LD Blog

I’m late in reporting this development, but it still seems worthy of note here. Virginia Postrel, a columnist for Forbes magazine, wrote about “Disabilities In the E.R.” in November of 2004. Ms. Postrel mused about accommodations provided for people taking tests used in determining admissions to graduate schools.

Over the past decade students with learning disabilities have gotten used to having extra time on tests and, in some cases, separate rooms to reduce distraction. In many cases that makes sense. Giving a dyslexic third grader extra time on a standardized test makes it more likely that his answers will show what he knows rather than how fast he reads.

But a sensible accommodation for little kids can create a misleading double standard for adults. How much you know isn’t the only thing that matters in school–especially when you’re training for a demanding professional job. What patient wants a genius doctor who can’t focus in a distracting environment, reads so slowly that she can’t keep up with medical journals or tends to misspell drug names on prescriptions?

Link for the Forbes original (requires free subscripition) or for a copy stashed at Ms. Postrel’s site, Dynamist.