prince albert victor's intelligence (or lack thereof)

[Victor]

"At both University of Cambridge and University of Oxford, undergraduates are taught in the tutorial system. Students are taught by faculty fellows in groups of one to three. At Cambridge, these are called "supervisions" and at Oxford they are called "tutorials." One benefit of the tutorial system is that students receive direct feedback on their essays in a small discussion setting."

You can add in University of York too. We all had tutors and tutorials, at least in Chemistry.

[Sam Flynn]

... and at London University, where small groups of us would convene regularly with our appointed tutor. He or she would talk on a given topic of interest, occasionally nominating one of us to prepare a tutorial for the rest of the group. The tutor would also set a subject for an essay which would be handed in at the next session, unless the cat had eaten it

[Admin]

The subject of this thread is Prince Albert Victor's intelligence. Hijacking threads to promote personal theories, agendas or beliefs is against Casebook rules. If you cannot comment on topic, without hijacking the thread, don't comment. If you wish to discuss personal theories or beliefs, create your own thread devoted to that purpose.

[The Prophet]

Prince Albert not so clever?

Greetings,

I guess alot of people might have listened to the narration of David Wickes and Sue Davies on the DVD version of their classic 1988 movie Jack the Ripper?
Wickes makes mention that he was telephoned by Sir Ian Trethowan, the then chairman of Thames Television the night before the mini-series went to air, if he could categorically assure him that it would not be accusing a member of the Royal family?
Whereas Wickes did assure him it was not going to be a member of the Royal Family. However, on the morning of Oct 11, or Oct 18, 1988, there appeared (according to Wickes) a small article in The Daily Mirror about Prince Charles being worried about all this, to which Wickes assumed St James’ Place had been in contact with the chairman to find out on his behalf. Is this true? Does this article actually mention anything about Prince Albert – his great-grand-uncle? Has anyone here actually seen this article, and could anyone here be so kind to locate this? I would be very interested in its contents.

Yours full of surprises,
A.J.

[Sickert]

No the Royals

I haven't read that much about the Royal conspiracy. But from what I have read I don't think it's true.

[YankeeSergeant]

Question

Reading over the pertainent threads and the bio on PAV, I have to ask how much of the prince's learning problems were due to his hearing problems rather rthan any lack of intelligence?

[curious4]

Reading over the pertainent threads and the bio on PAV, I have to ask how much of the prince's learning problems were due to his hearing problems rather rthan any lack of intelligence?

Hello Yankee,

I have always thought that he must have been dyslexic - someone said he could learn if he was shown - that is practical things, I suppose. Nothing was known about dyslexia at the time and I don´t suppose the beatings helped! If the problem was dylexia, he must have been a very frustrated and unhappy boy. Even today some people still connect dyslexia with low intelligence, which is far from the case. My dyslectic eldest son (who holds a degree in sociology) was thought to be deaf at one point as a child, because of his habit of retreating into his own world when he felt like it. Perhaps this was the reason for Prince Eddy´s "deafness"

Greetings,
C4

[YankeeSergeant]

Dyslexia

Hello Yankee,

I have always thought that he must have been dyslexic - someone said he could learn if he was shown - that is practical things, I suppose. Nothing was known about dyslexia at the time and I don´t suppose the beatings helped! If the problem was dylexia, he must have been a very frustrated and unhappy boy. Even today some people still connect dyslexia with low intelligence, which is far from the case. My dyslectic eldest son (who holds a degree in sociology) was thought to be deaf at one point as a child, because of his habit of retreating into his own world when he felt like it. Perhaps this was the reason for Prince Eddy´s "deafness"

Greetings,
C4

Curious, I hadn't thought of that and being mildly dyslexic myself the possibility makes quite a bit of sense. Couple that with the known hearing problem and I can see how others might view him as a bit dim-witted. He might actually have been smarter than others realized.

[Errata]

Hello Yankee,

I have always thought that he must have been dyslexic - someone said he could learn if he was shown - that is practical things, I suppose. Nothing was known about dyslexia at the time and I don´t suppose the beatings helped! If the problem was dylexia, he must have been a very frustrated and unhappy boy. Even today some people still connect dyslexia with low intelligence, which is far from the case. My dyslectic eldest son (who holds a degree in sociology) was thought to be deaf at one point as a child, because of his habit of retreating into his own world when he felt like it. Perhaps this was the reason for Prince Eddy´s "deafness"

Greetings,
C4

Actually dyslexia was known. It was called Word Blindness. There was no treatment, but it was known.

I rather imagine Eddie had a combination of issues. He had no problems with comprehension. And he could easily retain facts related to him, through lecture or conversation. It seems his primary problem was concentration. Reading and studying take a level of mental discipline greater than that of listening. He also may have had what my mother called "An overpowering need to dedicate his mental energies towards anything other than academics." I think he didn't care about school, couldnt concentrate, and dedicated himself towards less lofty pursuits.

[curious4]

Dyslexia

Not sure you´re right there Errata.

Quote: Identified by Oswald Berkhan in 1881,[71] the term 'dyslexia' was later coined in 1887 by Rudolf Berlin,[72] an ophthalmologist practising in Stuttgart, Germany,[73] from the Greek prefix δυσ- (dus-), "hard, bad, difficult"[74] + λέξις (lexis), "speech, word".[75][76]

I don´t think most people would have been aware of what this was at the time. After all, there are still people today who are ignorant of this disorder and others who still think it is a made-up diagnosis and used to cover up low intelligence.

Prince Eddy´s tutor seemed to have been of the school of "beat it out of them" and I doubt he would have known or even accepted such a diagnosis, even if he had heard of it when Eddy was a child.

Best wishes,
C4

[Errata]

Not sure you´re right there Errata.

Quote: Identified by Oswald Berkhan in 1881,[71] the term 'dyslexia' was later coined in 1887 by Rudolf Berlin,[72] an ophthalmologist practising in Stuttgart, Germany,[73] from the Greek prefix δυσ- (dus-), "hard, bad, difficult"[74] + λέξις (lexis), "speech, word".[75][76]

I don´t think most people would have been aware of what this was at the time. After all, there are still people today who are ignorant of this disorder and others who still think it is a made-up diagnosis and used to cover up low intelligence.

Prince Eddy´s tutor seemed to have been of the school of "beat it out of them" and I doubt he would have known or even accepted such a diagnosis, even if he had heard of it when Eddy was a child.

Best wishes,
C4

I may not be...

But dyslexia was known. People had been exhibiting the symptoms for a very long time. Without a known cause or treatment, I'm sure it seemed like a kind of madness or a tall tale. But if someone described the symptoms to a well known doctor, he would have recognized it.

Mostly I have a problem with dyslexia because apparently the Prince had no problems with keeping up correspondence with any number of people, which got him into trouble. Now I realize that many people with dyslexia can write perfectly well, but he was receiving letters in return. I cannot imagine the Prince having someone read his intimate correspondence from unsuitable and possibly married or professional persons.

[curious4]

I may not be...

But dyslexia was known. People had been exhibiting the symptoms for a very long time. Without a known cause or treatment, I'm sure it seemed like a kind of madness or a tall tale. But if someone described the symptoms to a well known doctor, he would have recognized it.

Mostly I have a problem with dyslexia because apparently the Prince had no problems with keeping up correspondence with any number of people, which got him into trouble. Now I realize that many people with dyslexia can write perfectly well, but he was receiving letters in return. I cannot imagine the Prince having someone read his intimate correspondence from unsuitable and possibly married or professional persons.

Hello Errata,

Not being able to read or write is not the only sign of dyslexia - many can read and write - my son and daughter had no problem reading - or writing. However both had problems with their handwriting and spelling, which led to them being accused of not trying. Eddy could well have both written neatly after hard slogging (and flogging!). Handwriting was a separate subject and taught in all schools unlike today.

Sweden is quite well ahead on dyslexia - perhaps because the Swedish King is dyslexic. My son was diagnosed quite late in his school career but my daughter was diagnosed after a full day of tests at a hospital. There is a very good swedish book which lists many of the signs of dyslexia, among others "losing" the last letter of a word and switching the letters of a word round:
as in feild, bron (field, born).

It would be interesting to see some of Eddy´s correspondence.

Best wishes
C4

[curious4]

Hello again Errata,
Try this http://www.paulfrasercollectibles.co...216&docid=1995. Doesn´really tell us much though.

Best wishes
C4

[Errata]

Hello again Errata,
Try this http://www.paulfrasercollectibles.co...216&docid=1995. Doesn´really tell us much though.

Best wishes
C4

Yeah, I don't know. To me the signature looks pretty natural, free flowing, doesn't look like there were stops and starts I would expect from struggling through writing, but it's his signature. He probably signed it 5 times a day.

It sounds like dyslexia is getting a broader definition than it had when I was in school 15 years ago. And I'm not sure that's a good thing. Identifying problems is clearly a good thing, but lumping them in with existing disorders is always problematic. Most people here know dyslexia for the letter confusion with reading. If a kid says "No, I have a different kind of dyslexia." people would say "well you're full of crap." I have the worst time trying to explain aphasia to people, and that's something everyone has at least once in a while.

[YankeeSergeant]

Dyslexia

Yeah, I don't know. To me the signature looks pretty natural, free flowing, doesn't look like there were stops and starts I would expect from struggling through writing, but it's his signature. He probably signed it 5 times a day.

It sounds like dyslexia is getting a broader definition than it had when I was in school 15 years ago. And I'm not sure that's a good thing. Identifying problems is clearly a good thing, but lumping them in with existing disorders is always problematic. Most people here know dyslexia for the letter confusion with reading. If a kid says "No, I have a different kind of dyslexia." people would say "well you're full of crap." I have the worst time trying to explain aphasia to people, and that's something everyone has at least once in a while.

There is also in some cases a tendency for Dyslexics to transpose numbers such as writeing 32 when they mean 23. I do that very infrequently My hand writing is atrocious and I tend to transpose letters. When I went to school they just assumed I wasn't applying myself.