Anne! The article...

Einstein is considered to be LD because he apparently failed to talk until the age of four, could only read at the age of nine, failed his first attempt at entrance into college and lost three teaching positions in two years…

While this makes a nice story, this widely believed notion is false, according to Ronald W. Clark’s comprehensive biography of Einstein, and according to “Subtle is the Lord: The Science and Life of Albert Einstein”, a biography by Abraham Pais (Oxford University Press, 1982).

Pais states that although his family had initial apprehensions that he might be backward because of the unusually long time before he began to talk, Einstein was speaking in whole sentences by some point between age two and three years. According to Clark, a far more plausible reason for his relatively late speech development is “the simpler situation suggested by Einstein’s son Hans Albert, who says that his father was withdrawn from the world even as a boy.” Whether one accepts this interpretation, other information helps us to judge Einstein’s language abilities after he began to speak.

Einstein entered school at the age of six, and against popular belief did very well. When he was seven his mother wrote, “Yesterday Albert received his grades, he was again number one, his report card was brilliant.” At the age of twelve Einstein was reading physics books. At thirteen, after reading the “Critique of Pure Reason” and the work of other philosophers, Einstein adopted Kant as his favorite author. About this time he also read Darwin. Pais states, “the widespread belief that he was a poor student is unfounded.”

Failing his college entrance exams:

True, Einstein did not pass the college exam the first time he took it. However, aside from his having been sixteen, two years below the usual age, the plain fact was he did not study for it. His father wanted his son to follow a technical occupation, a decision Einstein found difficult to confront directly. Consequently, as he later admitted, he avoided following the “unbearable” path of a “practical profession” by not preparing himself for the test.

It is also true that, after graduating from the university, Einstein had difficulty finding a post. This was mainly because his independent, intellectually rebellious nature made him, in his own words, “a pariah” in the academic community. One professor told him, “You have one fault; one can’t tell you anything.”

Also true is that Einstein went through three jobs in a short time, but not because of a learning disability. His first job was as a *temporary* research assistant, the second as *temporary* replacement for a professor who had to serve a two-month term in the army. Clark remarks that it is “difficult to discover but easy to imagine” why Einstein held his third job, as a teacher in a boarding school, for only a few months: “Einstein’s ideas of minimum routine and minimum discipline were very different from those of his employer.”

Yes, I have read the back and forths about the question of Einstein
and the question of learning diabilities and thought about that
when reading the article - though the article is still great even taking
Einstein out of it ;-)

For example: the book, IN THE MIND’S EYE by
Thomas G. West, talks a lot about Einstein (58
entries in the index) and Edison (24 entries), along with a host
of many other brilliant folks (who have
the advantage of still being alive and educated during more modern
times who can speak for themselves).

Since authors and authorities often disagree about figures from
history and their learning disabilites the dyslexic communtity
should probably focus on those famous and brilliant dyslexics
who are currently still with us.

As an aside, I recently watched a CSPAN booknotes progam
featuring the author of a book titled EINSTEIN’S BRAIN.
The book is not about how the man thought, ld or not ld, or
even about his many brainy accomplishments…. the book
is about his actual brain! After his death it was removed
and preserved, so to speak. This author went in search of it
and the book recounts his adventures trying to track it down,
he eventually found it and the story is rather bizarre to say the least!

Anne

is “The Learning Mystique” by Gerald Coles. It is already a bit old, but it gives one a good point of departure to interpret other books - and their claims. There are 1000s of entries in the index of this book. No book has taught me as much as this particular book.

The man had a host of eccentricities and social skills issues and all kinds of other “red flags” for learnign disabilities. The LD speculation really isn’t *just* hype from the popular press; it is, of course, hindsight but the man really did have difficulties with learning lots of things that many people found easy.
The popular press, etc., does tend to oversimplify things — my father always got aggravated when Einstein was quoted as saying only half a dozen people could understand his theory of relativity… my father informed me that when AE said it, it was true — because it hadn’t been published yet (duh!).
And I do think the “if you’re dyslexic, you could just be another Einstein” has done a lot of damage. I’ve known too many teachers that do put a “mystique” on learning and assume that a dyslexic kiddo is somehow learnign things that they’re not, and that they’ll suddenly blossom and put it all togehter. So if a kid’s bright… somehow that is supposed to be enough,m period, and they’re not responsible. “Oh, he’s so bright, he’ll grow out of this and be another Einstein.”
(And Einstein did write awfully readable essays.)

I don’t know who’s story is true,I believe this man had significant problems. It could of been emotional in nature. But isn’t it really about having a kid who doesn’t fit into the mainstream? A kid who for whatever reason is a square peg,trying to fit into a round hole.There are strenghts in persons with LD,so much so,that it is possible to be all these things and still BE LD.

Just the other day my husband predicted that if anyone
ever invented a perpetual motion machine it will be
DS.

A great program for LD kids is Destination Imagination.
http://www.destinationimagination.org/
We are in our 6th year of coaching - all three of our kids
have been involved.

This year both our middle school and high school teams
are working on combining simple machines into complex
machines with no electricity or battery power.

In years past the kids designed and built 18 feet of
rollercoaster, used technology only found in 17th
century Japan, built a kid powered cart and wagon
using hydrolics, built thier own motor, launched
cheese through a crossbow (that one almost did me
in).

Anne

LD kids are perfect at this as it is so out of the box,
right in their neighborhood.

Received THE HUMAN SIDE OF DYSLEXIA by Shirley Kurnoff
in the mail yesterday.
(more info on the book here — http://www.edyslexia.com/ldonline.html)

I learned about this book from a previous posting on the LD boards.

The book has 142 interviews with families, siblings and dyslexic persons.

Some of the interviews were with folks in the UK - different educational
system but the emotions are certainly the same.

What depressed me, and caused me to end up skipping those
interviews, were families who had special private schools for
dyslexic children. I so WISH we had that available
here. If I knew then what I knew now we would have found
employment in larger cities so we could have had a dyslexic
school available to us.

Three are plenty of interviews for those of us slogging through
the public school system. The interviews are divided up
in sections - finding out, coping, siblings.

Best of all the school years are divided up by elementary,
middle school, high school and college years.
Middle school is where we are at right now so that section
was the most interesting to me right now. It is nice to
know that the high school years and college years are there
ready for me.

This is a good book for those of us that have children with
reading and writing disabilites. Also talked about children
with math disabilities.

Anne

I enjoyed the article,
sounds a lot like my son, IQ 145, Id’ed with several disabilities 3 yrs ago. never had trouble talking but still has trouble tieing his shoes, cant spell a word write to save his life- you would think it would happen once in a while by random accident, of course if he did accidently spell it correctly we might not notice as his handwriting rivals any dr. perscription Ive ever seen.

loves science- preforms really great expieriments- some have which have commanded the attention of the entire neighborhood- fire and police departments included, who would have thought it was against a city ordence to self electricfy a fence????? surely not my 8 yr old.

they tell me he is gifted, but thats real hard to understand when his butt is burnt because after igniting the hair moose in the toilet (a large porcilion basin im told) he sat on it, guess thats one way to smother a fire……..

ok true enough he reading comprhension is at a college level, and his math abilities at late high school- but that dosnt help in soccor game when you repeatedly score for the other team.

and their is not word to explain the feeling you have when your child explains to the camp director that he refuses to stay at his camp because his faciilities do not meet safty code, and unless he installs _____ more sprinklers my sons going home….and he wants a refund……. It was a church campground

I also found myself censoring his learning- after the fense inncident I flat out refused to let him watch the man setting the timers for the street trafic lights, and I wouldnt let him ask any questions eigther. I think the man thought I was a really mean mom.

I censor what he carries on his person. I stopped letting him carry magnets - you cant possibly imagine the effects of an inquisitive child with magnets on the world, I think those things should be controlled substances.

I censor his phone calls- you want to use the phone???? why? who do you want to call??? for what purpose do you want to call???? what will the subtopics of discussion be???? think im flaky? do ya? well we got a phone bill from a call to japan- we dont know anyone in japan- my son, apparently wanted to hear the “real language” Ok, not devistating, true enough, but the local calls that are most damageing- to the prinicipal of a school (not his own mind you) who advertized a school nike spirit day, to the superintendent of schools, to government geological service devisions, all 50 of them. When he called california- his name happened to be the same as the Govenors- he told them all he wanted rock samples. The post office, had to send out a special truck to deliever our mail, several days in a row, someone want to tell me what to do with all the boxes of rocks in basement?

somedays i think to myself, gifted? my Foot! that psychologist must have made some horrific mistake- I cant really blame the teachers at school who seem to focus on his abilities and rarely seem to see his gifts, I have a hard time seeing them myself at times.

I wonder what happens to the kids like mine who dont grow up to be einstiens?

my sons up for his re-evaluation this year- part of me hopes his IQ comes back even higher- I like thinking I may be raising a future einstine, the other part hopes the psychologist made a terrible mistake the first time around and both his IQ and his achievement scores come back being perfectly, blissfully, average in every respect of the word. Then I would just have a wonderfully normal kid and everything would be just fine as long as I keep him away from magnets, phones, fire, electricity and church camps.
socks wrote:
>
> Anne,had to comment on the article you posted about. You
> know,the one about Albert Einstien’s Mom. It was awsome,and
> oh how I can relate.
> Got to tell you,I often wondered about Einstien and Edison.
> Did Edison’s mom,finally say enough,I’ll just homeschool him?
>
> It brings forth a lot of what I have been thinking about
> lately. How being LD isn’t necessarily a bad thing,and how no
> matter what program or remediation technique or the best plan
> in school is used,we will always be dyslexic. It’s what we
> are,it’s part of you,and that makes for some really really
> incredible people.
>
> Anyway,just didn’t think your post got enough attention,you
> all MUST read this.http://www.dyslexia-parent.com/mag22.html

Ohio,
Your son sounds like he has intelligence, curiousity and creativity that knows no boundaries. Brilliant he may be but I can’t imagine how you cope with the fallout of his experiencing the world. I wish you all the best and I imagine someday down the road(way down I am sure) these will be wonderful stories to tell the family. I am impressed at how inquisitive he seems to be. What a wonder.

lol!
I need this boy on my DI team!!

So far our record for launching a stuffed cat from
this year’s design, a catapult, is 28 feet. I think
your son could help us launch Kitty into
the next county.

Our neighbors know to be very careful of driving
by our house in Feb. especially if they see kids
out in the driveway.

Anne