Ever since the educational community has begun understanding learning disabilities, they’ve accepted them with resignation; there’s no cure, but we’ll help you make the best of a difficult situation. Enter Arrowsmith and the rules of the game changed. Suddenly, there were those who not only believed that learning disabilities could be cured – they even claimed to be able to do so.
“If I only had a brain … I could think of things I never thunk before ” lamented the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz.
Laughable musings to be sure.
But comical as they are millions of children think along similar lines. Miserable in school and frustrated with themselves these children may be unable to read tell time carry on a conversation or do simple arithmetic. They often deem themselves worthless or stupid because they just can’t “get it.” They are the children we refer to as learning disabled.
Learning Disabled: What does it really mean?
A learning disability is traditionally defined as difficulty learning in a typical manner usually due to an unknown factor in the brain. One of the fastest growing disorders — with an escalating rate of diagnosis — learning disabilities now affect 6 percent of all children in the US.
Learning disabled (LD) children however have little in common with the brainless scarecrow. In their cases there is certainly no absentee brain; many LD children are extraordinarily bright. In fact if intelligence tests show that a child’s cognitive ability is much higher than his or her academic performance this is often considered grounds for a diagnosis of learning disability.
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