All You Need is Love

 All you need is love…and a little bit more.
It is the hardest thing for a child with a learning disability to go to school every day not understanding why they struggle so much.  John Lennon did not know he was dyslexic until much later in life, but he always knew he was different than all the others.  He described his feelings about it to Jann Wenner in his famous 1971 Rolling Stone interview.
People like me are aware of their so-called genius at ten, eight, nine… I always wondered, “why has nobody discovered me?” In school, didn’t they see that I’m cleverer than anybody in this school? That the teachers are stupid, too? That all they had was information that I didn’t need.
I got…lost in being at high school. I used to say to me auntie “You throw my…poetry out, and you’ll regret it when I’m famous,” and she threw the…stuff out.
I never forgave her for not treating me like a…genius or whatever I was, when I was a child.
It was obvious to me. Why didn’t they put me in art school? Why didn’t they train me? Why would they keep forcing me to be a…cowboy like the rest of them? I was different, I was always different. Why didn’t anybody notice me?
A couple of teachers would notice me, encourage me to be something or other, to draw or to paint— express myself. But most of the time they were trying to beat me into being a…dentist or a teacher.”
“The guitar’s all very well, John, but you’ll never make a living out of it”, his aunt Mimi famously said.  Yet despite her and most other people’s doubts, John Lennon remained the leader of his band and a leader of his generation throughout the rest of his years.  Like many gifted people, whether they are social, political or business leaders, it has been BECAUSE of his dyslexia and not DESPITE it that John Lennon is the legend that he is today.  Imagine that!
Can you imagine what your child, nephew, niece, brother, sister or friend with learning problems can become if only given the opportunity to shine by playing to his or her strengths?  Can you imagine a world without the contributions of Lennon, Da Vinci, Einstein, Picasso, Ansel Adams, Henry Ford, Churchill, Patton, Eisenhower, Edison, Mohammad Ali or Hans Christian Andersen?  Can you imagine a world in which children don’t have to feel stupid when they go to school because they can’t read like the rest of their friends?  You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.  Like many other professionals around the world I work with dyslexic children every day, and I know that it is possible to fix their learning problems.  All they need is love…and a dedicated professional to work with them.