tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1674510287177469473.post9075586451415092315..comments2023-06-06T08:13:43.101-07:00Comments on Vanessa Gebbie's news: AT SHAPWICK SCHOOL WITH HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSENVanessa Gebbiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00833187671441310234noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1674510287177469473.post-77605366191638595232009-10-18T04:56:31.086-07:002009-10-18T04:56:31.086-07:00Hi Julia, lovely to 'see' you. I hope the ...Hi Julia, lovely to 'see' you. I hope the kids found it stimulating- I hope it wasn't just a day that gets forgotten, but a day that starts them on a journey of discovery, about what they CAN do, not what they can't. So often I think, if people have to get over something in order to succeed - when it doesn't 'come easy - that success means far more.Vanessa Gebbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00833187671441310234noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1674510287177469473.post-63209151290077788162009-10-18T03:42:01.154-07:002009-10-18T03:42:01.154-07:00Dyslexia is interesting...a lot of creatives are d...Dyslexia is interesting...a lot of creatives are dyslexic. Pierre gets very confused over the written word when he spells but his brain is much more lateral than mine...although I have 'caught' some of his patterns of thought over the years. Intelligence is a multi-layered thing and the way people learn, is fascinating....<br /><br />Sounds like a very stimulating and fulfilling experience....Julia Bohannahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04256768387861899456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1674510287177469473.post-65522317498221137212009-10-17T14:26:33.594-07:002009-10-17T14:26:33.594-07:00Hi Rachel.. thanks so much for the comment.
I have...Hi Rachel.. thanks so much for the comment.<br />I have dyscalculalia, a bit... must have. I still can't write down a sequence of numbers without transposing some... and I had to have serious coaching to pass exams in maths when I was small. Goodness kows how much my parents spent on coaching for eleven plus, with all sorts of strategies to learn. And a scrape at GCE (back then).<br /><br />but it doesnt make any sense. I still get sequences wrong, even if I have 'known' them for years. I get dates round the wrong way. Times. BUT I passed most of the modules of a MBA a few years back, staying up late, mugging up the formulae. Understand it? Nope! never. <br /><br />The term 'learning difficulty' seems wrong to me. A term made up by those who inhabit the midway school of competence in all, failure in none, excellence in none.<br /><br />Learning anything is difficult if the students dont want to learn it... and if they do, with sparky teachers they can learn anything. I believe that.<br /><br />My brother is quite badly dyslexic. He coped...just. Shapwick would have been brilliant.Vanessa Gebbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00833187671441310234noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1674510287177469473.post-82368799226674310662009-10-17T13:27:51.456-07:002009-10-17T13:27:51.456-07:00That was beautiful. Made me cry. In the UK I worke...That was beautiful. Made me cry. In the UK I worked with kids with learning and behavioural difficulties (the terms are meaningless) - I loved it, it was so satisfying, but I found it emotionally draining also.<br /><br />I have dyscalculia. I found out after failing my gcse maths for the umpteenth time. It is difficult to explain how it affects me but easy to show! <br /><br />And everything needs numbers! Even submissions are all about numbers!<br /><br />I still do not know my home phone number and I have lived here a couple of years (see that, a couple, because I actually cannot work out how long right off the top of my head)! Anyway...I wish I had known earlier and had gone to a school like Shapwick.<br /><br />I hate the term "learning disability" - dyscalculia (dyslexia) doesn't mean you are not able, it means you will go about what is required of you differently. That's not a bad thing as far as I'm concerned. And I passed my maths - just learned it in a different way and had a little extra time in the exams.<br /><br />And to be in the snow with the sun on your face...it's a little like that.Rachel Fentonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10046917627054462214noreply@blogger.com