People don't grow by being measured : recollections and reflections of a dyslexic grandmother

Exuberantly happy and enthusiastically self-confident, Brenda Crowe went eagerly to school, where she found herself, to her bewilderment and dismay, identified as a slow child who could not do what was required of her.

Happiness and self-esteem were replaced by doubt and anxiety.

But Brenda works to her own strengths, and developed innovative ways of learning through seeing, hearing, sensing and doing in relationship with those who could teach intuitively - through explanations, in word pictures and by practical demonstration.

When, at the age of eighty, she was finally diagnosed as dyslexic, she was amazed to be told that she was also highly intelligent, having spent most of her life assuming quite the opposite.

Her response was to look back into her childhood to try to trace any early signs of her condition.This fascinating book raises important questions about educational theory and practice: should we aim to 'put right' children with special educational needs, or respect and support the unique people they already are?

Should we teach subjects, or teach children? How do we educate children for life and not just for exams?