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My experiences with academic difficulties and the Arrowsmith School

by Anonymous
Notes: In order to protect my identity and the identities of three other individuals that I am
going to mention and discuss as well as their experiences alongside mine, I will limit certain
specific details. I also want to make clear that I have my own disagreements with Dr. Linda
Siegel regarding dyslexia and learning disabilities. I personally believe the phenomenon of
dyslexia is highly exaggerated. Nowadays in Britain, many students and their parents are
desperate to get them diagnosed with dyslexia for various kinds of benefits. There are also
those who wish to diagnose students with dyslexia for their own profitable purposes.
I am mentioning all this because I dont want anyone to believe that I was in any way
influenced by Dr. Siegel to share my criticism of Arrowsmith as a former attender. It was not
she who contacted me, since she could not have known of me. It was I who contacted her after
several search attempts online to find anything critical of Arrowsmith, since the school is still
mostly unheard/unread of. Despite our disagreements, we still share common grounds besides
our criticism of Arrowsmith such as our common belief that if students have difficulties in
certain subjects, they need intervention in that specific weakness (i.e special training in
chemistry for students having difficulty understanding chemistry etc.).
I was tempted to share my critical experiences of Arrowsmith for a long time; especially after
realizing that I and my family had been misled by them. I was never really enthusiastic about
attending the school. For one I was a teenager and most of the students there were small
children, some as young as four or five. Most of the exercises were not very exciting either,
though some were alright because they were easy and required little thinking if any. But I still
attended and did the exercises because I believed that I was doing myself a whole lot of good.
Nor was I proud that I was made to argue and fight one of my parents to pay fourteen thousand
dollars annually (Arrowsmiths fees at the time) of hard earned money. These are amongst the
many negative factors that Ill discuss. But my temptation to share all this turned into
motivation when I read a completely baseless assumption about me as an ex-Arrowsmith
attendee by a person called Karina McLachlain. Her claim was that It may be that I was not
willing to put in the required efforts to achieve the results.
I stumbled across it when reading a site called Learning Difficulties Australia. I was browsing it to
view several criticisms of Arrowsmith by experts. As Ill explain further in my discussion, quite
the opposite of what was assumed about me is true.

Some of my background:
I was an average student who had difficulties in grasping concepts; especially in science and
mathematics. To mention a few examples, I had difficulty categorizing different animal
classes. This was partly because the concept of such categorization was alien to me. My
parents tried to help, but it did no good. Their explanations were as good as my teachers.
Another problem was many Greek and Latin scientific terminologies incorporated into
English that were not used much in regular conversation. Aquatic, Amphibian
Herbivores Carnivores were all senseless terms to me as opposed to animals that live
in the sea or animals that eat only plants or animals that eat mainly meat.
Other students had few difficulties, but I believe they memorized what was taught to them
as opposed to actually trying to understand what they were taught, which I feel was my
mistake. At a later age I learned and understood the existence of animal families, both by
being told about them and simply through visual comparisons between their members (i.e
a tiger and a house cat). Using this, I later managed to create broader comparisons to
understand what mammals and other animal classes were. I believe students are better off
starting in that level before being taught these broader comparisons.
Math was also another difficulty and by grade five, I failed my exams in math and another
subject. My schools policy was that if you fail more than one subject, you fail the class. It
was only then at a very late stage that I received formal intervention in math. I feel I should
have received this intervention much earlier. Reading and writing were hardly a problem
for me. I spent much individual time reading horror books, comic books, science fiction
novels etc. But unfortunately since grade three I was enforced intervention for
reading/writing and comprehension.
Falling back in grade five was not much of a problem for me. I made many close friends in
the class the next year and passed with flying colors. Also in my second year in grade five I
was completely taken off classroom maths and went to my special education math tutor
who came to my school and tutored me as well as another student, also in my school. In
grade six it was almost the same. I was given my own maths exercises to do during maths
class and visited my math tutor in the afternoons. I was also given my own distinct math
exam when the exams came. I passed my math exam in grade six with an 88%.
My father told me that despite passing the other subjects, my teachers commented to him
that I could have done a lot better. That I could have studied harder. But my main issue
continued to be math and to a lesser degree science. I was even offered a modified science
exam by my science teacher in grade seven, which I foolishly declined. I was also once

again given special education under pressure in reading/writing and comprehension,


which I think was a waste of time since reading and writing were my main strengths. I failed
my winter exams in grade seven and was convinced to leave my school and attend school
in another nearby country for the second time, which was hard for me at the beginning,
but I eventually adapted. Over there I also failed my spring exams. But by the summer, I
passed everything except science. This was mostly accomplished by self-commitment. I
later had to repeat and pass my science exam in order to be accepted into grade eight,
which I did.
I was also re-assigned to another tutor that I once had before who helped me in science
and mathematics. His philosophy was that interest in the subject was essential to succeed.
He even told me of an example from his personal experience. He also upheld that repeated
practices in areas of weakness would overcome these weaknesses. He made me repeat
math and science equations until I started to grasp how they work. I passed most of my
exams that winter, save for math, and scored 70% in science. But later that spring I failed
again, which I blame my overconfidence for, nothing else. By this time we were setting off
for Canada so I could attend Arrowsmith. If anyone had graphed my success and failures
the last three and a half years at school before attending Arrowsmith on a chart, theyd
notice it going up and down like a pulse wave. This includes passing and failing both with
and without interventions.
I personally contend that if I had continued regular school just about anywhere, but had
support in my areas of weakness such as math and a little less support with science, I would
have gotten through school just as well.
We also planned on moving to Canada much later on, but for the sake of Arrowsmith, we
left years earlier. My mother gave charge of her office away to a friend and business
partner in the field who more or less wrecked her firm. I had heard many good things about
Arrowsmith from my mother and trusted in it. The previous summer I was also assessed at
Arrowsmith along with three other students -none of whom showed up to attend the
school, nor did I ever see or hear of them again.
My experiences at Arrowsmith and those of my peers:
My skepticism of the Arrowsmith School goes back to the very first day of my attendance. I
noticed the school was extremely small in size to begin with. It was inside an apartment
building with no more than twenty five to thirty students. I noticed that I was the only
student who had come from so far away to attend what had to be the smallest school Id
ever set foot in. My perception of Arrowsmith was quite different. I imagined it to be a

world famous school with people coming from all over to attend and get themselves
cured. But quite the opposite appeared to me. This was the beginning of many doubts
that would follow in the years to come.
I attended the Arrowsmith School sometime between 2000 and 2010 for an average two
year period. During this time I did various brain exercises and was in fact one of the most
committed students, both for homework and classwork. I did better at those than I did in
English and Math since they required critical thinking, something I did not really enjoy. I
was in fact more committed to these exercises than many other students. Some of them
had to stay after school or during lunch to make up for them.
Socially I was not very comfortable as a teenager being in an environment of mostly
elementary students. I truly felt like teenager sent back to kindergarten and it bothered
me, but I tried to make the best of it. There were a few students my age group, but they
werent exactly my type. They were more into skateboarding, ice hockey, sports cars -none
of which interested me in the least. But I still managed to make friends with them.
Amongst two of these teenage students that I became friends with had difficulties in
reading. One was an extremely slow reader; the other could hardly read at all. I later
maintained temporary contact with both after they left Arrowsmith, though not one as
long as the other. Despite their poor reading skills compared to mine, they were far ahead
of me in these brain exercises. They had both reached the final level in the clocks exercise
and reached the final level in the tracing exercise, both of which they seemed to be proud
of. I never reached that level in tracing.
But ones reading difficulties were still more or less the same after he left. His mother had
informed my mother that he was having difficulties in school. This was despite him
achieving high scores in subjects like science. In spite all of this hed often return to
Arrowsmith, especially during graduation ceremonies, probably to give his testimonials,
which he even wrote about in the yearbooks and newsletters. I also learned that despite
him mastering Arrowsmiths computer exercises, he was not really computer literate. He
even declined my request to stay in touch through email because he didnt know how to
use it. The second student I maintained contact with for much longer. He read surprisingly
slow that I could almost swear he was doing it on purpose. His parents became good
friends with my mother. They even hired her to do design projects for them for over a year.
After he left Arrowsmith his mother told my mother that he was having reading difficulties.
There was even an instance at his school where he was doing a class presentation and it
took him quite a few minutes to read his presentation that another student asked him

something like It took you so long just to read that? This again raised questions in my
mind about Arrowsmith which I brushed aside.
I found myself giving positive reviews for the Arrowsmith Program because everyone
around me was doing the same.
Alongside doing these brain exercises, we were made to watch documentaries about the
Arrowsmith School. The documentaries presented Barbara as some world famous person
who cured herself and made scientific breakthroughs, which I presumed her to be. I
even recall Barbara and Andrea Peirson telling us facts about the human brain as if they
owned a gigantic multi-million dollar laboratory or as if they were somebody who had done
sophisticated experiments on the human brain.
The only problem was nobody besides Arrowsmith attenders were watching these
documentaries. Less than a year into my enrollment Id come across instances when asked
which school I go to and every time I replied Arrowsmith, Id be asked wheres that? Id
reply that it was the school owned by Barbara Arrowsmith Young and each time I did that, I
was asked whos that? All this increased my skepticism of the program, but very slowly.
Also throughout my attendance at Arrowsmith School, we took permission forms home just
about every two to three months so we could be filmed by various media
networks/agencies that Arrowsmith invited to film and interview. It came to a point that
my parent decided to decline these requests.
About a year into my enrollment with the Arrowsmith program I had questioned my parent
that if its such a special school, why is it so small and how come nobodys heard of it? My
parent replied that its a new school and that people are learning about it through
documentaries. This was enough to reassure my doubts. The arguing that I and my parent
had gotten into with my other parent regarding paying the Arrowsmith fees was also
intensive. I was unnecessarily dragged into these arguments by one parent and was
convinced my whole life depended on Arrowsmith that I shamefully agreed to argue and
insist with my other parent to pay the fees.
Another year later, both of my two friends had already gone and it was around the time I
was also leaving. I was complemented by one of the teachers for my non-stop
commitment. This same teacher (whom I decline to name) had been dissatisfied with other
students for their laziness. Some would fall near sleep during their broca's and phrases
exercises while others showed up late or didnt do their homework properly. By the time I

was enrolling in high school my mother was explaining my situation to the vice principle
who was viewing my report from Arrowsmith with no idea what these exercises were. This
again brought back my doubts of why people dont know of Arrowsmiths fame, which I
continued to ignore for a long time.
Early post Arrowsmith experiences:
My experience at high school was not always the most exciting. I was on average three
years older than my friends and peers, and it also bothered me. I even shamefully lied about
my age at times. My academic performances were overall average, as they were before
Arrowsmith. I scored a 67% in ninth grade academic English and 76% in ninth grade applied
mathematics. At this time I was not receiving any formal intervention.
The same summer after joining high school, I enrolled for summer school. Because I had
fallen behind due to Arrowsmith I wanted to make up for lost time. One of the former
Arrowsmith students whom I became friends with was also enrolled at the same school for
the same reason, though he left Arrowsmith one semester (about half a year) before I did.
He and I had also visited each other a lot and so did his parents since my mother was
temporarily working for his family.
High school:
A year later into high school, I tried enrolling in grade ten academic Math and the teacher
told me it was going to be too hard since I didnt have a grade nine academic math credit.
She was also curious why I had such a small number of credits despite my age (student
attendance records do show age and credits which is where she might have gotten it from).
She questioned if I even attended school when I first came to Canada. I told her about
Arrowsmith and that its a school that doesnt grant credits. She seemed confused and in
disbelief. As she wrote a note to refer me back to my guidance counsellor, she asked as I
quote How do you spell it the Hammersmith School? Where is this place??? I checked the
note as I took it to the guidance office and it also asked about Arrowsmith and why it
apparently gave no credits.
This again triggered alarm bells in my mind of why nobody had ever heard of the ever so
famous Barbara Arrowsmith Young and her school. Still, I paid little attention to it.
By grade eleven I started getting tutoring in grade ten Math due to one of my mothers
female acquaintances working for a small tutoring center which was recommended to me.
Despite this I passed with only a 59% on my math exam. I cant remember my overall final
grade, but I think it was around 60%. One of my tutors was also a part time pilot and co-ran
the education help center along with one of his brothers. We spent lots of time on his flight

simulator after we worked on my math homework. Since I had also developed piloting skills
from my own flight simulator at home, I often showed him what I had learned. But when he
got me into intense instrumental flying as in the real world, including the use of charts,
VORs and air traffic control, I realised how complicated it could get -a much more complex
brain exercise than anything Arrowsmith could throw on anybody.
I even ended up showing him and my mothers friend/acquaintance the Arrowsmith
Schools website and they couldnt stop frowning and poking fun at it as they read it
through. They had never heard or read of Arrowsmith before, nor was my tutor willing to
read any more of it. They both dismissed it as a fraud, especially my tutor who was strongly
critical.
About a year later, I ended up in the same class as another former Arrowsmith student, a
third one. We did become friends, and even chatted online, but seldom did we discuss
Arrowsmith. However when we once got talking about Arrowsmith I did ask him whether it
helped him or not and he gave the reply as I remember not that much. Interestingly
enough he still attended Arrowsmiths seminars and maintained close contact with the
teachers, telling me about Andrea and that she had a baby son etc. Even the other student
whose parents my mother worked for met him there and told me he mentioned that he
was in the same class as me. There was also a fourth Arrowsmith student that I met in high
school, a girl. But we didnt really converse, though we did quite a bit when we were in
Arrowsmith school as we were in the same English class. She didnt even remember my
name. We only exchanged greetings in the hallways, but that was it.
A year later I graduated from high school as late as age 21. Since its too long to discuss all
the thirty-two courses I passed, Ill discuss the relevant ones and my performances in them.
I stayed in the applied level for mathematics and the academic level for the other subjects.
In grade ten I scored a final mark of 60% in English and about 60% in math. In grade eleven I
started slacking off in my English tests and assignments, and my teacher expressed concern
on the test papers. But with increased effort I reached a final mark of 78%. Note that I
received no formal intervention in English at all at the time. Math and physics were still my
main struggles. In fact my final mark in grade ten academic science was 52% since half the
course was physics, the other two quarters being chemistry and biology, both of which I had
less difficulty with.
I even attempted grade 11/eleven physics and biology. I dropped out of physics and lost
interest in biology, scoring a final mark of 58%. For grade 12 English I scored 70% and
passed grade 11 math with a low of 50%. Math beyond grade 11 was not mandatory. My
overall performances I evaluated were all the outcomes of my efforts and interests save for
math and physics. The same were the results of the other optional courses that I took,

scoring up to 70% in grade 11 academic Canadian law, 60% in grade 11 academic World
History and others such as The West and the World with a 50% due to my lack of effort and
late assignment submissions and 51% in grade 12 Canadian history which I had little interest
in as well as the same mark for grade 11 academic philosophy. Again if you plotted my
performances on a chart or a graph, youd see that its not very different from what it was
before I went to Arrowsmith.
University (current):
My first years at university had not been easy. I had failed quite a few courses, and for a
reason: My diet was poor. I consumed large mugs of coffee everyday which interfered in my
sleep, not to mention caused me all sorts of problems like dehydration. Fast food also
played a huge role in exhausting me as sources show. Only after suffering severe problems
did I search online and realise that I was consuming far too much caffeine. I quit caffeine
soon after save for some occasions. When enrolled at summer school last year, I kept a
close care on my diet and due to all this, I passed my first course.
Diet plays a huge role in learning and academic performance though its obviously not the
only factor. Despite my success, I was required to get a minimum C+ to make up for my
previous failures, which I didnt. I ended up with a D+ and that got me suspended from
university for two years.

Conclusions from my academic experiences and the Arrowsmith program:


For anyone to claim expertise on the human brain, as Arrowsmith does, is a rather tall and
farfetched claim given that the human brain has to be the most complex and sophisticated
device on the planet. Most of the fascinating technologies around us that the majority of us
cannot explain to the last detail, let alone build something(s) like them in our lifetimes have
to realise they were all built by the human brain. If one cannot explain how exactly a NASA
space probe works or what the exact components of a super computer are and each of their
exact specific functions, what makes one think they can become experts on the very thing
that built them: the human brain.
Even those qualified in the field of brain studies state that nothing much has been found,
just theories and speculation since the human brain is far too complex to understand. I am
majoring in linguistics at university and the same notion was expressed by my textbooks
and professors. For example nothing can be proven on how a child acquires their first
language, only theories exist, no findings of fact. So if those qualified in studies of the
human brain express that nothing much can be factually explained and the fact that there is

still just too much to learn about the human brain, why does Arrowsmith claim to know
about the brain and how to fix it?
Its as Dr. Linda Siegel was once quoted in a news article about Arrowsmith that hype has
triumphed over science. Sadly nothing could be truer. Id like to add to that statement that
hype has not just triumphed over science but even triumphed over common sense.
It was not science that led me to realise that Arrowsmith had scammed me and my family,
but common sense. I base my claim on the following points:
1) In all the thirty years that Arrowsmith has existed, few have read/heard of it, let alone
shown interest in it. If Barbara Arrowsmith is a famous scientist with breakthrough
discoveries as she and her supporters falsely promote her to be, then surely she would
have gained some significant fame in the world in the long time that she has had. Albert
Einstein made ground-breaking discoveries and theories in science and he is world
famous; especially amongst the scientific community. The Wright brothers developed the
first successful powered aircraft using horizontal propulsion and their technology spread
like a wildfire within a generation, including being used in the First and Second World
Wars by both enemy sides. Less than half a century after their invention, humanity
entered the jet engine age. Soon after, humanity managed to surpass the speed of sound
with the creation of the Concorde and various fighter jet aircraft, all using the same
principles as the Wright brothers did. Barbara and her discoveries enjoy nowhere even
remotely close to such fame, even despite her desperate pursuits for media attention.
Today less than one percent of Torontos entire population alone has ever heard/read of
her and her ridiculous program. An even closer comparison would be traditional Chinese
herbal medicine (TCHM). Despite the widespread doubt and debate in it, its still
practiced worldwide. Of the over six billion people in the world, surely somebody would
have come up with similar methods to Barbaras or pursued her own methods
themselves.
2) The exercises at the Arrowsmith School themselves are quite dubious since most of them
can be replicated at home. If one doesnt believe me all they have to do is print out texts
of various Native American languages from the Internet and trace them out with a red
pen wearing an eye patch. You can even color the text or letters green like Arrowsmiths
tracing letters are colored by using Photoshop or Windows paintbrush. If you want to
move to a harder level, you can even print texts of Thai, Chinese or Korean alphabets
with the same difficulties as the ones seen at Arrowsmith or buy tracing books of them.
Even the other exercises such as R-think can be replicated by simply looking at paintings
and pictures that you have or looking at them online and taking hundreds of guesses of

whats going on in them. The L-think exercise is based on the same principles that many
of these so-called special education institutions use of attempting to improve
childrens comprehension; by making them read articles and paragraphs that dont
interest them at all, nor are they relevant to the struggling childrens studies in any way.
You cannot improve somebodys general comprehension, since none of us comprehend
every single thing we read in life. If you gave a technical report of an F-16 fighter jet to a
doctor, the doctor would be mostly dumbfounded no matter how good their
comprehension skills are, simply because they were not trained in that field.
Similarly a fully qualified F-16 mechanic would have little idea how to comprehend a
complex medical report no matter how good their comprehension skills are (they would
have to have good comprehension skills otherwise they wouldnt reach their current
occupations). It was the same case with me: I comprehended only the things Im
naturally good at and required help in the specific areas of my weakness, not to
improve my general comprehension abilities, which is what the L-think exercise is all
about. Its funny because just about every day on my way to the Arrowsmith School I
read the free newspaper on the metro and understood what the articles were about as
opposed to most of the L-think paragraphs most of which were not in my areas of
interest at all. Just as the news sections on sports such as baseball; I couldnt
comprehend them since I have no interest in baseball.
Regarding the computer based exercises such as clocks, their principles of handling
several ideas at a time can still easily be substituted at home. Just buy yourself a chess
set or download a chess program and youll end up thinking several moves ahead if you
really want to play seriously. Or try landing a plane on a flight simulator applying the
same circumstances as a real-life pilot would, its much harder and challenging than
clocks.
Regarding the auditory exercises you can easily ask somebody to record phrases and
syllables into audio recorders or download free audio recording programs to record them
in. You can then listen to their records and try to memorize them, just as its done at
Arrowsmith. With submotor or flashcards, simply ask anyone to read out a set of
numbers or show them to you on actual flashcards. Then calculate them mentally.
Try any of these suggestions -its a lot cheaper! It goes back to my question: why is
Arrowsmith charging people so much for what they can do at home themselves?
3) Norman Doidges endorsement is often cited as proof of the Arrowsmith programs
success, but again common sense shows me his endorsement is nothing but fallacy.
Norman Doidge is NOT a qualified neuroscientist or biologist, nor is Barbara, though she

seems to pretend to be one. Doidge is only a psychiatrist and psychologist as his


biography clearly states, so we must ask is he really a person in position to endorse a
program or claim what can strengthen the brain, at least from a neuroscientific
perspective. I admit Im not a neuroscientist either, but neither is Doidge or Arrowsmith
Young, nor do I claim to be an expert on the human brain.
4) With regards to testimonials, I know testimonials can be evidence in any situation, but
they are still not any sort of proof. I think my discussion of my experiences and those of
my friends and peers gives a much broader understanding. Even despite their
testimonials, I clearly believe it was given under influence. If I had given them each a
survey with more direct questions like Do you have difficulty in X and/or Y etc. I dont
think their answers would match their testimonials. The point is they were still struggling
with the same difficulties even after Arrowsmith, so that alone tells me their testimonials
were false. My academic performances, which I also discussed, where more or less the
same before and after I was at Arrowsmith.
Last comments:
The reason why these pseudo-schools such as Arrowsmith are able to seduce families
without question is due to their own ignorance. Parents do not take the time to
understand their childrens problems, including school curriculums or try to do anything
to improve them, so they leave it to others to resolve the problems which are not
always the right people. And who can blame them? Most parents themselves are
struggling with their jobs and careers that there is only so much time they can attend to
their childrens needs. But unfortunately that can come at a huge cost as it did for us. My
parent whose idea it was to enroll me in Arrowsmith is terribly sorry that I lost what
could have been my best years to this school. The loss of my mothers firm and the
acquittal of her employees added to the loss of tens of thousands of dollars by my father
can all be owed to Arrowsmith. Not to mention me falling back two years in school or
losing many precious friendships that I lost to leave for Toronto and attend Arrowsmith.
I want to take this opportunity to complement the Australians for being one step ahead
in reality as opposed to the general public in North America who get their sources from
television and Hollywood. While few in Canada dared to criticize Arrowsmith, the
Australians were quick to expose it and its false claims. It reminded me of how respected
David Suzuki is in Canada despite his false portrayal of being a climatologist. In Australia
most of his pseudoscientific claims were debunked using academic sources.

Lastly my message to parents regarding their childrens difficulties is Do your


homework! It might not be fun and a bit challenging, but its outcome is positive, not
negative.
Sincerely,
Anonymous.

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