Why Talking Doesn’t Change the World – What I Have Learned in 6 Years, Dr. Naoise O’Reilly
Why is it so hard to change the perceptions of dyslexia and other conditions in education?
It would be so easy if all you had to do was talk about your story or be academically brilliant to change not only how others achieve but perceptions of what they can achieve.
I have always wondered why ideas of what dyslexics can do have not changed with all the successful famous people from Jamie Oliver to Albert Einstein. If all these people had done so much before me, why was I told at 17 I could not do any of it and that going to college was and I quote, "above my status".
If only what you had done could change the perceptions of how others approach the next generation.
One of the biggest frustrations for me was it never mattered what I had done before - I was always judged at the next stage of education. So even though I got over 500 points in my leaving cert and was in the 25% of the country the year I sat it when I got to college, lecturers refused to help me with notes because "I shouldn't be there and sure what was I going to do in the future anyway" and when I got a 1st for my degree and went on to my PhD I was given a lecture on the pyramids of education in my viva as to why I didn't deserve to be there at this level. It never mattered at any level what I had done before or what others had done before me. There was still a concrete idea that I couldn't be academically successful.
But almost 6 years on since I started my own education projects to develop methods to change education I now understand why I didn't want to be a motivational speaker. Why my approach has all been about action.
In order to really change the patterns of generations and the educational blueprint that has built up over decades you have to create an experience for people. They have to feel and know the difference.
In order to be truly successful people have to experience what it is like to learn differently - they have to understand how they absorb information, how they process it and how they can be truly successful.
Yes, the methods seem very simple to me and are easily applied to all as they are universal but the crux is that they have to be applied to real people. Then for every person I help to see differently and every family that is successful or every business they will approach the next set of people in a new light. I was told recently that "you have made me look differently at my employees and I can see how they learn now" and this was from working with someone's child. But by understanding their own child in a different way now from experience they see their own employees differently. I have always thought that business had the ability to drive education and that is why I work across both sectors now.
When I set out almost 6 years ago I had three objectives:
1: Literacy and intellegnce not in the same sentence.
2: Make school more enjoyable for everyone.
3: Make companies understand how everyone works differently and stop focusing on the difference.
I guess I have added a 4th one - to make everyone successful.
Almost 6 years on I have a set of methods to apply universally to the whole world to do just this - but it'll never be about me just talking about them. It's all about making as many people as possible experience something new that will gradually change the world over time. You can never go back once you have looked at people in a new light. You can never expect a dyslexic to be defined by their reading age once you have seen them get 9 out of 10 in the spelling test or 44 out 45 in the maths test. You now expect them to achieve academically and in life.
I have never been one for talking about what I'm going to do - I always just did it and now I understand why that action changes the blueprint for the future.
I'm an expression developist now because I express myself often but I give this ability to others too.
Dr. Naoisé O'Reilly.
See-Saw Learning™
- See-Saw Learning
This is why I keep our students doing a "play" program over the summer. There is no point undoing all the progress they have made in a few sort weeks of holidays!
Leonardo Da Vinci appeared to suffer from ADHD – how much more could he have achieved in his lifetime?
Leonardo Da Vinci appears to display all the traits of having had ADHD. For me having this condition is an effect of so much happening below the surface and Da Vinci demonstrates this better for me than many of the modern people who are rolled out as examples to others.
It is long thought that Da Vinci was dyslexic, especially with the examples of his mirrored writing. His note books have proven a challenging task in fact for any historian trying to document his work - in one sense he seems highly visual and creative - there is no other inventor that left as much of a paper trail behind but on the other hand they prove very difficult to read because of there presentation. Something many a teacher will sympathize with correcting a dyslexics paper!
But what I feel is much more interesting is the diversity of Leonardo Da Vinci's interests. I have long seen and proven the correlation between what I call multiplicity and ADHD. Multiplicity is the ability to take in information in a multiple of ways - Visual, Practical, Auditory and Kinesthetic - no wonder people with ADHD seem to have overload - jump around and get distracted easily. Da Vinci was very obviously Visual, Practical and Auditory - the Kinesthetic is hard to see as you need to know more about someone on an emotional level. He was drawn to representing characters and dwelled on the faces of the characters in his paintings - his portraits were very emotional which gives us a clue that he was kinesthetic. Mona Lisa's smile has captured the hearts of so many millions of people over the decades and even spent time in Napoleon's bedroom!
But the above would explain why he jumped around for project to project - did have prolonged periods of concentration and focus on topics he was interested in - can be described as a painter, sculptert, engineer, strategist, philosopher, writer, inventor and on and on... Many of my ADHD students show such diverse talents and interests. In fact I'm working with one 15 year old at present that I see as a Da Vinci type!
The Flip side of this of course is that Da Vinci became distraced easily - jumped from project to project. Didn't complete many commissions - created a great bigger picture but didn't focus on the details, like for example the long term lasting effects of the painting durability of the new technique he developed to paint the Sistine Chapel so he could paint slower and obsess over the faces for certain characters in the painting.
Leonardo Da Vinci only completed 25 paintings in his lifetime as a result of the random nature of his life. Many of his ideas where not built or created until hundreds of years after his death - such as his bridges or his famous bronze horse. Some of this can be put down to being far ahead of his time but in other cases I see great similarities between the students and adult clients we work with in Confidence Club and The Forever Method. Many of our clients seem to have the same "self-destruct button" that prevented Da Vinci from developing more of his ideas into reality. I meet many students who either focus too much on small details of interests or jump randomly to the next fad or interest. Their work will often be presented in as erratic a nature as the hundreds of notebooks Da Vinci left behind - interestingly he always wanted his notebooks to be published. We so enjoy taking people with these extreme levels of information overload and creativity to their true potential. Da Vinci is someone I would have loved to have had the opportunity to have worked with!
Dr. Naoisé O'Reilly Expression Developist™
Leaving Cert results 2013, A year later – the transformation of The Homework Club to Confidence Club
So it is one year on - our first state exams results since transforming The Homework Club into Confidence Club and I have been asking myself what are the real results?
In the past I found myself dancing around the real issues with students - as parents and students alike thought they were attending some form of "grind school" we spent more time by stealth in the background getting to the real reasons behind what was going on ... it was often a case of me waiting for an opportunity in the hall to chat casually to a student or waiting for the chance when a parent collected their charge.
Now it is all a lot more straight forward and upfront - which means less time waiting for the chance to talk about what is really happening. All too often the maths result or other challenge is just a factor in what is really happening in a young persons life.
This means a year later I can say that we have worked with real people, real problems and in record time. Many of the students I have met have required no more help from me or my team after the initial hour and a half meeting. Their whole lives have improved not just the "maths problem" or the "english essay rows". The time my team have spent in peoples house has been less that we would have needed in the school for greater return.
All round as what we do is not conventional in anyway it didn't make sense to continue with a conventional school model. I felt often that we had a revolving door as we got results too quickly and now we get them even quicker with a wider spectrum of people.
Another change for me is that I have often felt that we work with students that everyone else has washed their hands of - now we work with the really outside the box stories that no one has thought of! I truly enjoy the challenge and nothing has ever shocked me. I think there is no way now we can be seen as a simple "grind school".
I'm looking forward to what this year brings and all the amazing young people I will meet along the way.
Dr. Naoisé
Expression Developist™
What ADD & ADHD are really all about explained by Dr. Naoisé O’Reilly
I always see ADD and ADHD as an affect of what is really going on with the students who come to me looking for help and support with their school work. This has helped me to coin a term over the last 4 years called "Diffuse Focus™" to describe what is really happening for them. I equally see these patterns of behaviour carried through to adult life with our business clients! Dr. Naoisé (Expression Developist™)
