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Written Off: America's Failure to Educate Dyslexic Children

The traditional public school system has failed 20% of our student population. Children with dyslexia are bright kids who feel frustrated, picked on and written off in traditional schools, because the teachers are not equiped to teach them in the way they learn. Parents of dyslexic children struggle to get any help from a school system that barely acknowledges the condition. However, one school in Easley, South Carolina was created specifically with dyslexics in mind and wants to challenge the public school system to serve all students.

  • Collins Abbott White
    Director
    37 Ghosts, Two Peas In A pod
  • Janie Seay
    Producer
  • Bod Dotson
    Key Cast
    "Narrator"
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 20 minutes 12 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 7, 2020
  • Production Budget:
    8,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - Collins Abbott White

Collins Abbott White started his film and video production company in his hometown of Greenville, South Carolina in 2011. Since then he's made a career of telling original stories and lending his unique eye and sense of story to other filmmakers by assisting them at almost any level of their productions. He has produced and directed a number of successful short film, but his passion is for feature length narrative content. When he's not directing films he's writing them and he always has a number of short and feature length screenplays ready to be made whenever the opportunity arises.

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Director Statement

In 2018 I was made aware of a school in Easley, South Carolina that was one of only 4 public charter schools in the nation specifically designed to teach dyslexic children. I didn't really know what that meant, but figured with something so unique just minutes from my home town I had to investigate.

What I found was children who had been undeserved by the public school system, parents who fought for a proper education for their children and were continually denied, and one school that wanted to challenge traditional public schools to do better.

The stories of these families and children need to be heard, because their stories can be echoed by roughly 20% of the nation. The traditional education system is something dyslexics cannot thrive in. These are bright students, which incredible potential that are being written off because they don't learn in the same way that 80% of the population learns. This leaves them frustrated, and depressed, and without hope for their future. But it doesn't have to be that way. Thanks to charter school initiatives across the country there is now an option for dyslexic children to receive a proper education, but the need is huge, and for many the damage of improper education is already done.