Personal Stories

Over the recent years, there have been courageous people who have come forward in order to share their experiences about dyslexia and how it has affected their lives.

Do you know who they are?

1) When he was in elemenatary school, he was diagnosed by his teacher and school administrators as being mentally retarded. They recommended to his family that he should be sent to an institution.He was in fact, dyslexic. He has now written a book in which he talks about his struggles to overcome the ignorance and prejudice of his family, his friends and society as a whole.Thanks to his determination and courage he went on to get an MBA.

2) As a young lad, school was a nightmare experience. He found it very difficult to read so he would memorise everything before class. In the 60's, he got tired and frustrated with school and decided to start his own student newspaper which he did, with a friend. The purpose of the paper was to connect students in schools nationwide. He later began a mail order delivery service for discount records from a shop lot and later still went on to set up what is now one of the most successful airline companies in the world.

3) School for him was nothing short of a nightmare and he suffered daily, due to the fact that he slipped through the cracks and was not diagnosed. In the 60's there was little awareness about learning disablities and he was called stupid and lazy because he was very verbal but was not able to put his thoughts into writing. Needless to say this affected his self esteem.

When he was older, he graduated from the Yale school of drama and thanks to his sheer determination went on to become an actor, director, and producer and has gone on to write children's books about a forth grader who is dyslexic but extremely resourceful. He never thought he would ever see his name in the same sentence as 'writer' or 'book'.

And here's a clue; he is just very very cool.

Answers:

1) Girard Sagmiller - Has written a book called 'Dyslexia My Life'

2) Richard Branson

3) Henry Winkler aka The Fonz - has written 9 books in a series called 'Hank Zipzer: The World's Greatest Underachiever'