Growing up with Disylexia.

By Kate Tydeman

Thomas Malins is trying to survive his third and final year at Winchester University where he is studying a History Degree. He’s finding it hard to keep up with essay after essay like all students but having dyslexia can be a real hindrance. Thomas found out he was dyslexic at the age of 6, now 21 he has learnt how to cope with his learning disability working hard to achieve his degree. Thomas struggled in School with academic work but received excellent help from his support teachers.

It’s known that dyslexia is linked to behavioural problems and Thomas like many children growing up got bullied in primary School, later going on to a secondary School that specialises in dyslexia. “Cokethorpe specialises in dyslexia, it was pretty expensive more so than uni.” The fees for this School were up to £4,795 a term, which is more than a year fee at University. Thomas agrees that even if perhaps an expensive fee, it was fully worth it for his dyslexic needs. Reasons behind going to Cokethorpe were to get a better education, and he felt that Cokethorpe School would fulfil his dyslexic needs.

“Cokethorpe specialises in dyslexia, it was pretty expensive more so than uni”

With books on the window ledge there is the impression that Thomas enjoys reading novels, for someone who is dyslexic that’s an achievement for a hobby. For the last 7 years Thomas has read many fantasy novels which he reads leisurely in his spare time, being dyslexic it does hinder him but he chooses to push on with his love for books, and even has the interest of becoming a writer himself. "I have also started writing a fantasy novel which I'm hoping I continue with when I leave uni." Thomas' writing for this novel began back when he was only 15 in the hope that when he graduates from University he can carry on writing and perhaps even publish. Thomas admits this is ambitious and may even have to have a ghost writer to change his grammar. Thinking too far ahead of himself he admits he might be too embarrassed to let anyone read it, for now his writing will be purely for pleasure. If anything being dyslexic has pushed Thomas to a dream or writing, reading is a big passion and being dyslexic won’t stop him.

“I have also started writing a fantasy novel which I’m hoping I continue with when I leave uni”

Due to being dyslexic, Thomas doesn’t have a good auditory memory, but has a strong visual memory. When it comes down to revising for exams, he chooses to use spider diagrams, coloured paper, visual aids to help him remember. Despite having a disability that interferes with his reading and writing, Thomas pursues his love for reading and has also chosen a subject at University that requires a lot of essay writing, being dyslexic doesn’t hold him back. Winchester University does help students with dyslexia, when it comes to handing in essays Thomas gets stickers to put on his work to ensure that the marker is aware and perhaps have leeway on the grammar.

Winchester University has a team of specialised tutors who give support to students with dyslexia, which is funded through the disabled students’ allowance. There is group or 1:1 sessions that require support and an assistive technology room for students who have trouble reading. Thomas is fully supported through University he gets given extra time in exams, and lecturers who know him understand if he struggles with his essays they can be more lenient.

Thomas has also has to deal with spoken language problems, and finds it hard to express himself and finds himself getting confused with words. Thomas leans forward for his glass of wine explains to me how he’s happy at University. He doesn't feel isolated and goes on to explain he has many dyslexic friends at University. He does however brag about getting cheaper internet in his University managed housing very helpful for him and his housemates.

With exams coming up in the up and coming term of University it’s a panicking situation for any student, but Thomas takes it in his stride, but panics at the last minute like any person would. University of Winchester gives Thomas what he needs, extra help and he himself says that it’s a good University for dyslexia sufferers. Thomas has grown up with dyslexia; he was one of the lucky ones who found out earlier rather than later so he had the right help at an earlier age. When asked what advice he would give to teenagers who have found out they are dyslexic, he says use the help Schools give you. There are departments for dyslexia in most Schools, you don’t need to go to an expensive School to get help there’s a lot of help out there. “I would tell them to use the help Schools give, I admit I didn't like it because it was unwanted attention but I have gotten this far in life, just don’t let it affect you in a negative way.”

If you need more information about dyslexia and how it effects people or if you think you many have dyslexia, visit the following few websites which may be helpful.

http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/

http://www.dyslexiaaction.org.uk/

http://www.dyslexiatreatment.com/

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Dyslexia/Pages/Introduction.aspx

Growing up with Disylexia.

Growing up with Disylexia.

'A day in the life of a River' - Photojournalism project

In this project I had to take six photos of which I chose to do a subject of a river, taken on a 450d canon camera and then manipulate them in Photoshop. I chose to focus my project on a river as I wanted take photos where I was capturing the moment. Similar to the work of 'Henri Cartier-Bresson' who helped develop “real life” photography. His collection of photos doesn’t tell the whole story, but its interesting trying to understand why he took the photo he did. Each one of my photos involves or is taken of a river, out of the six photos I have taken I think the swan flapping its wings is the one which is the most natural, and captured that moment well.

Here are my six final photos,

Katie Tydeman.

How Nietzsche’s work influenced 2001 A Space Odyssey - Journalism blog, 002 seminar paper

Fredrick Nietzsche is a German Philosopher whose work and theories influenced the film 2001 A Space Odyssey. Nietzsche wasn’t a firm believer in mankind; he saw life as one big struggle in which only the fittest survived. Power is important to the survival of man and animals, which is reflected in the scene of the film where the apes are fighting against one another. By fighting one another they are risking their lives to gain power.

Nietzsche’s theory of evolution involved a Camel, a Lion and the final stage was the Child which symbolised the new beginning. The Camel was the first stage of evolution, basic and learns what it’s taught. The camel only has a small capacity of learning; it merely learns how to work leaving no room for real understanding of life. Nietzsche described the camel as “a factory worker”. This is influenced in Kubrick’s work of Space Odyssey; the apes take the role of the apes that are blind to everything going on around them. They don’t progress as a society; they are “factory workers” who do a job without knowing the real outcome. They would be seen as third class citizens, but eventually the apes evolve into ‘Lion’s’, Nietzsche’s second stage. Lions are seen as killers, they kill to survive and there’s always a leader in the pack. Lion’s have freedom; they aren’t at the bottom of the cycle chain, I link this to the scene when Dr David Bowman and Dr Frank Poole who are on a mission in space and are seen as survivors. They are leaders, like the lions Nietzsche is explaining in his theory; they train to become the best. With Hal (the computer), no longer in charge there is no one left to control the ship, there’s no authority which leads to mayhem. This is reflected from Nietzsche’s explanation of the lion, merely a killer with no rules and without a society we cannot evolve. The lion may be more worthy of the camel, but there’s only so much we can do as a lion. Lion’s don’t have values; they are born killers, simply warriors who are fighting for leadership. But once they have leadership, (similar to Space odyssey back to the scene when they are jealous of Hal the computer) they don’t know how to use or develop from this. So to evolve, Nietzsche’s third stage is the child. A child has limited understanding, so they are open to new ideas; they have dreams and hopes which the camel and lion don’t. Hal the computer convinced itself it never makes mistakes, and if you think you never make mistakes you don’t take in other ideas or knowledge. You believe what you want to believe, and society being close minded wouldn’t get you anywhere. However when evolving to a child you have a new beginning and outlook on life. This is shown at the end of Space Odyssey when the wineglass smashes and realisation errors can be made which leads to evolving to the child.

These three stages of Nietzsche’s theory have influenced Stanley Kubrick’s A Space Odyssey a great deal. Both Kubrick and Nietzsche may have had pessimistic views on society, but in my view they aren’t far wrong with their views. We may have evolved from ape but it is a known fact that the animal that is closest to us are apes.

Tom Wolfe, New Journalism - HCJ

Tom Wolfe, one of the founders of New Journalism moved to New York to better his career as a Journalist. He was taught by editors that he should not stick to the conventional ways of writing, and to expand his articles so they become unusual and creative. New Journalism is about experimenting with literary techniques; Hunter S. Thompson was similar to Tom Wolfe. A famous Journalist who was the creator of Gonzo Journalism, Gonzo Journalism is a style of writing where reporters get involved in the action.

Gonzo appeared in the 1970s, Thompson wrote an article called 'The Kentucky Derby is Decandet and Depraved, personally I quite like the style of Gonzo Journalism. It's a creative style of Journalism, it's not about accuracy. When it comes to editing, editors don't care too much as to how it's been written. I think this style is truthful, and it's not trying to bend the truth like most articles.

If you want to write a good piece of New Journalism, then LSD is the way forward! Wolfe experimented with the drug LSD as it was believed that LSD was the portal to a higher consciousness. The outcome of the LSD experience was the book called 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test' which Wolfe published in 1968. This book was created with techniques of New Journalism realism; the book follows Ken Kesey and his band who tour the country on LSD.

New Journalism is about raw style, jump cuts and hand held cameras, and if it's written it should be wrote in the way its spoke. For example, "It ain't fair"
I personally like the style of New Journalism, it's more fun and you can get more involved unlike reporting the news.

Wilhelm Reich - HCJ

William Reich was an Austrian Psychiatrist who followed the work of Freud, Reich had the same view that it's all about orgasms. However Reich put a twist to Freud's theory, Reich believed that if you have unreleased sexual energy it could cause a physical block within muscles. And that this causes a "body armour" which an orgasm would break the armour releasing the sexual energy. This theory came about from Freud's theory that everyone should have a healthy sex life to live a happy and stress-free life. Freud linked sex with mental illness, if you were sexually repressed you would be classed as mentally ill. Freud separated our minds in to three parts, which I found very interesting. Id, ego and super ego; Freud's structure for the brain. Id is the unorganised part of the personality, it avoids pain, if not controlled it leads to chaos. It controls the food, water and sex drives (basic impulses for a human being.) Ego is the conscious mind; the ego is described as the part which gives you common sense. The ego goes with the id; it gives finer details of reality to minimize conflicts. Super-ego works against id; it punishes misbehaviours with the feeling of guilt. Super-ego is seen as the father of the three, it has the final say and is superior the rest.

Now to talk about orgone energy, Reich wasn't too sane but then again which famous philosopher is? He created a box called "orgone accumulators" which gathered the atmospheric orgone. Humans (and animals) would sit in these boxes and absorbed the orgone energy. Obviously this caught the media's attention, which led to rumours that they were sex boxes. This topic is unbelievably strange! But researching in to it has been quite interesting.

Existentialism - HCJ

Existentialism HCJ
Existentialism is a very interesting topic, it’s a term Philosophers used in the 19th and 20th century meaning that the focus of thought lies with individual on their thoughts, and emotions. Soren Kierkegaard was a philosopher known as the father of Existentialism; I personally agree with his philosophy on life, that everyone is responsible for how their own life is lived, even if there are things stopping you along the way to push through them so that your life has meaning. Existentialists believe that life should be led without God, full responsibility of you only. In some ways this could be seen as a selfish act, look out for number one only and have responsibilities for only yourself. I'm all for making things happen in life is how you succeed, but only looking out for yourself wouldn't be the way I’d like to live. Friedrich Nietzche also was an existentialist, he believed in making free choices. Kierkegaard and Nietzche created their own values, they define their own existence. Nietzche was very much against religion; reincarnation was nothing to live by. He simply believed you only have one life so why look forward to the next, just live your life to the full potential now and you would be fully satisfied.
I don't have an opinion on whether there is an afterlife, nor is there a God out there. But I don't like the idea of my life completely ending once I'm dead, but I understand what Nietzche is saying. I'm not generalising at all, but I have known some religious people who do look forward to their reincarnation. I agree that the individual should live their life to the fullest they can and enjoy their life. The individual should live their life to how they want, not be influenced by people.

A Space Odyssey - HCJ week 2

This film was very complex, without Chris Horrie explaining what was happening scene by scene I don’t think I would have understood half of what was going on. The scene that got my attention was the scene when the apes used the bone as a weapon for the first time. This shows the theme of the film, which is human evolution. Scientists have estimated that humans have evolved from chimpanzees, in the scene where the apes use a weapon for the first time shows us that they are evolving themselves. We today have war, and in the view of some we are evolving through war. Another interesting aspect of the film was the obelisk; the primates come across the obelisk and aren’t sure what to make of it. They encounter the object by using rocks and bones to try to make sense of it, this is a big step for evolution as they are using objects to try and understand things. Kubrick the director didn’t put evolution or mankind in a positive light, the scene when the apes are fighting against each other for food was seen as beasts. Beasts that killed one another and had no regret or moral understanding, but at the end of the day they had to eat and survive. How else are they meant to evolve? But apparently Kubrick saw this as disgusting behaviour; it’s as if he is saying this is how mankind is behaving.

HCJ - Nietzche

In our first lecture back we began the topic of Nietzche, Nietzche is a German philosopher who
some might say is a man who praises cruelty. Nietzche didn’t believe in Christianity, “God is dead” a statement from the book Nietzche wrote called ‘The Gay Science’. He believed that Christians didn’t embrace life; instead they praise and look forward to the afterlife, to Nietzche this was not a way to live and personally I agree with this. I am undecided with religion, but I don’t understand why people look forward to the afterlife, surely we should be living our lives to a full extent. Nietzche and Kant disagreed on whether us human’s are good or bad. Nietzche believed we were all taught right from wrong, which we are. I agree with Nietzche fully, we all have that instinct inside us when we know something is wrong, that feeling of guilt inside us tells us so, we make our own decisions. So whenever we cross that line to doing something wrong, we should get punished as we are committing a sin. Kant believed the opposite; he thought that even if people committed a sin they still have a conscience, in my opinion how is this true? If they had a conscience in the first place they wouldn’t have committed a crime. If a person murdered another person in cold blood does that really mean they are good? And should be allowed to get away with such a crime? No, in my opinion.

Written HCJ assessment - newspeak

‘Orwellian’ was identified as being destructive to welfare of a free society, a plan of propaganda, denial of truth, manipulation of the past and surveillance. It is something that is used in everyday life to control us as a society, many things use this. An example of this is the Government when they decide to erase information and memory from the public. The Government aren’t the only ones who would make George Orwell turn in his grave; advertising companies are also to blame. Most adverts in this day and age are considered to be newspeak, which is a term used to “control thought” within language. The people behind the adverts are merely telling us, the consumers, what we have to have even if we don’t need or want it. Advertisement is very crafty; they know how to sell their products through newspeak removing all negativity to show the product in a good light.

A good example is the well known advertisement for Dasani water often known as “bottled sperm”; the coca-cola company recollected 500,000 bottles in the UK due to having excess levels of bromate which is linked to cancer. I looked into slogans of water companies and I found many which are telling the consumer they must have this product, i.e. Infinity water, ‘the oldest way to stay young’. We all know water is good for you, but you can still drink as much water as you intend but at the end of the day we all get wrinkles and have grey hairs. When I looked for images of the advert, the majority of them had good looking ladies, or happy people holding the bottle of water. People are easily fooled in to thinking if they drink this water, they’ll soon become a young and attractive person. A slogan for Dasani water ‘Can’t live without it’. I know many people who don’t like water, yet they still go on living without it. I make these comments from a journalist’s point of view; most people wouldn’t give this a second thought. We are very passive when it comes to advertisement and the media, we believe what is said i.e. newspapers, news, television, radio etc but facts are easily twisted and end up bias.

Dasani water managed to cover up this scandal through the ‘Orwellian’ way, through newspeak the scandal was soon dismissed and somehow the public knew less and less about the subject matter. Not only was Coca-Cola accused of having selling poisonous water, but they were using everyday tap water. However I found a news story covering the scandal saying Coca-Cola were planning a £7 million re-launch on Dasani, to make the water popular again. This means more advertisement, and more covering up. I guess that’s how the world currently works; I don’t think George Orwell would be too pleased right now.