qualify as a teacher but once
they have they get prestige and higher
pay parents and schools put their trust
in the teaching profession because
they’re seen in the category of doctors
and lawyers so within the theme of
today’s event and in true dyslexic style
I’d like to ask you all to work with me
to turn the education system upside down
to bring about an educational system
that braces all learning styles that
allows children to learn own pace using
all their senses to enhance creative
learning
let’s stop judging and start teaching children thank you
telephone tele2 I gain t elee2000 l e ph
o n8 f sin can’t spell telephone Edison
can’t spell telephone err sing can’t
spell telephone that was the song being
sung in the playground that afternoon
and they were right I couldn’t spell
telephone and many other words my
parents and my teachers thought that
telling me to try harder would solve the
problem and when it didn’t the blame for
my failure was placed on my shoulders
instead of giving me support I was given
the label slow I was eight years old
I remember running home from school in
tears standing in front of my mum mum I
hate school I hate it I absolutely hate
it my mum would say but I’ve seen these
are the best years of your life so enjoy
it I wasn’t sure what I should be
enjoying the bullying or the labels
because school life for me was more like
a judicial system a court a place where
you go if you’ve committed a crime a
place where there’s a judge the jewelry
and witnesses the place where your
receive assent
my crime was not being able to learn at
the same pace as the other children in
my class my judge was my teacher Miss
Mac Fadem six-foot tall with a huge
beehive hairstyle and she spoke with a
20 partisan they made us stand out like
a sore thumb because we live in the East
End of London where everyone’s with a
right cockney accent have you ever come
across a mr. mcfadden in your life there
were witnesses to my crime the class
bullies who were quite willing to give
evidence against me person stupid
because whenever miss Alfred to go to
the blackboard and spell a word she
fails her seems lazy because miss keeps
telling her to try harder person slow
because whenever miss asks her to stand
up and read in front of the class she
takes so long miss tells her to sit back
down I had a good defense team my
parents hard-working people but nowhere
needs strong enough to stand up to the
chief judge miss McFadden who had
continuously sent home reports dating
very soon could do much notably better
big she paid attention person needs to
try harder my trial was a lengthy one
that continued throughout my school life
from time to time the judges and the
witnesses would change but the evidence
against me continued to mount up until
finally judgment they arrived no
surprises there
I failed my end of year exams and I was
sentenced to a lifetime of self-doubt
and shame my psychology was in turmoil
until a lot later on in life I
discovered I wasn’t stupid I wasn’t
I wasn’t slow I was dyslexic which meant
that like millions of other dyslexic
people around the world I process
information using the right side of my
brain developmental dyslexia is a
learning difficulty that affects over
15% of the population dyslexic children
have a normal or above-average IQ but
most will fail at school due to a lack
of understanding and support I believe
the MIS McFadden’s of the world have an
awfully lots of high demand a retrial I
demand my self-confidence to be
replenished I demand my university
degree it’s taken me over 50 years to
convince the child within me that it’s
not the end of the world if you can’t
spell as good as others because we all
have different abilities and talents
that’s what makes us who we are
Albert Einstein said everyone’s a genius
but if you try and judge a fish by its
ability to climb a tree it’s going to
live its entire life believing that it’s
stupid my story is just a small example
of how childhood experiences can have an
impact on once adult life as a child my
confidence was battered and bruised and
to this day I still suffer with anxiety
and self-doubt issues it’s taken me this
long to realize that failing at school
doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to
fail in life you just need to look at
the famous dyslexics around the world to
realize that Albert Einstein Tom Cruise
Jamie Oliver Steve Jobs Whoopi Goldberg
and many many others including Steven
Spielberg who actually only found out he
was dyslexic at the age of 16 he
each and every one of those famous
people have their own individual stories
about their school trials just like mine
and many other people like me as the
famous civil rights activist Martin
Luther King said I have a dream I too
have a dream to create an education
system where children can enjoy the joy
of learning without feeling judged or
having to compete against their peers
but first we need to understand one
important point and that is that there’s
a clear distinction between an inability
to learn and an inability to learn due
to the way you’re being taught because
many children are failing at school
because they’re not being taught in a
way that they can learn I personally
fought I’m going to go and do a little
bit of research how other countries
education systems are doing so I fall
where best to start where my English
teacher was Miss mcfadden the United
Kingdom and I only to discover that in
2016 research showed that 43% of primary
school children were failing to acquire
the required skills in math reading and
writing so I thought let me do a more
global search to see what comes up and I
discovered that Finland have been global
leaders in education for the past 16
years so what are they doing right let
me have a look first of all Finland
believe that stress is an important
obstacle in any child’s learning process
so they do their best to eliminate
stress children don’t start school until
the age of seven because they believe
that children aren’t ready to learn the
skills of reading writing and maths
until that age kindergarten is placed on
play because they believe that play is a
significant part of any child’s learning
process homework
hardly give any homework there’s no set
of statutory exams until they reach the
age of 16 there’s no culture of private
education and tuition teachers need to
complete an extra five years master’s
degree to qualify as a teacher but once
they have they get prestige and higher
pay parents and schools put their trust
in the teaching profession because
they’re seen in the category of doctors
and lawyers so within the theme of
today’s event and in true dyslexic style
I’d like to ask you all to work with me
to turn the education system upside down
to bring about an educational system
that braces all learning styles that
allows children to learn own pace using
all their senses to enhance creative
learning
let’s stop judging and start teaching children thank you
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