Fleming Encourages Students to Reframe Dyslexia

After years working with students, families, and educators, Fleming began writing to share what he had learned. His books – Splendid Agony: Celebrating Dyslexia; Unleashing Dyslexia: A Parent's Guide for Inspiring Curiosity, Learning, and Happiness; and Engaging Dyslexia: A Practical Guide for Teachers with Questions for Further Discussion – offer insight into the dyslexic mind and provide practical strategies for supporting dyslexic learners.

Fleming, a Memphis native, started seventh grade at MUS but found himself in what he calls “school survival” mode. He had a 1.5 grade point average as he waited for the other shoe to drop at the most rigorous school he had attended.

“I was functionally illiterate until about the sixth grade,” Fleming said. “Dyslexics are very crafty; we can look like we know what we’re doing while nodding in class and looking around thinking, ‘What are these people doing?’… I was going to the next grade and going to the next grade. I was faking a lot of it.”

Fleming credited his parents and teachers for helping him figure out his learning style. “They wouldn’t let me fail; they believed in me more than I believed in myself,” Fleming said of his third-grade teachers. “It was an awesome thing.”

With their encouragement he gradually found his footing in middle school, and then he gained real academic confidence in high school. He went on to earn a degree in communications, followed by three master’s degrees and a doctorate.

The first time he achieved a 4.0 GPA came in graduate school where he was deciphering Hebrew and Greek. “That’s dyslexia,” Fleming said. “It doesn’t fit in a traditional education system.”

He built a career in education, serving as a teacher, vice principal, and head of school. Drawing laughs from the audience, Fleming noted that while he has led entire schools, he still sometimes struggles to recall something as simple as a phone number, an example he used to illustrate how dyslexia continues to shape his thinking.

Throughout the talk, Fleming emphasized a central message: Dyslexia is not a limitation, but a different way of thinking that can become a strength.

“There’s nothing wrong with our dyslexic friends; they think differently,” Fleming said. “What’s wrong is a system that doesn’t acknowledge it, accommodate it, or understand it.”

“We have misnamed children; they have a neurological aberration,” Fleming said. “It has to do with symbols and has to do with sounds and has to do with connecting these things.”

John Murphy, a high school classmate and now head of The Bodine School where Fleming is a board member, introduced the author. “Dyslexia is not a disability, it is a superpower,” Murphy said.

Fleming praised the work happening at Bodine, saying it’s “intuitively aligned with the way students with dyslexia think.”

He spent extra time with Owls throughout the day, answering questions about his work and life. See photos from his visit HERE.