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Arts Dyslexia Trust - a brief history
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The Arts Dyslexia Trust was established in 1992 but its history
really goes back much further than that, to the early 60’s when
the word “dyslexia” was scarcely known in England. A remarkable
small independent school ( Brickwall, in Sussex) run by a very
remarkable head master Malcolm Ritchie, was one of the first in
England to recognise dyslexia and to attempt to build up a group
of teaching staff who could meet the learning needs of young dyslexic
minds. I was fortunate enough to be asked to join this group and
became responsible for Art classes there for the next 20 years. |
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soon as I got there, I became fascinated by the work that was being
created by the boys in these classes. Compared to the work produced
in Art Colleges where I had previously been teaching, their creative
imagination was simply outstanding.and the results amazing. This,
inspite of a severe lack of equipment and inadequate space - the
Art Room was a dark and subterranean ex-cowshed with a chronically
uneven brick floor. I remember watching anxiously as snow flakes
drifted down through the unsealed roof on to the heads of the visiting
inspectors. Fortunately they didn’t notice. |
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By the time I retired, in 1985, I had become convinced that there
must be some reason why a lack of ability with words should so
often bring with it a higher than average ability in subjects
requiring visual-spatial skills. I took a degree course in Research
Methods with the open University, determined to discover the roots
of this connection. Of course, I was always being told that such
a connection did not exist but I soon found that the evidence
was there. From the great Norman Geschwind, his brilliant successor
Albert Galaburda, and many others, I gathered the clues to the
explanation I was looking for.
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There is no room to go into detail here - and any explanation
requires illustrations, which necessarily takes up space. However,
to sum up the conclusions very briefly: I believe that traditional
academic education depends on the use of words and numbers which
can only be understood sequentially. The visual thinkers, including
many of the talented dyslexics, think three-dimensionally. The
differences between these two ways of thinking are profound. They
effect all sorts of things, not only the way people learn. I have
written several papers on the subject and would be happy to send
one to any reader who is interested.
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One major source of misunderstanding is that It is not generally
appreciated that there are two ways of perceiving, recordiing
and manipulating visual information in one’s brain: two-dimensionally
(i.e. as flat pattern), and three-dimensionally. It is the latter
form which is most commonly used amongst dyslexics. The fact that
none of the so-called “Visual” tests distinguish between these
two ways of thinking and very, very few are presented in three-dimensional
format explains, perhaps, why there is such controversy on the
subject and why there are still so many people who refuse to believe
that the dyslexic visual talent exists.
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So, the first thing we did when the the Trust was formed, was
to mount a big exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London, to
demonstrate this dylexic talent. It attracted enormous support
from the art world and elsewhere. Richard Rogers lent us some
of his beautiful architectural models; we showed Leonardo prints
from the Queens collection at Windsor; pages from Faraday’s illustrated
notebooks, extracts from Einstein’s mathematical notes; and a
beautiful photograph of one of Yeats’ hand written poems kindly
given to us by the current editor of Yeats’ letters. “A first
exhibition of its kind” was warmly welcomed by, amongest other
people by Roger de Gray KCVO, past president of the Royal Academy,
who said, “I warmly welcome the encouragement that this exhibition
will give to present dyslexic students and their families, and
also hope that it may encourage a fresh assessment on the part
of educational authorities on the value of visual thinking”.
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