ONE DISORDER I DON’T MIND AT ALL (concluding part)

ONE DISORDER I DON’T MIND AT ALL (concluding part)


What Made the Difference?
One major distinguishing factor between dyslexics and well everyone else is what I like to call non-conformity. Now, dyslexics find it hard to read and write normally. As such, it is entirely difficult for them to survive in a typical school setting. The movie I mentioned earlier taught me
that much. The young boy was criticized so much for his unseriousness to school work, terrible grades, and his inability to read and write properly. Before I go further, it is important to really look at this concept of education. Let’s consider this: a child is born, they go to school and have
to learn Math and Languages and Sciences and Art and History, and at the end of the day, they have a mind so full of the ideas of others that there’s no more room to have any of their own.
You see what I mean? Do I think you shouldn’t learn all of this? Of course not! However, I believe that true education is not so much what you can put into a child but all that you can bring out. Children are born with so much creativity and innovation. A child wakes up one morning
and tells you he’s a super hero and he’s going to save everyone and well be the president of the world! They see the ‘impossible’ and challenge what we call norms. They want to know ‘why?’
The mind of a child is filled with so many layers of creativity and innovation, and true education is unearthing it, helping them find their uniqueness. Sadly, this is not the case all over the world.
As it stands, schools seem to exist to shape your mind into something it is not. It’s  like a mold; mass-producing people and making them lose their ingenuity. They give you the answers you are supposed to discover for yourself. Ultimately, if you are not good in standard courses
and subjects, if you do not give back exactly what they want to see (according to the teaching and marking guide), you are automatically branded a failure and told that you are not good enough. So what do we do? We avoid the stigma of being called a failure. We do things exactly
the way we are told. We conform. And overtime, we are put into a box. We become mechanical – robots; and that creativity, innovation and uniqueness remains lost.
Dyslexics however find it near impossible to fit into this system. Try fitting into school without being able to read and write correctly. While dyslexia may be correctable, it requires special education. As a result, most dyslexics, not being able to adapt and conform fall back to that
creative mind and explore it. You begin to see their creativity and ingenuity unleashed. Another amazing thing about dyslexics is that being creative and innovative is the only choice they have.
They explore the side of their minds which they at least have control over and operate from there. Because of their inability to adequately cope in such an academic setting, most dyslexics tend to live in their imagination. Because of that, a common sign of dyslexics is that they are
often easily distracted and daydream a lot.
One underlining factor that keeps recurring in the cases of the famous dyslexics I listed above is that everything they achieved is rooted in creativity, innovation and the power of their imagination; and so we have amazing inventors, artists, painters, pianists, authors, actors,
animators, leaders and so on, who could not be limited by the box in which our educational system has placed us, and had to stand out and explore their minds.
Albert Einstein was an extremely late learner and suffered from poor memory of words. His teachers considered him to be the most unsociable and lazy daydreamer who was not even
worthy to have a positive conversation with. He failed the entrance of college and could not solve some of the simplest questions while in school. Now, Einstein has come to be synonymous with the word ‘genius’. Quite humorously, he said: “Education is what remains after one has
forgotten everything he learned in school” “Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world”. Leonardo Da Vinci is probably regarded as the most famous inventor, engineer, architect, geologist, biologist, mathematician, anatomist, astronomer, painter, sculptor and musician of all time! He is also known to be the greatest painter, famous for his ‘Mona Lisa’.
All in all, the important thing to note here is this: true impact and innovation would not come from all the courses you learn in school; it will come from how much you are able and willing to
expand your mind, use the power of your imagination and explore your creativity and innovation. Bill Gates said something pretty amazing once. He said: “I failed in some subjects in exam, but my friend passed in all. Now he is an engineer in Microsoft and I am the owner of Microsoft”. Don’t just think outside of the box; think like there is no box!
Digressing from dyslexia for a bit, you see billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs who dropped out of school, and you ask yourself, why? Here, you see the same underlining factor –refusal to conform. Now, I am not saying that schools are bad, do not get me wrong. But do not let it limit the extent of your creativity. To truly stand out, you need to learn not to conform. Never hesitate to unleash your creativity and innovation because that is your uniqueness. What
makes you different from the rest millions of people that take the same courses and subjects you take in school? If all there is to you is what you studied in school, then there really is no difference between you and the millions of others that went through the same curriculum.

Conclusion
On the whole, am I saying that dyslexia is desirable? Essentially not. Of course, not all dyslexics have come into prominence and impact. However, these underlining factors really are what make the difference. I believe that for as many that would truly, as though there were no other choice (just like a dyslexic), learn not to become mechanical about life but constantly strive to explore the power of their imagination, they will make massive impact. Consistently live a life of creativity and innovation as though that is the only option you have. Your degree would not make you stand out; it is how you show your innovation by expanding your mind, creating solutions and adding to the knowledge that there already is that will. So I will end by asking you,
what makes you different?



Uchenna Umeano is a freelance writer,
a final year student of law Obafemi Awolowo University.
She's from Anambra State.