by the Revd Canon Dr Phil Groves, former Director of the Anglican Communion Office (2006 – 2016) and Associate Rector Wychert Vale Benefice
I don’t think like a normal person – my brain works differently. I am remined of this every day, not just in what I can do, but also because most people just can’t seem to see the world how I see it. I see solutions to problems they think are impossible, but often, because I can’t spell, they think the ideas I have must be stupid.
I am dyslexic.
Dyslexia, and Autism are forms of neurodiversity. Our brains function differently to most people. It is not better or worse, just different. I see some things clearly that you cannot. You see things clearly that I cannot.
Dyslexic people are a hidden minority and just like every other minority we are victimised and dehumanised. If you think that is a bit strong – wake up.
Just think about this. 14% of the UK population are UKME and everyone knows that it is a sign of injustice that they make up 25% of the prison population, a sign of systemic racism. Only 10% of the UK population is dyslexic but according to the best research between 30% to 40% of the prison population are dyslexic. Just take that in. Either dyslexics are wired to be criminals or something is very wrong in our society.
Discrimination against neurodiverse people is subtle and complex, but it is very powerful. It can be very well meaning and it begins from when we go to school.
Put yourself in the position of a parent of a child you suspect might be dyslexic and click on the NHS website entry on dyslexia. It will tell you that dyslexia is a ‘specific learning difficulty’. As a parent you will focus on the word difficulty and then ‘problem’ that occurs 4 times in the first section. Depressingly you will discover that your child will have a ‘life long problem’. Admittedly, there is the occasional mention of something positive, but what is heard is that dyslexics need support, special software, and help in the workplace.
This reflects how our society understands dyslexia: it is a problem. We dyslexics hear that we are a problem and that our society would be better off without us.
Dyslexia is a problem for children because our school system is built around the thinking process of the dominant group. Most dyslexics will tell you that for them school was a place of shame. Our inability to spell our names or neatly present our work was made worse by the fact that our verbal reasoning showed we were clever. The only reason for the mess we handed in on paper must be that we were lazy and our work was paraded to the class as the example of carelessness.
School for dyslexics can just be too much. We are asked to pass exams designed for the majority society. School for some can be like conversion therapy for LGBTI+ people. We are made to feel ashamed for not being ‘normal’. Things that our teachers think should come easy to us are a constant fog, while concepts and problems seem so easy to solve, but even our teachers can’t understand the answers. We are rarely tested on our strengths. Creativity, empathy, and problem solving are difficult to test: spelling and rapid-fire numeracy are easy. If you are great at spelling, you cannot imagine the horror of being asked to swap papers with another child to mark only to be taunted by your failure in the playground.
There is a different story. Made by Dyslexia believes ‘in the game-changing power of Dyslexic Thinking. After all, everything from the light bulb to the iPhone, the aeroplane to the motor car, was invented by a dyslexic mind. And our skills are vital in shaping the future too.’
There they will discover that MI5 is specifically recruiting dyslexics and people on the autistic spectrum to build neurodiverse teams, because teams with diversity of thought are much stronger than teams where everyone thinks the same.
MI5 lives out 1 Corinthians 12. Paul tells us that all are to be valued and everyone has a role to play in a healthy society. We don’t all need to be the same.
And what about the Church of England?
Since launching the Clergy Dyslexia Forum in the Diocese of Oxford we have discovered just how many clergy identify as dyslexic. We think it is at least 15% and it may be as many as 20% in our diocese, and in one of the four episcopal areas all the incoming curates are dyslexic. Having begun to speak of my dyslexia in sermons and elsewhere, I have discovered just how many of our congregations here in this benefice are dyslexic. They have come to me quietly and often never told anyone else: they are ashamed of their ‘problem’ and work hard to ‘overcome’ it. I believe that we are sitting in every pew in every church in the country.
When I ask them about why they come to church – especially a church that places such an emphasis on writing – there is a common answer: Jesus loves us, even if the church does not. It is the same answer I have heard from Indigenous people in North America, LGBTI+ people across the world and women in misogynistic churches in male dominated societies. When we hear the gospel, we identify as the outcastes who Jesus embraces and we know we are loved.
But what about in the leadership of the Church of England?
The Church of England is facing up to the exclusion of UKME people in senior posts and at the same time working out what ‘Radical Inclusion’ means for LGBTI+ people. There are not enough, but there are UKME bishops and UKME people in other senior roles. There is one out partnered gay bishop, but there are also gay and lesbian archdeacons and cathedral deans. I have tried hard, but I can find only one openly dyslexic person in a senior role – the Bishop of London. We are absent unnoticed from the leadership of the Church of England.
This is not about representation, our absence from power means that problem solving is limited to one way of thinking. The MI5 insight of the importance of diversity of thought is being ignored in the Church. More importantly, we are failing to be the church envisioned by Paul. We ought to worry when MI5 is more closely aligned to Pauline ecclesiology than the Church of England.
How does it work?
What I have discovered is that when I am open about my dyslexia the response is one of compassion. It is assumed I am asking for support and what software I require or how I can overcome my difficulties. I may be told that there are some amazing dyslexics out there, but I am never then asked how I can bring my skills to the table. I can hear the mental note being made – this person has a problem and needs helping, not this person has a gift that we need.
When I talk to dyslexic clergy, I discover that when applying for jobs some have been encouraged not to be upfront and open about their dyslexia because they are told that it will potentially harm their application. Apart from being illegal and immoral, this plays into the sense of shame that is a very powerful part of the dyslexic experience.
Again and again, it is this word shame that is raised by dyslexic clergy. We do not feel worthy of senior roles and we constantly fear being caught out as imposters. We need to listen to 1 Corinthians 12:
Those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honourable we treat with special honour.
God has put the body together, giving greater honour to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
The church needs to listen to this too. It is time to open the discussion on the inclusion of neurodiverse people in the church and society.
Any thoughts?