I can't entirely agree with you, there, I'm afraid, black butterfly.  I think we need to define what "dumb" really means in this instance.  

For example, personally, I'm dyscalculic.  When it comes to numbers, I'm as dumb as a box of rocks, because my brain is unable to make sense of numbers beyond a very basic and shaky addition.  I find myself unable to hold them in my head for long enough to get any information from them or do anything with them.  Rather like trying to hold water in a sieve.  

But when it comes to words, my hyperlexia kicks in and I'm totally at the other end of the scale, happily absorbed in the beauty and logic of the pretty words, to the point where I can understand not only English, but some Tamil, a bit of conversational Italian, a smattering of Spanish, and am currently working my way through Japanese.  

I'm unable to see social cues and body language, but my NT sister understands the whole minefield with what seems to me like magical ease, blithely side-stepping the social traps that I tend to stumble right into.  

So I think my point is that everybody has areas where they are reasonable at some things, excellent at others, and still other areas where they totally suck.  

Good-quality education can, I believe, make a difference in that it helps people to at least become minimally competent in those skills they are not so good at, and excel in ones that they do have an aptitude for.  The desire to become educated is the deciding factor, I think, not how "dumb" somebody may be at the beginning of the process.

I know, if I want to add up my grocery shopping, for example, that I should take a calculator along with me to the shop!  But long division, multiplication and algebra will forever remain a foreign country, one that I have no interest in ever revisiting!  

Alison

This post was last modified: 02-12-2012 01:46 AM by Alison.