LGBT Thread

[Uppercut]

Originally Posted by GeraintIsMyHero

Well it isn't just a difficulty in reading and writing so it's flawed from the start. Dyslexia causes you to not be able to read because you can't programme the letters into the right order, basically. I'm no scientist or expert so I'm sure someone else could give you a better definition, but if you can't read then you don't know what a word says, if you have dyslexia you know what a word should look like but don't see it that way.

I'm aware of the differences between dyslexia and any other natural difficulties people may have in reading and writing, but I'm not aware of what makes dyslexia more worthy of preferential treatment. That's what I'm asking.

[G.I.Joe]

I can see Uppercut's point.

[Matteh]

Originally Posted by Uppercut

And yet they don't qualify for benefits the way dyslexic people do.

What about people with a natural (yet, like both dyslexia and a low IQ, impossible to diagnose) inability to do Maths. Should they be afforded, say, extra time in an exam?

To be fair, and I have a lot of practice in this, noone actually uses their extra time in exams. Only person I've seen use all of it in a long long time was a very very low functioning child who had to take regular sit-down breaks and dictated that 'Tigers have fluffy tails' in a GCSE English exam.

To be fair, he's spot on.

[Uppercut]

My history exams were seriously pressed for time, at GCSE and A-level. Everyone could have used an extra half hour and done better than they did.

But in general you're right. Which is why I don't think of it as much an issue, more of a curiosity that I don't really understand.

[Marcuss]

My Paper 3 for History (Vietnam + Women in Britain in the 20th Century) was a bitch. I broke my thumb playing cricket the evening before so had a writer for the exam. Had to tell her where to put fullstops, where all the capital letters went, spell the key words etc. With no extra time. ****ing ****s.
Missed out on nearly a third of a 75 mark paper IIRC.

[Matteh]

Originally Posted by Marcuss

My Paper 3 for History (Vietnam + Women in Britain in the 20th Century) was a bitch. I broke my thumb playing cricket the evening before so had a writer for the exam. Had to tell her where to put fullstops, where all the capital letters went, spell the key words etc. With no extra time. ****ing ****s.
Missed out on nearly a third of a 75 mark paper IIRC.

Using a scribe by default gets you 25% extra time, your school sucks.

[Marcuss]

Tell me something I didn't know.

[sledger]

Originally Posted by Uppercut

I object to dyslexia being treated any different to natural stupidity though.

I guess you were feeling dyslexic when making this post then.

[sledger]

Originally Posted by Pothas

I think this idea is exaggerated to be honest.

Certainly none of my gay friends have this sort of attitude and the gay society at holloway had no such agenda.

They just object to getting abuse chucked at them, which does regretably still happen from time to time.

You just need to get better housemates.

This is undeniably the crux of the matter. As I have previously suggested the guy is the most obnoxious bigot I have ever met. Considering he goes around preaching about the wonders of liberalism, he is incredibly intolerant of things he doesn't like or understand. Slightly off topic. This is a terrible thing to say, but when there are people like this walking around and making a scene in the most asshole way possible, it's no wonder that all these negative stereotypes begin to appear. Thank god he is the only one of him.

[BoyBrumby]

Originally Posted by sledger

This is undeniably the crux of the matter. As I have previously suggested the guy is the most obnoxious bigot I have ever met. Considering he goes around preaching about the wonders of liberalism, he is incredibly intolerant of things he doesn't like or understand. Slightly off topic. This is a terrible thing to say, but when there are people like this walking around and making a scene in the most asshole way possible, it's no wonder that all these negative stereotypes begin to appear. Thank god he is the only one of him.

Arsehole, surely?

Seriously tho, drawing general conclusions from specific examples is always dodgy. Your ex-housemate was a twatt because he was a twatt, his sexuality seems incidenatal to his twattishness.

What I will say is that there still is a little low-grade homophobia amongst most of us. Some have said they find the OTT spoons annoying, which is fair enough, but the criticism seems to be they're "too gay". To draw a clumsy analogy, would anyone say a black chap who had his hair in dreads and wore a rastafarian hat with a Bob Marley tee shirt was "too black"? One's inclined to think not.

[sledger]

Originally Posted by BoyBrumby

Arsehole, surely?

Seriously tho, drawing general conclusions from specific examples is always dodgy. Your ex-housemate was a twatt because he was a twatt, his sexuality seems incidenatal to his twattishness.

What I will say is that there still is a little low-grade homophobia amongst most of us. Some have said they find the OTT spoons annoying, which is fair enough, but the criticism seems to be they're "too gay". To draw a clumsy analogy, would anyone say a black chap who had his hair in dreads and wore a rastafarian hat with a Bob Marley tee shirt was "too black"? One's inclined to think not.

Oh indeed, I was in no way attempting to tar everyone with the same brush. I just got sidetracked and went off on a rant about his generally dickheadedness. I was in no way attempting to suggest he sexuality was in any way linked to the fact that he is a total ****. It just so happens that he rather gives a bad name to everything which he is involved with, and though I am able to see past this and recognise that not everyone associated with whatever groups he is are total ****heads, there are those who might not.

[zaremba]

Originally Posted by GeraintIsMyHero

Aside from this, as Pothas said earlier on, other learning disabilities are accounted for with benefits and special treatment.

This is the point.

Although Uppercut's point isn't an altogether bad one.

[cpr]

Originally Posted by Uppercut

Well it's not my fault no one has ever adequately explained to me the difference between being born dyslexic and being born with a low IQ- feel free to do so.

Right, I'll take that one up, because I can, and I'll use examples too.

Firstly, although I'll sound like an arrogant ****, I'm quite an intelligent person. OK I'd put myself as more than 'quite intelligent', I'm not Steven Hawking, but you put me in any situation where quick thought is needed and i'll more than hold my own. Stick me with lesser mortals and i'll chew them up and spit them out (because I'm a arrogant **** who loves to show off how clever he is). Being Dyslexic doesn't hold me back, 95% of the time.

A good example was during my training for my current job. Involves a lot of maths, carrying numbers to and frow, different %'s, different rates etc. Anyone with a C and above at GCSE maths should grasp the concepts, though will probably spend their life infront of a calculator. People with As, or A levels in Maths will do it in their sleep. So me, being a show off, was churning this stuff out in my head before the rest of the class could type it in to Mr Casio. Weeks of being bored waiting for other people to catch up and cotton on....

Until one day, quite an easy scenario (cant remember the specifics now, think it was about reducing allowances due to income levels), everyone in the room got it first time, I'm staring at an answer miles out. OK, no biggie, pen, paper, **** it, calculator.... Nope, still out. Work through it with the tutor, step by step.... We find the part i'm going out. The maths before is fine, the maths after would be fine, if I could just click this one step.

Now I know I'm wrong, I know where I'm wrong, but it took something like 20 minutes of countless people trying different methods to get me to understand how to do this one simple thing. I'm almost in tears with the struggle. The nearest I can liken it to is someone getting a big black sticker and covering a part of your brain. Everything else is firing fine, working overtime, scrabbling at the edge of this sticker to peel it off and let you use whats underneath. Think of the brain as a circuit, now if you've got a duff battery (low IQ), then the system will run slowly, if you've got a faulty wire (dyslexia), then it may power brilliantly, then it may stop completely, before inexplicably working again before you can locate the fault.

The worst part is when the penny drops, in that case it just came in a flash, I just reeled off exactly what was taught in the first place as my explanation to what the answer was... People couldn't understand how I could hear something for 20 min, then just comprehend in a second..... The effect is like when someone opens the curtains on you in the morning, waking your hungover arse up unexpectidly... Sure enough a couple more examples were tried, and I was back to smashing them away first time


Remembering back to my Educational Psychology Report (alas I dont have my copy anymore, think I used it as a scrap piece of paper in an emergency then threw it away.... Pretty sure i doodled all over it when on the phone to broadband tech support), in most categories I was in a stupidly high percentile.... Number recognition was almost off the scale (tester couldn't believe I was studying politics not something maths based), yet in some things i was about 10 below average...

Worst one for me, I was given some childrens building blocks, each side was split diagonally, half red, half white (like this). I had to copy a pattern laid out in front of me, eg line them up so the coloured sections made a diamond in the middle etc..... Because I wasnt allowed to move anything bar the blocks, so couldnt pick up the sheet with the pattern on, turn it around to suit how I wanted to view it etc, I just crumbled. Ended up after 5 minutes with alot of blocks flying around in frustration, just launched them off the table in a fit of anger, at myself for not being able to comprehend something a 6 year old could copy..... Yet I could recite lists of numbers backwards, forwards etc with ease.




75% of the time Dyslexias not an issue, 20% of the time it crops up and you have your own coping methods, or have a 'oh yeah' moment 5 mins later and people take the piss out of you. Sometimes it will drive you to tears in frustration as your whole mental state breaks down when presented with something you can do, but cannot at the same time.

[thierry henry]

Yeah ok lol

[Pothas]

Oh **** off.