Disabled or Enabled, Classify Me.

In this world we live in today, it seems like we have to put everything in a box and say this is like that, therefore it is that. We do this with organizing our houses, our gardens, our workplace, and even the people surrounding us. Choosing which to invest in, which to prioritize and which to improve in. Levels of each vary depending on what it is, and our own way of calculating these things, which can be from emotions, intuition, history, previous examples we use as references, statistics, critical thinking and analysis, etc. The point is, every time someone makes a decision, they do so in a different way than any other person in the world, and no person makes a decision in the same exact way every time. Yet we continue to categorize people, as if we are all the same.

 I think differently, and see the world differently than most people, so I am told I have learning disabilities. School has always been difficult for me, because teachers teach in one way, the way they always have taught, but I don't learn like that, so on an assignment that takes the "average student" a hour to do, it will take me at least 2 hours to do. I don't see things the way others do, so after class I have to go back through the materials and pick and dissect the content until I understand the meaning of it, but even then I usually will place importance on different factors, do the assignment in a differing way than others, and understand the methodology in ways others do not. So I am disabled. Growing up I didn't have recess, because I had special tutoring, I got horrible grades even if I worked twice as hard as my classmates on the assignment because I could not conform to the common way of seeing and doing things, I learned differently, and at a different pace than my peers. I grew up ashamed of being dyslexic (& of course I am different in this too, because instead of flipping back and front like most do, I look at the middle of a word, then the back and then the front), of having to take medicine at school to help me pay attention and concentrate because of my ADD, and fully aware of all my inabilities and shortcomings. I literally had one of my "special teachers" whose job it was to help me overcome my speech impediment, dyslexia, and learning disabilities tell me that I would "never amount to anything" and that she didn't even think that I would graduate high school. Guess what? I did. Not only did I graduate, but I graduated with honors having almost a 4.0 GPA, and went on to college, being part of the honors program there. I will graduate in a year. But I am disabled. 

Alexander Graham Bell, Napoleon Bonaparte, Richard Branson, Erin Brockovich, Terry Bradshaw, Cher, Agatha Christie, Tom Cruise, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Benjamin Franklin, Danny Glover, John F. Kennedy, Bill Gates, Whoopi Goldberg, John Lennon, Steve McQueen, Thomas Jefferson, Louis Pasteur, George Patton, Nelson Rockefeller, Jay Leno, Leonardo da Vinci, Robin Williams, Woodrow Wilson. Jules Verne, and George Washington; all these accomplished people have been diagnosed or are believed to have had some form of learning disability. So are they any less than the "common, non-disabled" person? No, they are more, that is why they are great. I found this list (click here for list) by just Googling "list of famous people with learning disabilities" and there are a ton of famous people that I didn't even list who have disabilities. No one can say that these people did not live up to their full potential. No one can say they were good but if they were not hindered by their learning disabilities they could have been great. No one can say that in some way, these people did not impact the world. But they are disabled. Why? Because we are different from everyone else, so that in some way makes us less than everyone else?

The older I have gotten, the more I have come to realized that I have nothing to be ashamed of. I am different, I am unique, I am special. I see things no one else sees, and I learn and think differently than everyone else. That does not mean I am less than anyone else... In fact I think it makes me better. While school has always been and will always be difficult for me, and in school the disabilities do hinder me, its not my fault, its the U.S. education systems fault. Look at the statistics, according to the National Center for Learning Disabilities, 2.4 million students, that is 41% of all students are diagnosed with and receive special educational services for their learning disabilities. 2.4 million students, 41%, and what is our educational outcomes? The NCLD reports that:

• Close to half of secondary students with LD perform more than three grade levels below their enrolled grade in essential academic skills (45% in reading, 44% in math).³
• 67% of students with LD graduate from high school⁴ with a regular diploma vs. 74% of students in the general population.⁵
• 20% of students with LD drop out of high school⁶ vs. 8% of students in the general population.⁷
• 10% of students with LD are enrolled in a four-year college within two years of leaving school, compared with 28% of the general population.⁸
• Among working-age adults with LD versus those without LD: 55% vs. 76% are employed; 6% vs. 3% of adults are unemployed; and 39% vs. 21% are not in the labor force partly because of lack of education.⁹

What kind of future outcome is that for the 2.4 million students? Furthermore, if 2.4 million students who are plagued with learning disabilities are the future of the U.S., what kind of future is that for our country? If this generation is made anything like the people I mentioned above, then I think our future looks pretty good. However, there is no excuse for statistics like those, we are not inept of learning, we are not stupid or not capable, we just aren't "common". Although, by making up 41% of the student population, I would say we are pretty "common". But the U.S. education system just categorizes us, puts us into boxes, and sends us out to have additional instruction and additional homework, with our "special teachers". Well here is a revolutionary idea, how about changing the education system, the way we are taught, the way we are supposed to learn, and the standardized testing that ultimately only tells us what we have already been told a million times; "You are disabled, less than your fellow classmates, and unable to be successful in academia, no matter how hard you try." Do that, and then see what kind of future outcomes there are for those 2.4 million students.

George Will once said "The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement." In trying to perfect statistics, and having "No Student Left Behind", the U.S. education system has in fact, left many a students behind, and those that it did not, it has further injured with its standardized testing, scoring, and categorizing. I am fully aware of my capabilities and my inabilities, I am fully aware I think differently than others, I am fully aware that I suck at any type of testing, especially standardized testing, but I am also fully aware that no score the government gives me from a standardized test can define who I am, how intelligent I am, my potential, or my abilities. Furthermore, despite all this, I know that once I get through the "if you want a decent job, and a good future" prerequisite that is a standardized college education, I will be an asset to my employers, a breath of fresh air, and be the source of revolutionary, innovated ways of doing things because I am different. I see things no one else sees. I think differently than others do. When I come to a problem I find a solution no one else has ever thought of, or would ever, because the way I solve it isn't the "common" way. So I will be disabled, I will bask in my disabilities, I will continue to work hard for a good education, and then I will forget about everything a standardized test has ever told me. I will reach my full potential as defined by me, I will be my own success story, and when the time comes that I breathe my last breath, I will be happy with myself, with what I have done, I will go out with my head raised high, and no one, no one will be able to say she could have been so much more if it hadn't been for those learning disabilities that made her unable to be successful. & that ladies and gentlemen is the ramble.

*For further (and interesting) reading, read this article by ABC News