I'm Dyslexic - It's a great way to be

I was undoubtedly a difficult student at school. While most school reports acknowledged me a hard worker, I was not always able to disguise my frustration with the English language. When having difficulty spelling a word, teachers would tell me to sound it out. When that failed, I was told to write the word down and that "If it is spelt correctly, it will look correct." Sadly, it did not work for me. Then I was told that related words would be spelled the same; "essence" and "essential" for example. I would protest; "What about four and forty. And speak and speech?" To me, it was simply an unfathomable system! In those days, there was no "Spelling Dictionary". If a word ended in "ed" or "ing" and you wanted to know if the prefix ended in a double letter (eg. planned or planning), no dictionary helped. Then there was the rule; drop the 'e' and add "ing". Yet only sometimes! "No", I was told. "Dictionaries are only for finding the definition of words. They are not for helping you with spelling. You are meant to know how to spell words."
I was told not to question the way the language was written. It seemed that because our books, our history, our laws and our constitution were written in the Queens English, that the status of the English Dictionary was second only to the inerrant word of God as proclaimed in the Holy Bible. Yet to me, the way our language is written, was simply stupid. It was difficult to disguise my frustration.

Language: English

Copyright: All Rights Reserved - Standard Copyright License

Author: Robert Jameson

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