It is interesting to note that a review of biographical sources, however, provides little or no evidence to support this assertion.

According to LD lore Einstein failed to talk until the age of four, the result of a language disability. It is also claimed that Einstein could not read until the age of nine. To strengthen their case LD proponents point to such facts that Einstein failed his first attempt at entrance into college and lost three teaching positions in two years.

While this makes a nice story, this widely believed notion is false, according to Ronald W. Clark’s comprehensive biography of Einstein, and according to “Subtle is the Lord: The Science and Life of Albert Einstein,” a biography by Abraham Pais (Oxford University Press, 1982).

Pais states that although his family had initial apprehensions that he might be backward because of the unusually long time before he began to talk, Einstein was speaking in whole sentences by some point between age two and three years. According to Clark, a far more plausible reason for his relatively late speech development is “the simpler situation suggested by Einstein’s son Hans Albert, who says that his father was withdrawn from the world even as a boy.” Whether one accepts this interpretation, other information helps us to judge Einstein’s language abilities after he began to speak.

Einstein entered school at the age of six, and against popular belief did very well. When he was seven his mother wrote, “Yesterday Albert received his grades, he was again number one, his report card was brilliant.” At the age of twelve Einstein was reading physics books. At thirteen, after reading the “Critique of Pure Reason” and the work of other philosophers, Einstein adopted Kant as his favorite author. About this time he also read Darwin. Pais states, “the widespread belief that he was a poor student is unfounded.”

FAILING HIS COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAMS

True, Einstein did not pass the college exam the first time he took it. However, aside from being only sixteen, two years below the usual age, the plain fact was he did not study for it. His father wanted his son to follow a technical occupation, a decision Einstein found difficult to confront directly. Consequently, as he later admitted, he avoided following the “unbearable” path of a “practical profession” by not preparing himself for the test.

It is also true that, after graduating from the university, Einstein had difficulty finding a post. This was mainly because his independent, intellectually rebellious nature made him, in his own words, “a pariah” in the academic community. One professor told him, “You have one fault; one can’t tell you anything.”

Also true is that Einstein went through three jobs in a short time, but not because of a learning disability. His first job was as a temporary research assistant, the second as temporary replacement for a professor who had to serve a two-month term in the army. Clark remarks that it is “difficult to discover but easy to imagine” why Einstein held his third job, as a teacher in a boarding school, for only a few months: “Einstein’s ideas of minimum routine and minimum discipline were very different from those of his employer.”

In his article “Was Einstein learning disabled? Anatomy of a myth,” (published in 2004 in the “Skeptics Society & Skeptic Magazine,” a revised version of an article that originally appeared in the March/April 2000 issue of the “Journal of Learning Disabilities”) Marlin Thomas concludes: “Given the meager basis for the claim that Einstein was learning disabled, one has to wonder why it has become so accepted. Part of the reason is the encouragement it gives all of us to know that even geniuses have shortcomings. The claim also enhances the prestige of learning disabled individuals. Any marginalized group benefits from having one of its members be a stellar figure in cultural history. These may be salutary, but the consequence of claiming that Einstein was learning disabled without historical evidence is harmful. It distorts the historical record and it questions the credibility of other claims regarding the learning disabilities of prominent persons.”

First, students who have learning disabilities need to work on developing self knowledge while in high school. They need to understand what learning style works best for them. They need to have an arsenal of learning strategies in hand that they know will allow them to achieve success in school. Such strategies might include asking for extra time to take tests, listening to books read out loud instead of reading them, or making up acronyms to help them remember important material.

Next, the learning disabled student needs to understand the legal rights that he or she is entitled to. The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), which was passed in 1990, protects the confidentiality of records, so colleges do not have access to any disability records. Because of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, colleges cannot discriminate in accepting students with learning disabilities. Students with learning disabilities have to be allowed reasonable modifications in order to complete their education, such as extra time for tests, alternate test forms and other things. One difference at college over high school is the student must take the initiative to request help when at college. In high school, the law demands that the school identify and help LD students, but not so in college.

Students with learning disabilities need to make special preparation for the transition into collage life. Students need to be aware of the options they have for college. Some colleges have open admission policies, which allow anyone with a high school diploma to enter the college. Others have selective criteria and may only accept students with a certain GPA or test score. There are also two types of colleges based on the length of the education. Two-year colleges usually have open admissions policies and allow the student to earn an Associates Degree. These are sometimes referred to as Community Colleges. Four-year colleges or universities are often more selective in their admissions acceptance and offer more specialized degrees. Some colleges have programs designed for students with learning disabilities. Those with severe learning disabilities should seek one of these institutions.

Just because a student has a learning disability does not mean that he or she cannot and should not pursue higher education. The law demands reasonable accommodation for those with LD at colleges and universities. LD students who are planning to go to college need to have a good understanding of their own learning strategies and what helps them learn best. By doing some research and planning well for the transition, even students with learning disabilities can succeed and even thrive in the college setting.

There are loads of websites ready with content and information on having a learning disability. And many of them give symptoms of the “problem,” including difficulty understanding simple instructions, difficulty concentrating when reading or writing, being unable to tell important information from unimportant information, and difficulty organizing and completing writing projects. While these are explicit hindrances in a person’s ability to learn, there are often other ways to inform these systems, especially once you conceive the symptoms of a highly sensitive person.

The term highly sensitive person was coined by Elaine Aron. She explained that being highly sensitive means that your nervous system is more sensitive to the subtleties of your environment, and that the brain processes information very deeply, resulting in becoming over stimulated or overwhelmed easily by a lot of information According to Aron, 15 to 20% of the population is highly sensitive, but most don’t know it, which means there is a large number of people who could simply be sensitive to their surroundings and thus inhibited in an academic setting without being learning disabled.

I am considered to be a highly sensitive person and have spent much of my life thinking I was learning disabled. The reason for this was because I displayed some of the symptoms of a learning disability. I had a difficult time understanding simple instructions because I was overwhelmed by the amount of words directed at me. Whenever I was able to calm down, I could understand any instructions easily. Also, I often couldn’t concentrate, which resulted in me doing poorly on tests. For example, during my ACT testing there was a siren blaring outside the window for almost 45 minutes and that’s all I could think about; there was just too much information between the siren and the test to process.

As a child, I had a very difficult functioning around others because I was very shy and overwhelmed by large groups of people. I also had a difficult time working under the pressure of a watchful eye. However, if I was left alone, I could work at twice the speed of others, often finishing my tests in 30 minutes when it took others an hour or more. I could work non-stop for long periods of time as long as I could go out and bath in the sunlight alone. And I often needed extended periods to myself to be intensely introverted, often being able to go days without communicating with others.

My teachers sometimes threw hints at me to look into being tested for a learning disability; and at times I considered it, unable to explain why I sometimes could not take in information – especially if there were no diagrams and pictures involved. After spending years not understanding myself and my often low grades, I began to do research to see if I really had a “disability.”

In doing my research, I ran across information on the highly sensitive person and became intrigued. Once I read over the information, I realized that I was not somewhat highly sensitive; I was VERY highly sensitive. On the “self test” administered on the Highly Sensitive Person website hsperson.com, I scored 25 out of 27 in favor of being highly sensitive. That let me know that many of my academic issues could easily be explained by my highly sensitive nature.

In learning more about the highly sensitive person, I found that most highly sensitive people are unable to watch a lot of violent or negative television without being adversely affected, many are unable to take in caffeine or sugar without “feeling” the difference, some have a very difficult time working stressful 9-5 jobs, often having to quit due to physical ailments brought on by the pressure, and both short-term and long-term abrupt changes can severely disorient them. I also learned that many highly sensitive people find that it is easier to work from a standpoint of purpose. They must fulfill what is considered to be their “calling” or they can never be happy – their super-sensitive nervous system won’t let them rest until they are living an enlightened life. As a result, I’ve done the same, enrolling in an institution that will educate me on teaching others to accept themselves for exactly who they are – and I feel great doing it!

Learning the background of the highly sensitive person has helped me to come to terms with who I am as a person and member of society. Early in life I felt like an outcast due to my extremely shy and introverted nature; and course being viewed as a slow learner didn’t help my self-esteem. But after learning that there are more people out there like me – a large number of people at that – I can feel comfortable that there is a place for someone like me; a person who is smart and talented, but had to learn the best ways to thrive in a high energy society. Now I want to encourage others who may know a highly sensitive person to view them differently. Instead of believing they are lacking or even learning disabled, consider that they are just different than you, like every other unique person in the world – and that is okay.

The following story was related to me by a friend and I felt that this subject needed to talked about, it is very important to deal with these various learning disabilities.