Has David Brent changed sex recently?
Nov. 14th, 2009 05:57 pmI've just come home from a dyslexia workshop for UU tutors, where I gathered a small amount of useful info and enough material for a new episode of The Office. The trainer was David Brent in female form, if you can imagine that. She was totally freaked when one of the tutors attending the workshop said he was dyslexic.
After that, she couldn't give him a handout without fussing over whether he'd be able to cope with it. She consistently referred to people with dyslexia as "they" so she could tell us exactly what "they do". Apparently, they don't like to be stereotyped because they're all different. But don't correct their spelling because, (David Brent voice here, please)"they won't remember anyway: they're dyslexic!"
Then she read our feedback forms while we were still in the room with her, albeit trying to get out.
"Simplistic and patronising. Well thank you very much!"
I promise you:
a) I did not make it up
b) Was not my form, honest. Out of a group of 11, I can think of at least 4 (other) people who looked fed up enough to write that.
c) Those quotes are what she said. I did not even tweak them.
After that, she couldn't give him a handout without fussing over whether he'd be able to cope with it. She consistently referred to people with dyslexia as "they" so she could tell us exactly what "they do". Apparently, they don't like to be stereotyped because they're all different. But don't correct their spelling because, (David Brent voice here, please)"they won't remember anyway: they're dyslexic!"
Then she read our feedback forms while we were still in the room with her, albeit trying to get out.
"Simplistic and patronising. Well thank you very much!"
I promise you:
a) I did not make it up
b) Was not my form, honest. Out of a group of 11, I can think of at least 4 (other) people who looked fed up enough to write that.
c) Those quotes are what she said. I did not even tweak them.