Dyslexic Jamie Oliver Struggled With Stigma

Boyish TV chef Jamie Oliver is slicing and dicing his British grammar school, saying he was labeled, stigmatized and teased for needing extra help with his dyslexia.

Both Oliver and Jimmy Doherty, a friend and organic farmer who shares the bill on his new TV show, Jamie And Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast, were in the special-needs program at their school in Newport, Essex.

Oliver, now 38, recalls, “While we were at school, I struggled. Imagine a boys’ school. Thirty boys in the middle of English, bang bang bang on the door, ‘Can we have Jimmy and Jamie for special needs?’ Just us two out of our class.”

Cue the other children, who would sing “Special Needs” to the tune of “Let it Be” as the pair left the room.

The experience left a scar. Oliver says he’s “not a good reader. I’ve always tried to read a book and given up after the first page.” In fact, it was only last year that he completed his first novel, Catching Fire in The Hunger Games trilogy, after he’d seen the film and because his daughter had “probably read 2,000 books in her lifetime. “I read this book and got completely hooked. I understood for the first time that it could be a joy.”

Oliver credits his success to something other than book learning. “I was rubbish in school but I was always very physical. That’s what it’s about. Get up and do something. Go out and set up a stall making the best cappuccinos, if that’s what you want to do.” At a time when schools are having kids sit more and move less when many need the exact opposite, Oliver’s words take on particular import.

We’d like to think things have improved for special-needs students since Oliver’s school days. At least in the United States, inclusion allows for a large number of special-needs students to remain in class with dedicated special-needs teachers, while therapists and learning specialists often “push in”­—meaning they come into the classroom to work with kids, rather than pull them out.

However, we know stigma remains, especially when special-needs students are in segregated programs and schools. Parents, educators and students all need to do their part to understand and accept differences so that everyone has a good shot at a positive school experience­.