I recently asked a question on FB & Twitter regarding alternatives to meds for ADD/ADHD diagnosed children. My friends graciously supplied me with info, opinions and knowledge. For that I'm grateful. But it got my thinking about this little girl's particular situation.
She's 7, in 2nd grade at public school. She's having a very difficult time with school work, especially math. She's extremly bright, but it appears that she's not grasping concepts. Because most of learning is built on previous concepts - she is starting to fall behind. & as anyone who's ever fallen behind at school knows, once you start, it takes divine intervention to catch up.
Her parents have done what they can within the system to get her help. However, the teacher, admin & school district all seem to push back and resist all efforts. They are insisting the child be labeled in some way for them to provide help or cirriculum beyond the normal. She must be "ADD" or "learning-disabled" for them to step up with the parents and provide the extra attention she needs.
It appears to me the school system is failing her, making her accept a limiting label in exchange for additional attention. But maybe I'm not thinking about this the right way. I'd like to hear other opinions on this - please feel free to comment.
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2 comments:
No, you are thinking about it correctly. It's a product of the least means test that they use to grade schools in this country - a legacy of Mr. Bush's NCLB bs.
In otherwords, children who cannot be specifically identified as having an impediment to learning are just thought to be lazy and therefore not deserving of resources.
It's sad that not only this child's school system, but the child's teachers themselves are failing her. You'd expect a teacher to step up to bat. After all, they went into teaching to TEACH. But no.
Does anything in education ever get the support it really needs? (If you're in a rich, usually suburban, district then maybe...)
Working with the school is one thing, but maybe the parents can take the reins and work math with her at home, too?
The first thing I thought of was the books by Danica McKellar that are specifically targeted at girls: "Kiss My Math" and "Math Doesn't Suck". But, I think she might be a little young for those books.
There is another book that might work well for her called "One Minute Mysteries: 65 Short Mysteries You Solve with Math!" It's not on amazon yet, but you can get it from the publisher:
http://www.sciencenaturally.com/node/15
At home, the focus should be on building confidence and discipline that will help her succeed in school. Kids all learn at different paces and in different ways. She needs to be able to survive until she gets to the point where her way of learning is compatible with the teacher's way of teaching. Doing that without developing the idea that "I can't do math..." is the tricky part. :)
(Of course, I'm sure there are more issues than just math, but if it's math that is the hardest right now, that's maybe where the most work at home should be, without falling behind in anything else....)
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