I am a literacy specialist doing training for educators on how to intervene with students who have reading disabilities. I am a retired public school educator and am passionate about all students learning to read, reading to learn, and loving to read. I write with that background in mind.
Our next president, Donald Trump worries me for many reasons. However, his “illiteracy” is one of my biggest concerns. He doesn’t love to read at all and I suspect that his deficiencies in background knowledge are rooted in his not being able to read proficiently with the end result being that he hates to read. As a reality TV star and real estate mogul he could easily disguise his “illiteracy.” As president it will be much more difficult. Reading is difficult and thus stressful for him.
For me, there were three major clues during the campaign that pointed to his reading difficulties: 1) his dysfluency when reading aloud from a printed statement or a moving screen on a teleprompter, 2) his limited vocabulary (some pundit suggested his speeches were at a fifth grade vocabulary level); and 3) his lack of background knowledge. Donald seems to morph into a somewhat different person when he is forced to read something aloud.
I suspect our new president would never do (nor even could he) complete a crossword puzzle in the NYT. I suspect that he would fail a GED test if forced to sit through it. He has made it clear that he does not want information on the printed page from staff in the White House. Rather he wants to receive information verbally. What that tells us is that our new president will never read briefing papers; digest biographies of presidents through history; or review a particularly troublesome issue from several viewpoints in the quiet of his office.
I suspect our new president also has a compounding learning difficulty known as ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) that makes it difficult for him to concentrate for more than a few minutes on one a topic or goal. Combine ADHD with a reading disability and we have a very antsy, inattentive individual with little time for learning about a topic in depth. That’s a scary thought for me. The individual that is charged with leading our country and interacting with world leaders doesn’t really know very much about either our country or the world.
I surmise that one of the reasons Donald got sent to military school is he was a major behavioral problem who was failing every class in school. The combination of a reading disability and ADHD is scary. His parents no doubt greased some palms at the military school and many good grades were exchanged for money.
Now, some of you may be saying….well he went to college. Yes, but if you believe that Donald Trump wrote his own papers and took his own tests in college, don’t. There are always less entitled students who need money for rent or food who are willing to cover for students like “The Donald.” These same folks are the grownups who are willing to sell their souls to the devil himself for a spot in “Donald’s Circle”). Unfortunately, these individuals will too soon be the ones reading Donald’s briefings and giving him 1 one minute summaries of what to say and do. I cringe when I think of the great triumvirate of Giuliani, Pence, and Gingrich creating “Cliff Notes for the Presidency” or “The Presidency of the United States for Dummies.”
No wonder Donald wants to go home every weekend. After a week of “pretending” to be the president when he can’t read and digest thousands of pages of government business or write is a logical well-constructed memo for a committee he will be totally exhausted.
I am already missing Bernie, and Hillary, and Barack. They have written their own books. Donald’s books are all ghost written!!