For the sake of keeping things simple, let’s break this learning disability thing down a touch. There are actually 2 kinds of learning disability within adults. One is of the mental variety where the person has issues with the mind and may not actually be able to learn past a certain stage, and there’s the other type where the people are just slow to grasp and comprehend information in a normal classroom environment. The latter is often laughed at in schools and this results in embarrassed pupils skipping classes and thus leaving early with no qualifications to speak of, and some level of illiteracy and innumeracy.

HERE’S WHAT’S SO SAD

The thing that makes these cases so sad is that if these adults were given a little more help and guidance during their school days and nurtured through the system instead of being branded stupid or disruptive to the ‘average’ students, then these people could have gone on to be as good as, if not better than, their peers.

It still goes on today where kids with special needs are fobbed off as lazy and disruptive, but most really want to learn but don’t know how. All many of them need are special classes, with trained teachers, the right educational materials, and they too can go on to college and become a success. Alas, many begin their lives as adults working in menial low paid employment. Jobs that are boring, unfulfilling, and mind numbingly dull! This is such a heartbreaking waste for employers, as they lose out, and a real sad waste of a life for the poor souls who could have done better with a little help from the right people.

That’s all the bad news but there is some good. Adult learning centres are springing up nationwide and that means any of these people who got let down or neglected by the educational system when they were kids, still have a chance to better themselves if they want to. It’s not perfect, and some may feel it’s too little too late, but at least it’s a start.