[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scf7Rpvloh0&w=420&h=315] This is an excerpt from the Capture Time Productions website, which features a brilliant essay by renowned filmmaker and dyslexia advocate, Harvey Hubbell V. Camp Spring Creek used Hubbell’s most recent film, Dislecksia: The Movie, during staff training. For information on the movie or Hubbell’s full director’s statement, please click here.
In second grade, they found out I was dyslexic. Little was known back then about what to do with a dyslexic. Testing continued on me, year after year. Testing never ends when you are dyslexic. I learned to read outside of the school system through a series of one-on-one tutors. In 1977, I graduated from Newtown High School. My class rank was 275 out of 325 students…
It wasn’t until 1975, a few years before I graduated from high school, that the first laws were passed to identify students with learning disabilities and to support their rights to education. It was too late for me. At sixteen years old I was already considered damaged goods. I felt that my teachers and others did not understand me…
I started telling my own stories through movies. It turned out that people liked them, and I got some awards. So I made more films and got more awards, some of which turned out to be Emmys…
In 2003, my crew and I decided it was time to make a film about dyslexia and show how things had changed since I was in grade school. We were anxious to get answers to all of the questions swirling through my head. What are educators doing today? How do students with dyslexia get treated in school now?...
Our movie started in New York City interviewing people on the streets and asking the simple question, “What is dyslexia?” Quickly we learned that most people have no idea what it is. Some even thought it was a sexually transmitted disease; others thought it was a condition where people do not sleep. Public awareness on the subject was low. It didn't take long to discover that the same apathy on the subject was the norm within multitudes of school systems. Although many are making changes to help dyslexics, too many aren't doing anything at all. There are even school systems that are in legal battles with parents who want their dyslexic children educated. Instead of paying for teachers to learn new methods to teach dyslexics, schools are using their funds to oppose parents and advocate that they are doing “enough”…
It is my mission to raise awareness on the topic, and to help dyslexics to get the education they need by offering the movie as a tool for advocates who work to get laws changed.
Stay tuned for an upcoming interview with Harvey Hubbell, right here on the Camp Spring Creek blog. Subscribe for updates via email on the right-hand side bar.