From Our Readers
Learning Disabilities
The May 8, 1983, issue of Awake!, pages 3-13, contained several excellent articles about children with learning disabilities and/or hyperactivity. (“Does Your Child Have Learning Problems?”)
I request permission to make 75 copies of those pages for use by my high school students and by our high school faculty. My intention is to have the students read the articles so that they will be more understanding of those who have such difficulties and be helpful to those who need advice and aid.
Our faculty would benefit from such well-written and encouraging articles. Too often we have received information on learning disabilities written in very technical terms and have been mystified rather than enlightened. The tone of the articles is also encouraging rather than negative.
L. F. Z., English Instructor, Wisconsin
Permission has gladly been given with the understanding that the copies will be for the private use of the students and faculty and will not be used for commercial purposes. We hope the articles will produce good results.—ED.
After reading the feature articles in the May 8 issue dealing with the genuine concerns of the learning disabled, I am moved to offer this letter of gratitude. The wealth of knowledge provided through these articles offered the reader an opportunity to benefit from a similar education I received through many, many hours of college education courses. Because your presentation is so easily understandable by all who need to, I pray for the opportunity to share this issue with the many teachers and parents of my students.
M. F., Special Education Teacher, Connecticut
Today I received from Mrs. P., a local Jehovah’s Witness, a copy of your May 8 issue of Awake!, with page after page of first-rate stuff about dyslexia—so why did you let yourselves be persuaded to avoid the word? You printed 8 million copies of this really splendid discussion on dyslexia and never used the word “dyslexia” once! “Learning difficulty” is too vague.
M. M., retired Remedial Teacher, England
We did not avoid the word “dyslexia” because we felt there was a stigma associated with the word, but, rather, because of the confusion among some specialists as to just what dyslexia means. For example, according to “The World Book Encyclopedia,” the term originally “referred only to those disabilities thought to be the result of a disorder in the central nervous system.” But now it is used by many as a term that refers to a number of reading disabilities. Therefore, “The World Book Encyclopedia” says: “Numerous educators no longer use the term at all because of the confusion over its meaning.”—ED.
TV
I am a ten-year-old girl named Debora and I live in Bologna. Thank you for the article “Television—What It Can Do for You . . . and to You” (October 22, 1982) because it made me understand that if my father decided to do away with TV he was right.
D. M., Italy