episode titles

[Natasha (candygirl)]

It's been a long time since I've seen the episode, but I thought Angela suggested that Jordan had dyslexia, to which Jordan responded with wrinkled brow, "That backwards thing?" If my memory's correct, I think he would have confirmed that he did indeed suffer from 'that backwards thing' if he did.

I think you are right on in your recollection. Angela mentioned, I think, that her father's brother has dyslexia (would that be Neil?) and Jordan asks if they can stop talking about it. Maybe I drew my own conclusion. I guess I thought Jordan had dyslexia but didn't realize it. Maybe this would have been all cleared up in season #2.

I thought that Jordan's "Let's not talk about this" could be interpreted two ways:

(1) He doesn't want to admit that he is dyslexic so he changes the subject

(2) He has never been diagnosed with dyslexia (another vote for slipping through the cracks), but is embarassed enough that Angela knows the truth about his reading ability (or lack thereof)

[fnordboy]

See i always just took that Jordan..just can't read.

I thought Angela's response of him having dyslexia was a typical and very true to life response of anyone. People don't want to just face the fact that it is possible that people just did not learn to read.

I personally know of one person who could barely write his name after he graduated HS. You think it is unbelievable but people get by. Teachers usually dont care all that much and he always just had other people "help" him with any homework assignments etc. He eventually learned to read, but it took a lot of work on his part and his boyfriends part.

That is an extreme case, but i know plenty of other who have the reading comprehension skills of a 3rd grader. And are not dyslexic.

It just seems to me that on TV shows they always go the 'easy' route and blame dyslexia. But i really think that Jordan, just can't read.

[hurtstolookatyou]

It's been a long time since I've seen the episode, but I thought Angela suggested that Jordan had dyslexia, to which Jordan responded with wrinkled brow, "That backwards thing?" If my memory's correct, I think he would have confirmed that he did indeed suffer from 'that backwards thing' if he did.

I think you are right on in your recollection. Angela mentioned, I think, that her father's brother has dyslexia (would that be Neil?) and Jordan asks if they can stop talking about it. Maybe I drew my own conclusion. I guess I thought Jordan had dyslexia but didn't realize it. Maybe this would have been all cleared up in season #2.

I thought that Jordan's "Let's not talk about this" could be interpreted two ways:

(1) He doesn't want to admit that he is dyslexic so he changes the subject

(2) He has never been diagnosed with dyslexia (another vote for slipping through the cracks), but is embarassed enough that Angela knows the truth about his reading ability (or lack thereof)

I never thought that Jordan was actually dyslexic. They did talk about it...but in a later episode (sorry, can't remember which one, I'm only just finished the Halloween eppy in the dvds) Jordan say something to Angela like:

"There's actually a term for me. I'm a rudimentary reader with low literacy skills. That kid Brain figured it out."

I think that's how it went...so wouldn't that imply that Jordan isn't dyslexic?

[Megs]

That's what I was going to write. In the episode In Dreams Begin Responsibilities, Jordan tells Angela that he is a "... rudimentary reader with low literacy skills..." Isn't that just fancy talk meaning he just can't read? I don't think that he has Dyslexia.

[Bubba]

W.B. Yeats prefaces Responsibilities with two quotes, one of which is an old Irish folk saying "In dreams begin responsibilities" which he attributes simply to an "Old Play." As a result, many people have (incorrectly) attributed the quote to Yeats.

The second quote is "How am I fallen from myself, for a long time now I have not seen the Prince of Chang in my dreams" (Khoung Fou Tseu).

Then, ultimately, the episode references an old Irish folk saying, but it still begs the question: where did the good people at Bedford Falls get the phrase? Did they know about the folk saying itself? Or are they quoting Yeats or Schwartz? Or did they listen to Achtung Baby one too many times?

[Natasha (candygirl)]

Well maybe if AU ever pays the company who shot the BF footage and then has Winnie et al to sign the releases, we might find out the answer to these questions on the bonus disc. I'm not holding my breath for AU to do anything that would make us happy though.

And now that I think about it, I think that BF likes for us to wonder about certain details (hence why some things go unexplained, like how Angela and Jordan went from "Why are you like this?" outside the dance to making out in the boiler room every afternoon) so it's entirely possible that they wouldn't reveal how they came up with the episode titles!

[Natasha (candygirl)]

"There's actually a term for me. I'm a rudimentary reader with low literacy skills. That kid Brain figured it out."

I think that's how it went...so wouldn't that imply that Jordan isn't dyslexic?

I don't think that being a RRwLLs (sorry, I'm lazy and that is really long) and being dyslexic are mutually exclusive. It's entirely possible that Brian did a reading assessment with Jordan to determine he is a RRwLLs but I think that diagnosing dyslexia takes a bit more work than a high school tutor can or should be doing with another student.

I don't know that I ever decided whether I thought Jordan was dyslexic or not. If he has gone this long in school (including being held back twice, which you would think might signal to at least one teacher that maybe there's a problem) being almost illiterate, it stands to reason that no one would think to test him for dyslexia. Lots of people are adults before they find out that they are dyslexic, if for no other reason than no one thought to test them - they always tell stories that their teachers thought they were stupid or couldn't read and then 20 years later...

Interestingly, there are a lot of actors who are dyslexic (Tom Cruise, Whoopi Goldberg, Jay Leno, Danny Glover, Robin Williams, Edward James Olmos, Daniel Stern, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson) - must be "incredibly difficult" to learn their lines. Other people with dyslexia: John Lennon, Magic Johnson, Prince Charles, Greg Louganis, Winston Churchill, Leonardo Da Vinci (how do they figure out someone is dyslexic centuries after they died?), Cher, Edgar Allan Poe, Steven Hawking, Pete Rose, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and (who were we talking about earlier in this thread?) W.B. Yeats.

Anyway, I don't think that Jordan is definitely dyslexic but I wouldn't rule it out either. I'm not sure exactly what RRwLLs means either.

Isn't that just fancy talk meaning he just can't read?

Ha ha - funny, but yes!

[Nostradamus]

Here's my take:

First, I don't know if it has anything to do with dyslexia, but one of Da Vinci's many quirks was his ease at mirror writing.

I think Brian's "RRwLLs" was more an assessment of Jordan's current condition than a diagnosis of how he got there.

Now for my alternate theory of "why Jordan can't read". He may have a dominant right brain.

Research has shown a distinct split between the functions of the left and right hemispheres of the human brain. The left side processes language, mathematics, linear time, and "thinks" by breaking down the whole into its constituent parts. The right side is responsible for spatial recognition, emotion, musical ability, and "thinks" by building small parts into the whole. Ideally, the two halves work together, but in most people one side is slightly dominant. An extreme example is stroke victims, who often lose function in one hemisphere. Those who lose the left side can sing with great emotion, but their words are garbled. Those who lose the right half speak in a dull monotone, unable to process the most basic voice inflections.

Of course, I'm not saying that Jordan is missing half a brain, but only that his right brain is a little more dominant than usual. Unfortunately, the traditional school topics of reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic favor a left brain dominance, as we see in Brian Krakow. In this light, Jordan is no less intelligent than Brian, they just have different "specialties".



P.S. In posting my theory above, I greatly simplified the science behind brain hemisphere functioning. The reality is much more complex, and there are plenty of things going on in ther human brain that have nothing to do with left/right specialization. This is the sort thing that the Discovery Channel thrives on.

[likelife]

first on the titles (my next post will be about wjcr)... i caught most of th references and love them even though i do not always totally understand what BF was doing with them.

i always hated "the zit's" title because the others were so clever. i thought that one could have been called "metamorphosis" but maybe that would have been too heavy-handed.

"other people's mothers" is such a great title because somehow it relays SO much of what the episde is about..... everyone is the episode is comparing his or her mother/homelife to everyone else and making judgements, assumptions, etc. based on those comparisons. so great.

as for "in dreams...." i recognized the delmore schwartz reference and LOVED it. the novella is about a guy who is thinking back to when his parents first met and then became engaged. he is imagining the events as they unfold, because of course they happened before he was actually born. the story is described as occuring in frames as though he were watching a movie. he is terribly upset with the characters in his dream because he wants them to realize that thier falling in love and marrying will only end in ruin (or what he believes to be ruin). we can tell that the narrator is not a completely happy nor stable fellow, and it's difficulto to tell if his life IS awful and if his parents' marriage sucked or if this is just his perception of things.
i related it to the fact that all of the characters are making decisions in their lives that COULD alter the course of their futures significantly. graham and the restaurant, rickie and his coming out and also his livelihood, rayanne and her acting, angela and her getting back together with jordan/acknowledging how brian feels situation, and so on and so on.
in the schwartz book, the "dream" is a dream of the past, but it is about those characters and how their FUTURES will turn out based on their choices and the responsibility that they take. but it also has to do with the idea of acknowledging that all of your desires and fantasies will not be achieved without some hard work.
the mscl "in dreams" does much of the same thing. new friendships are formed, new decisions are made, dreams are being lived out, and all of the characters are learning how to take these life changes on.
sorry this is so haphazzard, but does it make any sense?

[likelife]

okay, so continue...
i always assumed that a) the reason wjcr is such a great title is that we will never know the answer to that question, and that b) the answer is probably a combo of all of the things that the show presents us with. yes, jordan is a rrwlls, and yes, that MAY be because of dyslexia, which may explain why he thinks brian's name is BRAIN. see that tricky "backwards thing?
next, jordan is the perfect type of kid to go unnoticed, to slip through the cracks, if you will. he's not the token person of color who the teacher takes extra time with in a condescending manner (did anyone else think that self esteem shows lerner to be SO condescending to abyssinia?), and he's not a disruption. he's also so dangerously good looking that i bet a lot of the teachers are sort of intimidated by him. they MAY also be giving him the benefit of the doubt. truth be told, he could be doing just fine (well, c's and b's) in his other classes. "there are so many good kids... there's just no time for the bad ones..." or whatever lerner says, is very indicative of how kids get treated in that school. they are considered good if they are like brian and sharon, but bad, or unnoticed if they do not perform or do not seem to be somebody's "cause". now, i am not knocking on liberty in particular, i just think that is an easy attitude for teachers to adopt when they are underpayed, overworked, and get much less respect/acknowledgement than they do.
i always got the feeling that jjordan COULD read, but very badly and very slowly. so, he can take the time to read a test question, but to read a book.
we are supposed to know that jordan has musical talent, and can write lyrics, so it must be the reading and spelling, not the formation/understanding of words and sentences that is difficult for him. his vocab's not great, but that;s a problem that most english speakers have. we have TOO many goddamn words in our language! tee hee.

[Megs]

Hee. This reminded me of that scene when Brain is first tutoring Jordan, and Jordan says, "Start with the basics. Even if it seems too basic, start with that." He delivers that line so perfectly. Very cute.

[lizardcub]

Much as I love the Who song "substitute," I suspect that title has more to do with the guy's role, metaphorically, for Angela.

OOh, grilled cheese time! More on titles later

[angelasguest]

after reading everyones thoughts on jordans reading problem i thought that someone would mention what jordan said to angela in the last episode.
Jordan : Can't believe we have to use all those words in a sentence. I mean,
not all in the same sentence, but, um, still. So, I'm still doing
that tutoring thing. You know? Yeah. [Angela's not paying any
attention to him (or so it seems) -- she's diligently copying down
all the vocabulary words] So guess what? There's, like, a term for
me. I'm a rudimentary reader with low literacy skills. That kid,
Brain, figured it out from this manual?

I have no clue what it means but this is an explanation!

[maddymay]

Jack and K-man

It is revealed in episode 19, In dreams... that Jordan is a Rudimentary reader with low literacy skills

[dougjess]

(I've been reading the forum since I got my DVD for X-mas and watched all the episodes.--- This discusion on Jordan's reading ablities is really thought provoking for me so I thought I'd add my two cents.)

"Rudimentary reader with low literacy skills" is just a label for Jordan's ablities. It's not an explanation of those ablities. Brian, being the kind of overachiever who does everything to his absolute best, probably found a test to ascess (sp?) Jordan's ablities. -- The test probably came with a guide for how to teach for different levels of ablities. (Remember, when Jordan asks for with Angela and Brian says that there is nothing in the phonics reader to help with that.)

The show never really explains why Jordan is a "rudimentary reader with low literacy skills." Just that he is.

I've always personally felt that Jordan has some kinda of learning disablity and it is not merely a case of him slipping throught the cracks. I believe that this is partly because I view Jordan as an intelligent character. Jordan's intelligents displayed throughout the series: Vic Racine (sp?) calls him highly intelligent, he immediately understands and relates to Shakespeare's sonnet when it is read in class, and he also seems to be very quick learner with the Brian (ex: the word irony: Jordan immediately adds the word to his vocabular, which considering the trouble a lot of people have with the word -- for example: Alanis Morissette wrote an entire song w/o once using the term correctly).

People with learning disablities tend to be highly intelligent (and when the get help can excell greatly). Jordan's boredom and frustration with school are also typically of someone with a learning disablity. Also when he begins to get help he seems somewhat more interested in academics and continuing to learn and really excited that there is a term for his ablities (and therefore is not abnormal).

But the show doesn't give any really evidence on which learning disablities he has. There are things that support the dyslexia theory (ex: the Brain vs. Brian) and then there are also other things that support a theory that Jordan has ADHD (ex: his constent distraction and zoning out. Also people with ADHD tend to self medicate with caffine or other substances, so it's possible that Jordan's coffee habits are related to this.).

I think the title "Why Jordan Can't Read" is one of those very cool, typically MSCL things. Like Tino seems to be involved with everything, but never present. It seems that the creators like set up expectations, and then never really give us what we expect so we're always wanting more and also wondering about it (ex: someone says that Tino's gonna be there, so we expect that Tino will be there, but he isn't there, so we wonder more about who this Tino person is).

just my thoughts,
~jess