Dear World,

1. You cannot use the successes of students with LDs against them to keep them from getting accommodations. That is bullshit. The current standard is if there is ANY WAY POSSIBLE to pass the class without accommodations, then you don't deserve accommodations. That is all well and good except for the fact that many of these kids are so determined not to fail that they go literally days on end without eating or sleeping just barely trying to hold on to a passing grade. If the student can get a passing grade by forgoing sleep for a week, that is not normal or acceptable. That student is still at an extreme disadvantage and needs accommodations in order to be successful-- because eventually those students who work that hard end up in the hospital or out of school with no degree. You cannot just consider the successes, you have to consider the processes involved.

2. Learning disabilities are complicated. Learning difficulties themselves are all fluid and interconnected, and though we have nice cookie cutter names set out for some collections of symptoms, the brain doesn't really work that way and we only tried to make it that way for insurance purposes in the first place. Just because "dyscalculia" is named for a math term and is considered primarily to affect math does not mean it does not affect anything else or that nothing else can affect math. People look at a complicated web of disabilities and think a student is just trying to make excuses. No, you idiot, THE BRAIN is a complicated web and when disabilities are present that creates further mess. That does not mean you can ignore my disabilities because there isn't one set name for each and every difficulty I have, it doesn't work that way. Just because it confuses you does not mean it is not legitimate. This concept is not astrophysics, get a life and actually think before you open your mouth. Seriously.