Learning How to Learn

The Woman Who Changed Her Brain, and Other Inspiring Stories of Pioneering Brain Transformation is both a memoir of growing up with a learning disability and an indictment of our publicly funded educational system and its failure to help students who struggle to learn. Throughout this book, Barbara Arrowsmith-Young describes her own struggles and those of students at the school she founded in addressing learning disabilities.

Arrowsmith-Young was born in 1951 in Peterborough, Ontario. By the age of six, it was clear that she was having trouble with learning. Although her parents were well meaning and well educated, they could not protect her from the frustration and isolation she felt in the classroom. Her struggle with school began right from the start. Whether it was being grouped with other weak readers, being teased by her classmates or being described as “slow” and “difficult” by teachers, school became a dark hole in her life. She describes the anger...