A Feather in My Cap

Today I added a feather to my cap. I have been volunteering my time tirelessly for almost 5 years to promote dyslexia awareness in Tennessee and today I learned that the notorious dyslexia-denier Richard L. Allington has mentioned me (this website really) by name (that he got a little bit wrong if I am being nit-picky, but I am not since I rarely spell things right myself due to my real, not imagined, dyslexia) on the first page of a 14-page anti-dyslexia tirade in a literacy journal (in which he mostly just quotes his own research in the third person which is sad but almost endearing). Now there can be no doubt that my work, a small piece of the much larger work of the amazing volunteers of Decoding Dyslexia TN and TNIDA, is having its intended effect: to upset the status quo. If he is mentioning us, we are definitely making huge gains.

Well done us.

Let’s keep adding feathers to our caps until every child can read.

PS – For what it is worth, (and this one is kind of embarrassing for Richard), when he writes  “On the website of Decoding Dyslexia – Tennessee you will see lots of photos of members in action at conferences and meeting with state legislators.  There are also numerous photos Screen Shot 2018-04-17 at 2.41.06 PMof many with [sic] children wearing bright red sweatshirts emblazoned with Dyslexia Untie“…he was actually on my personal website and not the Decoding Dyslexia-Tennessee website at all (oops, Richard.) I know because, well, I created the DDTN website and there are virtually no photos on it, but there are lots of photos exactly as he describes on this, my personal website. So all those numerous members and children he mentions? They are really all just me and my daughter. On my personal website.  In T Shirts.  That say “Dyslexics Untie!“ (Yikes, Richard, that is a whole lot of careless errors.) Maybe next time, Richard, have someone proofread your writing.  As a person with dyslexia, I find it to be very helpful… 

PPS – The red T-Shirts he mentions are super cute! I bought them off the internet two years before I started this website. They still sell them so get yours here! 

PPS – I also really like that he quotes the link to the Tennessee law from my website instead of going to the official TN.gov website here. (Come on now, Richard, that one is just downright lazy. My writing and websites have plenty of errors, but I am not publishing in a research journal…yikes!)

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Anna Thorsen

I am a parent, attorney and advocate. I and my middle school daughter both have dyslexia. During the 2015 legislative session I was a tireless advocate to help pass the much needed Dyslexia Legislation in Tennessee and am proud to participate in the 2016 Bill Signing. I now serve on the Decoding Dyslexia TN Leadership Team and serves on the TN Department of Education’s Dyslexia Advisory Council. I have been a presenter for the past two years at the Tennessee Association for Assistive Technology annual conferences. I also does frequent speaking engagements around Middle Tennessee on the topic of dyslexia. My family's dyslexia story has been featured in several articles, including Mindshift's October 15, 2015 article "Why Recognizing Dyslexia at School Can be Difficult."

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