Can’t Do Math

Moderate Dyslexia

A big blond man with a bigger personality, David Baron seems quite comfortable sharing and speaking about his struggles with dyslexia. Though David never received a formal diagnosis, his wife of over 20 years is a Special Ed teacher. To her, it's plain as day that David suffers from moderate dyslexia.

No Answers

Back when David was a schoolchild, in the 1950's and 60's, his parents knew something wasn't right, but back then, no one had any answers. It wasn't until he was a high school sophomore that a counselor sat up and took note that something just wasn't right. This was back in 1968 when David took the Illinois Standard Test of Educational Achievement, a test he was told was administered to all U.S. high school students.

Failing Chemistry

David's counselor called him in for a meeting to discuss his test scores and prefaced the discussion by inquiring as to David's favorite subject. David told him he liked chemistry. The counselor admitted he was aware of David's preference for this subject and had spoken with David's chemistry teacher prior to the meeting, whereupon he discovered that David was just about failing in the subject.

It's The Math

"My counselor asked why. I told him that I understood the material well enough but the tests all had a significant mathematics component, and it happened that I'm terrible at math, so I got poor to failing grades on the tests. I told him that if the tests were conceptually-based rather than mathematical, I would do very well.

Scientific Reasoning

He then pulled out my ISTEA test scores and whadaya know; my math score was appalling as it was almost rock bottom at 5.5 percentile while my scientific knowledge and scientific reasoning tests were at the maximum of 98.6 percentile. My counselor said that I probably answered every question correctly—to which I responded that it was a fact that I answered every question right. Besides, I finished those tests in 10 minutes flat.

Not My Language

My counselor couldn't understand the combination of my inability to deal with math at an intermediate algebra level while I could handle scientific reasoning at a high level. He said, 'But mathematics is the language of science!' To which I replied 'That's true, mathematics is the language of science, but it's not my language.'"

Just Average?

David's counselor was very puzzled because within the battery of tests covering chemistry, David's results were all over the place, while his composite score showed he was within the 51st percentile. Just average, according to these results, yet it was clear to everyone, including David, that this score didn't reflect his true abilities. "What was clear to me then as well as now is that I have a serious imbalance of talents, far greater that the average person."

No Improvement

David repeated the same test in 1970 with the only difference reflected in his math scores, which was much lower this time. Over those two years, there was no discernible improvement in his math abilities. He managed to squeak through basic algebra, but was forced to drop out of his intermediate algebra class. Everyone else in his class improved their math skills, while he stayed at the same absolute level. Relative to his classmates, he fell behind in his math skills.

Saving Grace

David's saving grace arrived in the form of a university instructor who believed that anyone could do the math that applied to statistical data. This teacher taught David's required statistics course from a conceptual angle and David found he did quite well.