08/13/2026
The “ collective shrug” allowed our society to overlook all of the children struggling to read. SHRUG ! The “ scream” of the dyslexia community was also ignored, silenced or denied.
1. Some schools ignored, dismissed, shrugged away or denied the number of children struggling to read.
The situation was far worse for the children with dyslexia or related learning differences.
2. Concerned parents were shrugged off with statements such as :
don’t worry,  they will catch up later, late bloomer, needs to read more at home, not trying, not motivated, slow learner, in the low group, should put in more effort, lazy, unmotivated, not that bright, not academic, boys are slower, better at sports, give it more time, wait until the next grade, don’t label them, not concentrating, needs to find a love of books, find books they love, go to the library, read more at home, summer school, not that far behind, we don’t diagnose dyslexia, we don’t say dyslexia,  we don’t help until after grade 4, other kids are worse, seems fine at school,  doesn’t qualify for help, getting good grades, bright but lazy, too smart for a learning problem, within an acceptable range of struggling, have you tried a private tutor, we are not funded, best we can do, union problems, etc.
Most of society assumed kids were doing fine because they had good report cards, awards, honor roll and success stories filled the news. Huge coverup.
See GoBeyondGrades.Org
3. Advice from educational experts was ignored, denied, overlooked or delayed. Testimony before Congress. Journals. Books. Movies. National conferences. Public news. Non-profits. Grass-roots parents groups. Over 4 tons of data stored at ERIC.
All shrugged off. Not our problem. Until social media made this human rights violation more public.
A portion of educators  missed out on a huge fund of knowledge as they felt it was optional or not required by unless they were paid to learn. No accountability standards were set. Trust us. We are the experts. We know best.
Thousands of agencies and millions of people attempted to share free information which was often met with the “ collective shrug” in many places. What a massive loss for society.
4. The International Dyslexia Association is 75 years old. The schools shrugged off all of that wisdom.
The Learning Disabilities Association of America is 62 years old. A portion of educators felt only the “ special education teacher handles those kids” despite Child Find laws.
The free information from private schools for dyslexia was also shrugged off for over 100 years.
The Cox Campus has offered free teacher training for 23 years.
Understood : https://www.understood.org/en/articles/checklist-signs-of-dyslexia-at-different-ages
5. Only a small portion of educators took advantage of lifelong opportunities from all of these resources. The educators who followed the science of learning also better understood all learning differences.
6. A group of concerned educators who wanted to know better and do better formed The Reading League 10 years ago.
A group of concerned citizens formed Decoding Dyslexia-MA groups across the USA and Canada.
The Canadian Paediatric Society is working with the Canadian Children's Literacy Foundation.
The doctors issued a statement saying how low-literacy is impacting the overall health, wellbeing and life outcomes of the children.
Thousands of similar agencies, non-profits and individual groups evolved all trying to help the educators learn how to teach the children to read, write spell to math and learn.
7. A billion dollar industry grew to support all of the struggling students and concerned caregivers. Lawyers. Advocates. Private evaluator. Private tutors. Private agencies. Support groups. State parent support groups. State parent information centers.
8.  The equity gap grew. Those with more money or connections could get private help or private schools with professionals who had a far deeper fund of knowledge, expertise, and desire to help all children learn.
Those  communities with less money or less knowledge offered services that did not often help with volunteers who had far less expertise. The equity gap grew.
9.  Schools implemented a wait-to-fail model supported by the educators who chose to wait-to-train for themselves. A self-imposed Matthew Effect occurred for teachers and students. The rich got richer. The educators with more knowledge were far better prepared to teach literacy.
10.Sadly, many of the educators and people with more knowledge found their colleagues and leadership were not motivated to learn more.
They were satisfied by the mindset of “ not all kids do well, the system is broken, not funded, budget problem, staffing, pandemic, poverty, puberty , problem kids, problem parents, problem leaders, politics, union problems and world problems.” A huge collective shrug.
11. Luckily, many people decided it was time to take action. As Dr. Shaywitz said “ we don’t have a knowledge gap, we have an action gap.”
Thousands of agencies and millions of people are working together to create positive changes so all people have the freedom to learn.
12. Each USA state is setting up new standards for teacher prep, teacher lifelong learning standard, teacher training, dyslexia plus guidebooks, literacy guidebooks, community resources and more.
Go here : https://www.stateofdyslexia.org/
13. A single post can not cover the complexity of this topic. It’s a trillion dollar industry with many people involved.
14. Many creative and innovative people are creating postive changes. We can’t let the “ shoulder shrug” mindset continue.
Watch this great video about your amazing brain to feel positive and hopeful :
https://youtu.be/BhTa8pdl-s8
15. The Landmark School has created this fabulous explanation in a short video we highly hope you will share :
https://youtu.be/DvTf47yP2h8
16.
Resources:
https://www.landmarkoutreach.org/blog/
https://landmarkschool.org/our-school/landmark-360-blog?id=371348/reading-a-guidebook
https://www.landmarkschool.org/uploads/application/files/readingguidebook_download_landmark.pdf
17. Seek legal help here :
Wrightslaw
Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Inc.
McAndrews Law Offices
Disability Rights at School: A Resource for Families
