The Dyslexic Misconception.

From the moment I was told I had dyslexia, people told me that I should not worry because famous people who were extremely  successful and often rich have it as well. A lot of the time I was told they got their because of their dyslexia. Although that statement might have initially made me more confident, I feel that after a while it hurt my confidence.  

 The main problem is that when I am told "Richard Branson is dyslexic and he is a billionaire," and that he was successful because he understood how to run a business and was a great entrepreneur, I feel like I need to do what he did. But when I realize that that is not where my strengths are, I become frustrated. Often times kids with dyslexia are forced to look up to people they might not consider to be their idols. Thus they feel like they need to have talents they are not good at or don't like. Unfortunately, the students will most likely start to feel bad because they are not good at what their idols are good at. Another thing that happens is that kids are told they may have dyslexia but that that will make you good at art, entrepreneurship, and many other things. However, no one ever mentions that you may not know what you are good at. This is especially true for Elementary school children. In a lot of cases, they may be interested in things that are not mentioned in the discussion of dyslexia and so they change what they say they are interested in to something else that they do not enjoy, to fit into the social norm.

 In my opinion, that is the biggest problem of all, because all throughout school, dyslexics students are told that they are different and do not have to fit in with everyone else, and that it is fine that they can not spell. Sadly, the people telling dyslexics this are trapping the students into a whole new social norm, where theKy feel like they have to become billionaires. If you consider how challenging it is for a person who has dyslexia to feel important, imagine how much more difficult it is when they do not even feel  like they fit in to the group of people who have the same problems as them. As a result I think the best thing to do is tell people with dyslexia the advantage however, strongly emphasized the fact that they do not have to have  all  the advantages and may not know what they are good at for a long time.