By definition, the term dyslexia indicates illness, defect, a problematic situation (dysentery, dysplasia ... dystopia!). The educational environment of modernity, a genuine “child” of the industrial revolution and a direct descendant of the Cartesian anthropology (“I think therefore I am” ), which fantasizes that rational thought is the highest human function that differentiates man from animals. Therefore, having given absolute value by thinking in words, has diagnosed thinking in pictures as a disease.
On the other hand, in postmodernity the advantages of thinking in pictures gains in recognition and the education community already argues about “The Gift of Dyslexia” 1 , “The Advantage of Dyslexia” 2 . However, the derogatory term DYS-lexia is still in common use!
In general, the prefix dys- carries a negative meaning. Particularly in Greek, it means “hard, bad, unlucky, etc., destroying the good sense of a word, or increasing its bad sense: hence, joined even to words expressing negation” (Liddell & Scott). But the mental function that provokes the symptoms characterized as dyslexia is literally, a gift for those people whose brain works this way. Usually these people have an increased awareness of their environment, they are more curious than the average person, mainly think in pictures rather than in words, have the ability to see lots of possible answers to a question, are genius at divergent, at “out of the box” thinking, they are extremely intuitive and clairvoyant, they perform better in Multi-dimensional thinking (using all of their senses) and have vivid imagination. If not oppressed, overturned or destroyed by parents or teachers, their scores appear to be higher than average and are unusual creative.
The teacher enters the class and starts to teach Addition:
“1 plus 1 equals 2”.
The next day, the teacher asks:
“Children, what does 1 plus 1 equal?”
Johnny looks around looking lost.
The teacher looks at him and thinks: “the child is stupid!”
But Johnny’s mind is on fire:
1 + 1 = 2 as the teacher said but he have had enough with “logical” thinking. He is attracted by the divergent thinking, the “out of the box” thinking, the “mad”, the inventive, creative thinking, so:
1 + 1 = 11 (if you put them side by side) ...
1 + 1 = 1 (if put one on top of the other) ...
Johnny remembers the teacher’s “reasonable” addition, but he is attracted by his “crazy” images and he is unable to pick up a choice ...
A child’s mind who thinks in words, that is verbally, works as a train moving on rails, or it works as a serial electronic processor. The mind of the dyslectic, the one who thinks in pictures, works as a parallel electronic processor, moving in space, flying, running like a wild horse ... It is more difficult to tame, but when tamed, when someone manages to control it, then it is more efficient, it is creative, inventive, innovative.
Current educational systems tend to cultivate and assess verbal thinking, either exclusively or as a priority.
About 15% of the population, are gifted at thought in pictures. This percentage when asked to join in an educational system that mainly cultivates and assesses verbal thinking, because of their difficulty to cope with, usually they develop defense mechanisms. These defense mechanisms most of the times are grouped under the derogatory term “dyslexia”. It's as if basketball couldn’t be considered a worthwhile sport and anyone who could become a talented basketball player could spend his life carrying the title of “A Bad Football player!”.
In the beginning there was a request for the prefix dys- to be removed from the term dyslexia and be replaced with a term that indicates the ability to think in pictures. For the language orientated people the charismatic visual thinker is considered dyslexic, while if the dominant model was that of thinking in pictures, the gifted in verbal thinking child would be called “dis-visual”.
Initially there was a thought to use a word that charges dyslexia with a positive meaning, e.g. to use a compound term that begins with the prefix Eu- and then a word related to the picture could be used ... However the result would not even sound nice: euicon, euimage, eupicture ... bliach ... deadlock, embarrassment, wonder and ..., dyslexia ... OK, let's replace the "d" to "b" as many dyslexics do:
bislexia or bilexia
The prefix bis- in Latin mean double. A dyslectic person instead of having one word, one answer, like it is requested in verbal thinking, he/she has invented another “word”, his/her creativity has found one more answer, so he/she has two words (bilexia) and as long as he/she hasn’t learn to “control” his/her gift, he/she loses it, he/she feels awkward and he/she doesn’t know which answer to choose, he/she is getting confused.
bilexia = two words!
The number 1,000,000,000 is called a billion, literally “twice million” however, in this case, it means a thousand millions. So bilexia can also mean “a thousand words” ... or rather “an image”, as the wise saying goes: “a picture is worth a thousand words”.
bilexia = thousand words! (one picture)
Take the “dys” out of dyslexia. Let’s turn the dyslexia to bilexia or bislexia, that is, talk about two or a thousand words, or talk about an image. The issue is not simply to discharge a 15% of students of a slanderous classification. The issue is not even simply reconsidering our views on educational systems that suppress creativity. The issue is to focus equally both to “football” as well as to “basketball” that is in cultivating the function for both of the left and right cerebral hemisphere. The aim is to enable humanity to liberate itself from the tight corset of morality and naive faith in ideologies, which follows the absolutism of the function of the left hemisphere, in order to pass to the next stage of self-consciousness: that is, a stage where a complete human being would be perceived as someone able to exploit the function of both the cerebral hemispheres. The one who lives in the present (NOW) a life filled up with meaning. The one who enjoys finding a meaning in everyday life, the one who feels connected with the environment and fellow human beings and flies with the strong wings of inspiration, hope and love, dancing to the rhythms of universal music harmony.
1 The Gift of Dyslexia: Why Some of the Smartest People Can't Read...and How They Can Learn, by Ronald D. Davis (Author), Eldon M. Braun (Contributor). A Perigee Book 1994/1997/2010.
2 The Dyslexic Advantage: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of the Dyslexic Brain, by Brock L. Eide M.D. M.A. (Author), Fernette F. Eide M.D. (Author). A Plume Book 2012.
