Mounce: President Biden is Dyslexic

Yes, believe me. President Biden is dyslexic. So am I. So are 20% of the Rio Grande Valley and the population of the USA.

“Trump instead of Harris”, “Putin instead of Zelenskyy”, “Medicare instead of Big Pharma.” It is so obvious. President Biden is dyslexic. So am I. I have been all my life. It makes me more empathetic. It also makes me wonder why more emphasis, more money from the State of Texas is not dedicated to dealing with this condition in our schools.

I first noticed my own condition as a six-year-old child. We were writing letters to Santa Claus; we showed our letters around. All the kids laughed, when they read mine: I had asked for a “pee-pee gun” instead of a bee-bee gun! Only much later did I learn my condition had a name.

I made it through my educational system, earning a Masters at Berkeley and a PhD at the University of Texas. I taught, rather successfully, I think, for 60 years, retiring in the last few years from UTRGV. The situation just made reading and research go slower. 

I helped several students through dyslexia. One young man broke down in tears (me too), when he realized why he was struggling, what caused his word and letter reversals. “I just thought I was dumb!” He was a new man!

Dyslexia is not just a matter of reversing letters; in speaking, one (me, Biden?) reverses concepts, names. For me, it made learning Spanish more difficult: “caliente” when I meant “frio”; “arriba” instead of “abajo,” etc.

Dyslexia is a neurologically based learning disability, especially notable for restraining decoding and reading comprehension (Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity). Dyslexia affects one in five persons, 20% of the population. It can and does affect people at all ages, at all levels of intelligence. It causes difficulties with both oral and written language. 

Yet, there are strengths that may come with dyslexia.  People with dyslexia may have the ability to see connections in and among complex systems, competing currents of thought or action (read, President Biden?) I would like to think I picked up some of those strengths.

Perhaps (somehow) my dyslexia added to my love of various cultures. My rather monoculture rural Oklahoma childhood did not provide much of that. My studies and travels throughout Mexico and Latin America did. In the Rio Grande Valley, with its fusion of cultures and languages, I find a constant replenishment for those appetites.

So, have some empathy for friends and family who may (I won’t say “suffer” from) but be dealing with dyslexia. For myself, I say “Viva, dyslexia!” Long live its strengths, but damn it, when I want to say “Viva!” but wind up saying, perhaps “Chiva,” or some other nonsensical  word. I’ve done it before. I will do it again. That struggle goes on.   

Editor’s Note: The above guest column was penned by UT-Rio Grande Valley Professor Emeritus Dr. Gary Joe Mounce. The column appears in The Rio Grande Guardian International News Service with the permission of the author. Dr. Mounce can be reached by email via: gjmounce@gmail.com.  

The post Mounce: President Biden is Dyslexic appeared first on Rio Grande Guardian.