Customer Reviews

Faking It: A Look into the Mind of a Creative Learner

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I am the mother of a son with a severe reading disability. Tears welled up in my eyes when I read Christopher's reflections of his days in elementary school. I know my son was going through that too. I can not personally imagine being in any place day after day for 14 years, surrounded with things I could not understand nor cope with. I would be a very unhappy and probably unruly, due to anger, soul. That is how many years my son was in school by the time he graduated. He now attends Landmark College and has been inducted into Phi Theta Kappa. So much for being the dunce so many thought he was. By the way, I found myself on the pages about math. All though everyone assured me it was easy, I never did get it very well. I recommend this book to every parent and every educator involved with a Special Learner. You really can't cut off the tops of their heads to take a look inside, no matter how much you would like to. Read this book and you will see just what might be going on in there.

The author provides those of us who are not LD with a view into his world and the perspective from which he approaches life and learning. As a teacher of students with learning disabilities, this book has helped me to approach my students in a different and... better way. I routinely recommend this book to other teachers and parents, so that understanding and acceptance can be cultured. I applaud the author for taking the bold step to share relevant information with those of us who work with individuals with learning disabilities.

As a former tutor who help a job essentially identical to Rosemary's, I read this book eagerly, for it allowed me to visit the world outside of the tutor's office. My students, like Lee, had many talents but often found college challenged their self esteem. This book provides a revealing look at what Lee experienced in all the disciplines, as well as in life in general.

One scene that will stay with me forever was when Lee had to write a check and felt paralyzed with fear when he realized he had to risk misspelling words -- simple words -- in front of the clerk.

I assigned this book in my graduate education class, for I felt it would provide future teachers with a detailed, sensitive, thoughtful account of students with learning disabilities. Many remarked that this book was the most influential book they had read, for they did not realize the abilities many students with L.D. have.

Some criticisms included the repetition; many felt the book needed to be edited further. We felt the strength lay in the anecdotes, the ones that were probably most difficult to share. But those rich stories are what make this book special, what make this book move beyond just another article about L.D.

Your future book may include other adults' experiences. We are all eager to read it.

I had to read this book for a course, which was a good thing because I would never have made it through otherwise. I am interested in the subject, and you do learn more about what the world is like for a learning-disabled individual. It is amazing that this guy could write a book at all, even with a lot of help! Unfortunately, he doesn't appear to have had access to any kind of editorial services, so reading it is like reading a 200-page freshman essay: painful. This is a pity, since this book could have been a fascinating read, and even a sort of reference work.