Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Benjamin Bolger - A Saga of perseverence

There is something special about some people, I guess they are gifted with one special quality, perseverance. This was my first thought when I read about Benjamin B. Bolger, a 33-yr old dyslexic individual who has obtained 11-advanced degrees from the premier universities across the world, including Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard. Being dyslexic his reading and understanding ability is still at grade 5 level. This makes him take much much longer than any normal individual to read through and under the same material.

Bolger was diagnosed dyslexic when he was 2-and-half years old. Since then his parents, especially mother, have been very supportive. They searched around and put him a school which caters to special needs children and when they couldn't find one suitable, they just home schooled him.

The fact that he is a gifted individual became obvious to me when I read that he enrolled into college at 12 years. Despite his dyslexia, he was able to enroll into college at the age of 12 and that is not all, he graduated with a 4.0 GPA. I am sure lot of us would want to be in Bolger's shoes and achieve such grades.

Anyway, I think this guy should be looked up for inspiration by parents with dyslexic kids or even teachers who work with children. This proves that when an individual is under-endowed in one area, he is gifted in some other... it is only a matter finding the area in which he/ she is gifted and work on that.

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