alternative learners

yesterday, tina mcinerney and i did another presentation for the society for the immediate awareness of alternative learning.

quite the name, huh?

we raise awareness of the fact that people who are labeled "learning disabled", "dyslexic", "ADD", etc. are often simply people who learn differently.

like winston churchill, for example, or michelangelo, or walt disney.

alternative learners see the world a little differently. for example, when they see a word written on a blackboard and are asked to copy it, they may try to copy it exactly as it is written. an "a" in one font (say, arial) is not the same to them as an "a" in another (times roman, for example).

this gives them unique capabilities and unique difficulties.

rather than shaping them into a poor replica of people who learn the "normal" way, we want to make sure that they can use their gifts and are not hampered by the ways in which they don't fit into restrictive educational molds.

so we give presentations at schools, mostly to parents and teachers.

tina, who is an alternative learner herself, is also working on a fascinating book that charts her experience with going through the school system and with being the parent of two alternative learners.

tina didn't really start mastering reading and writing until quite a while after she finished high school. (yes, she finished high school. like so many other alternative learners, she clowned and weaseled her way through school).

fortunately, she found a way to make friends with letters and numbers. although she still prefers pictures - like here, on her blog.

we're also trying to raise funds for the project, with an interesting new online tool, givemeaning.ca