At a Community Education Night on January 22, 2026, we were honoured to welcome David Chalk, Canadian tech entrepreneur, AI visionary, and former TV host, to share his deeply personal journey of growing up with undiagnosed dyslexia.

As a child, David had never heard the term dyslexia. He wasn’t formally diagnosed until adulthood, at 62 years of age. At school, he struggled to read and faced bullying, exclusion, and persistent misunderstanding. School turned into a source of trauma rather than a place for curiosity and discovery. “It’s almost as if the lights went out,” shared David. “You give up belief that you can ever do anything.”

What carried him through school was his mother. She created an emotionally safe environment beyond the classroom where curiosity, exploration, and possibility could thrive. “She was always supporting me,” David reflected. “It was unconditional love that she taught me. When you feel for someone, not for who you want them to be, but who they actually are.”

David helped us understand the neuroscience behind these experiences, explaining that when children feel fearful or unsafe, their brains release stress hormones that actively block learning, including basic language acquisition. In contrast, when children feel supported, valued, and emotionally safe, they can enter a state of flow. This is where learning shifts from fear to curiosity, where engagement deepens, confidence grows, and passion drives persistence.

For dyslexic and neurodivergent learners, reaching this state of flow is transformative. It allows them to approach challenges without emotional overwhelm, turning learning into something meaningful, empowering, and deeply rewarding.

Reflecting on his childhood, David shared his early dreams of becoming an aerospace engineer or pilot, which seemed impossible. “As I got up into the higher grades, I realized I would never be able to attend university because I couldn’t read the questions properly,” he explained. With the steady support of his mother, David found a different learning path, one grounded in his passions and strengths, and he became a pilot early in his career.

David highlighted the many strengths commonly seen in dyslexic learners, such as creativity, problem solving, and the ability to think differently and see possibilities others may miss. These traits are prevalent among entrepreneurs and leaders in the technology sector, the very fields in which he spent his career. He noted that when we create emotionally safe environments that allow these strengths to surface, dyslexic learners don’t just cope, they thrive.

Throughout his life, David has built multiple successful businesses and worked at the forefront of technology and artificial intelligence. Today, he is focused on developing an AI-based system designed to support children in learning to read. Drawing from his own experience, David’s work is centred on reducing the trauma that he and many dyslexic learners have experienced in the process of learning to read.

For David, this work is deeply personal. It is about creating safe, supportive learning environments where children feel valued, capable, and understood, so they can reach their full potential. His message was a powerful reminder that when we shift from fear to safety, from deficit to strength, and from compliance to curiosity, we don’t just change how children learn, we change how they see themselves.

Please visit our Community Education Series webpage to learn more about upcoming events.