We’re delighted to share a moving personal essay by Richard Crume, MSPE, originally published in Telicom, the journal of the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry. At nearly 73, Richard stumbled on his old third-grade report card — and what it revealed sent him on a journey of self-discovery. We think his story will resonate deeply with our community.
On Being Smart and Dyslexic
by Richard Crume, MSPE
A few years ago, with the COVID pandemic in full swing, I had some free time on my hands and decided to sort through some old files that had been collecting dust in the garage for many years. To my surprise, I ran across my third-grade report card from the 1950s. What was it doing there after all these years!?
I was about to toss the report card in the trash, but something interesting caught my attention. I noticed that for each of the four quarters of the school year, my teacher wrote that, while I excelled in most areas, there was one big problem: spelling. I could not spell worth a darn, and my reading comprehension was not great, either. One of my sisters was a poor speller, too — even worse than I — and my father spent many evenings at the kitchen table drilling her on words she should have learned to spell long before. Our teachers must have thought we were not trying hard enough, or maybe we were just not that smart.
In the garage that day, organizing old papers and thinking about our troubles with spelling and reading, it suddenly dawned on me: dyslexia! I did a little internet research and found I had many of the characteristics often associated with dyslexia, and so did my sister. Dyslexia runs in families, and perhaps she and I both had some level of dyslexia all these years and did not even know it.
What is dyslexia? According to the International Dyslexia Association (IDA):
Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability. Dyslexia refers to a cluster of symptoms, which result in people having difficulties with specific language skills, particularly reading. Students with dyslexia usually experience difficulties with other language skills such as spelling, writing, and pronouncing words… most people with dyslexia have been found to have problems with identifying the separate speech sounds within a word and/or learning how letters represent those sounds, a key factor in their reading difficulties.
In my case, in addition to spelling and reading worries, I had difficulty remembering people’s names and learning languages. I occasionally mispronounced words, and sometimes I needed a little extra time responding to questions — problems I continue having today as an older adult. On the other hand, I excelled at math and science, consistently at or above the 99th percentile on nationwide aptitude tests, year after year, in middle and high school, and my IQ was exceptionally high. Dyslexia seemed to be a plausible explanation.
An important fact about dyslexia is that it has nothing to do with intelligence — there is no direct correlation — and people of all intellectual levels, smart and not so smart, may experience it. Dyslexia is not an indicator of low intelligence, just as it does not predict high intelligence. But if that is so, why does it seem a disproportionate number of really smart people have dyslexia, even benefiting from it in their careers?
Continue reading Richard’s full essay here →
Reprinted with permission. “On Being Smart and Dyslexic” by Richard Crume originally appeared in Telicom 37, no. 2, copyright 2025 by the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry. All rights reserved.