Every night, after dinner, we go to a local playground close by to play (weather permitting).
Doing this has allowed us to get to know many of our neighbors who attend different schools. We started this after I read the book: Last Child in The Woods which talked about how less and less children are getting the chance to be with nature on a regular basis.
Nightly park visits have become a habit (even though, believe me, there are a million things I could be doing around the house instead).
Still, I've been really glad of the chance to meet other families, many of them in our local public schools, and have my children know these neighborhood friends also.
Last night we ran into a family I knew from our last school- the Catholic School. Even though they only live 2 streets away I didn't know them well because their child was so much older. They didn't know that we left last school year and I told them the reason why.
The stepmother, who is in education, then proceeded to tell me that she believed that their child also has dyslexia. He is going into 5th grade and reads at a second grade level. He is strong in math (typical) but language is a huge challenge.
She said in fact, at the end of the last school year the school told their family that they didn't believe Our Lady of The Pines was a good fit for him.
One would think by now that I wouldn't be shocked at this sort of thing, but I still am.
So he is going into 5th grade, is not reading at a level to "keep up" and just now the school mentions that fact?
Should I be looking at this sort of honesty as an improvement on their part? Are they attempting to be more upfront with parents (after all my family went through with that place). One can hope but I doubt it.
Perhaps I'm simply still too angry at all their shenanigans with my own family to give them the benefit of the doubt. Still, if I were running a school and saw that children were not learning I would hope that I wouldn't be blaming the child or parents for that.
We aren't talking about a principal who is new in the school business. The principal has been there something like 30 years. She was the principal when my husband's friends went there.
She knew how to teach in the pre-whole language teaching method days.
So when 20% or more of the children going through that school were not able to catch on to the whole language teaching method those children got to shoulder the blame?
(That is the typical school routine- blame the child, blame the parents and that is the story I heard last night).
Good grief how is any of this okay! It's not.
So of course I told this stepmother our story and all about our school but the mention of money of course made a decision like the one we made out of the question. I could see her shut off.
She is going to ask that the tutor start using the Orton-Gillingham method with their child (question: what the heck method has the tutor been using on this kid for the past 3 years and if it wasn't working then why didn't she switch until she found one that would?)
I understand that this is a long road. She is speculating that it's dyslexia (most likely true) and they don't even have a real diagnosis at this point (and those aren't cheap even if you go to a less reputable place to get it).
I know my family is blessed to not have the same financial struggles as so many people these days
Still, in our society money takes precedence over children all the damn time and in my belief system this is simply not okay.
We all make choices as far as money is concerned.
I want to be understanding and sympathetic to their plight (and the struggles of so many in these hard times) but I also want to say that our family choices have historically and presently included positioning myself so that our children's needs, rather than money or needlessly expensive items, are the priority.
Quitting my career in grant writing to work part time and breast feed was a major choice. We know others who have sold their house and moved into an apartment in order to be with their baby.
There are school loans that can be taken out in order to pay for an expensive school like the one we go to.
I enjoy looking at mommy blogs that are so popular right now but frankly, the silly overpriced items that so many of them seem to be hawking grate on my nerves. I wouldn't ever spend the sort of money these mommybloggers do on clothes and sunglasses and who knows what. Those things are nice but they are not my priority and I wonder is there all that much wealth in this country right now or are they part of the illusion that there is.
Public schools need to be addressing dyslexia and I don't think they are. If Catholic Schools overall act like the one we attended then I think it's safe to expect that the overall quality of a Catholic School education is greatly reduced from what it may have once been.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
The homeschooled dyslexic child
If one were to read through this blog history then the reader would see that at one point I considered (briefly) homeschooling my daughter. But earlier this month I talked to a woman who homeschools and it has taken me the better part of this month to get to the point where I can write down what she told me. I'd like to share it now. (For privacy purposes I will change a view minor details of this story but I am basically writing it as it was told to me).
My family lives in an urban neighborhood which is close to a major university. Our neighborhood is known for being eclectic and mostly educated. In the 1970's this is the area where the hippie types all lived and it's still somewhat like that. I could go on but I wont.
There is a large community of homeschoolers that live in this area. It's so common that 3 of my neighbors homeschool their families. Additionally, we know others that homeschool. Personally I haven't felt convinced by what I've seen.
My daughter has a friend she sees every so often that is her age and is homeschooled. The mother is adamant about homeschooling and they participate in homeschool activities at the local recreation center (which is in our neighborhood and some families drive many miles to be a part of it).
From the outside I would have thought that perhaps her children were getting a fine, if a bit unusual education. Many of the homeschool mothers in this area give off an air of superiority about their decision to homeschool. (For example I have seen bumper stickers that say: My unschooled child will hire your honor student).
When I recently told a homeschooling mother about our change out of the Catholic school and into our Orton Gillingham based school she mentioned that all 4 of her children had dyslexia. She also told me in great detail about her attempts to educate them in spite of their dyslexia. It sounded quite challenging and yet, in a way I understood because of my own struggles to get my child what she needed.
She confirmed my feeling about the local group that use the children as guinea pigs to "educate" tutors. Her family had a horrible experience with that group.
(While she was talking though I wondered how well a child who has never been expected to sit in a chair and listen to an adult who isn't a sanctioned homeschooling adult is going to listen to a person who is mostly dealing with children who are from a traditional school setting and know how to listen to an adult with authority).
She went on to admit that none of her children could actually read due to the dyslexia issue. The oldest is a teenager (would be in about 10th grade).
I'm really trying to reign in my judgemental ism here but I want to say for the record that I am astonished that a homeschooling mother would let their child get to that advanced age and not be able to read.
The mother went on to say that she knew her daughter (which is my daughter's age) cant read either but that she didn't think it was that big of a deal in first and second grade.
She then asked me what I knew about the University program. In my opinion the University program agenda is this: Professors trying to make a name for themselves (publish or perish) have created a center which provides tutoring to prove and/or disprove techniques like Orton Gillingham (which has been around since the 1930's). Children and young people could benefit from this but I certainly wouldn't want to base my child's whole education on this sort of setup (where the child isn't actually the focus).
As I am not a homeschooling mother I do not know the ins and outs of getting my child to the point where they could graduate (question: don't homeschooled children have to actually prove they are learning to graduate?)
Still if our society has a public school system that fails to educate dyslexic children and a large (and growing) group of homeschooling parents that cannot or will not get their children to the point where they can read then we are going to have a future that includes a lot of undereducated and/or mostly illiterate population.
Being under educated and or illiterate will expose these same people to all sorts of exploitation, brainwashing (by TV or religion mostly). These people are very vulnerable to being compromised. At the heart of education is the idea of empowerment. This is the opposite.
I don't want to bash this homeschooling mother who confided in me but I don't think that excuses or being manipulated by children who have been taught not to like tradition school setups is okay.
After this talk I now greatly suspect that homeschooling is being used by at least some people in ways that are unacceptable. In the case of dyslexia I think it would be a mountain-like challenge to educate a child at home (unless someone was already specially trained).
My family lives in an urban neighborhood which is close to a major university. Our neighborhood is known for being eclectic and mostly educated. In the 1970's this is the area where the hippie types all lived and it's still somewhat like that. I could go on but I wont.
There is a large community of homeschoolers that live in this area. It's so common that 3 of my neighbors homeschool their families. Additionally, we know others that homeschool. Personally I haven't felt convinced by what I've seen.
My daughter has a friend she sees every so often that is her age and is homeschooled. The mother is adamant about homeschooling and they participate in homeschool activities at the local recreation center (which is in our neighborhood and some families drive many miles to be a part of it).
From the outside I would have thought that perhaps her children were getting a fine, if a bit unusual education. Many of the homeschool mothers in this area give off an air of superiority about their decision to homeschool. (For example I have seen bumper stickers that say: My unschooled child will hire your honor student).
When I recently told a homeschooling mother about our change out of the Catholic school and into our Orton Gillingham based school she mentioned that all 4 of her children had dyslexia. She also told me in great detail about her attempts to educate them in spite of their dyslexia. It sounded quite challenging and yet, in a way I understood because of my own struggles to get my child what she needed.
She confirmed my feeling about the local group that use the children as guinea pigs to "educate" tutors. Her family had a horrible experience with that group.
(While she was talking though I wondered how well a child who has never been expected to sit in a chair and listen to an adult who isn't a sanctioned homeschooling adult is going to listen to a person who is mostly dealing with children who are from a traditional school setting and know how to listen to an adult with authority).
She went on to admit that none of her children could actually read due to the dyslexia issue. The oldest is a teenager (would be in about 10th grade).
I'm really trying to reign in my judgemental ism here but I want to say for the record that I am astonished that a homeschooling mother would let their child get to that advanced age and not be able to read.
The mother went on to say that she knew her daughter (which is my daughter's age) cant read either but that she didn't think it was that big of a deal in first and second grade.
She then asked me what I knew about the University program. In my opinion the University program agenda is this: Professors trying to make a name for themselves (publish or perish) have created a center which provides tutoring to prove and/or disprove techniques like Orton Gillingham (which has been around since the 1930's). Children and young people could benefit from this but I certainly wouldn't want to base my child's whole education on this sort of setup (where the child isn't actually the focus).
As I am not a homeschooling mother I do not know the ins and outs of getting my child to the point where they could graduate (question: don't homeschooled children have to actually prove they are learning to graduate?)
Still if our society has a public school system that fails to educate dyslexic children and a large (and growing) group of homeschooling parents that cannot or will not get their children to the point where they can read then we are going to have a future that includes a lot of undereducated and/or mostly illiterate population.
Being under educated and or illiterate will expose these same people to all sorts of exploitation, brainwashing (by TV or religion mostly). These people are very vulnerable to being compromised. At the heart of education is the idea of empowerment. This is the opposite.
I don't want to bash this homeschooling mother who confided in me but I don't think that excuses or being manipulated by children who have been taught not to like tradition school setups is okay.
After this talk I now greatly suspect that homeschooling is being used by at least some people in ways that are unacceptable. In the case of dyslexia I think it would be a mountain-like challenge to educate a child at home (unless someone was already specially trained).
Monday, July 30, 2012
The story of Barb
I want to tell a true story about a woman I knew that for purposes of this story I will call Barb.
Barb worked in a food pantry. She was the mother of 6 children who, by the time I knew her, were full grown adults.
Barb and her husband Frankie lived in a not-so-great part of town. They grew up there (before it was so bad) and they met at a gas station there, married and continued to live in this area for their whole lives.
Barb ran the food pantry for many years. She made sure orders were placed, dealt with clients, volunteers and food providers. It was no small job but I personally don't believe she was paid or treated very well despite her good work.
I knew the sort of verbal abuse she suffered at the hands of the woman manager who was in charge of the whole non-profit organization. I saw it all firsthand.
That manager had the sort of credentials that would have made anything Barb might have said against her seem untrue. Barb knew that. We all did.
The people who could have stopped the mean manager didn't have any idea the sort of abuses that were going on at the food pantry. They were the clueless board of directors, a group of mostly church people who didn't really want to know the reality of running a food pantry. They were well protected from any truth by the silver tongued manager.
Despite the manager's meanness Barb handled many kinds of people within the food pantry and she did her job well.
Still, she never really thought she could leave that mean and horrible manager and get a different job. It seemed that she didn't think anyone else would hire her.
Barb's husband Frankie was a volunteer at the food pantry (he was on disability). I don't think Barb could drive but Frankie could and did drive everywhere for the food pantry. Frankie did a lot for the food pantry as a volunteer and was never actually compensated in any real way for all his work.
It was always clear to me that Barb was in charge both at the food pantry and at home. She was intelligent and knew her way around in the world. Frankie would have done anything she asked him to do. They took care of each other.
Barb and Frankie were quite poor. In fact, they often lived off food from the food pantry themselves. They felt fortunate to have a roof over their heads and a junky old car to drive.
They never had enough for a big family dinner let alone Christmas presents for all their children and grandchildren. The one time they had a real Christmas was the year Frankie finally got his first Social Security disability check. That year they had everyone over and bought them all small gifts. They also bought a new-to-them minivan.
Despite such hardships they stayed married and lead honest lives.
When I saw them, Barb's words were almost always misspelled and her handwriting was like a child's. She was clearly wonderfully intelligent and had learned to work well in her surroundings but my guess is and will always be that she had dyslexia and really never got what she needed as far as schooling was concerned. She was clearly a bit embarrassed by her handwriting. She also had no knowledge of how to use a computer.
By the time I knew her Barb had diabetes but she did not follow what would have been prudent measures. Frankie's health was what one might expect with a man who had been impoverished his whole life, poor dental health and plenty of other complications.
Frankie died first, suddenly, a few years ago. I believe he was in his late 50's. Barb quickly followed him to the grave. Their daughter told me that Barb never did recover from Frankie's death. I believe her.
The part I wonder about- the part that haunts me- is whether it would have made a difference in Barb's life if she has gotten what she needed as far as her learning difference was concerned.
I'll never know.
Somehow it still seemed worthwhile to tell this story of these people. Barb and Frankie, people who I know will be deeply missed.
Barb worked in a food pantry. She was the mother of 6 children who, by the time I knew her, were full grown adults.
Barb and her husband Frankie lived in a not-so-great part of town. They grew up there (before it was so bad) and they met at a gas station there, married and continued to live in this area for their whole lives.
Barb ran the food pantry for many years. She made sure orders were placed, dealt with clients, volunteers and food providers. It was no small job but I personally don't believe she was paid or treated very well despite her good work.
I knew the sort of verbal abuse she suffered at the hands of the woman manager who was in charge of the whole non-profit organization. I saw it all firsthand.
That manager had the sort of credentials that would have made anything Barb might have said against her seem untrue. Barb knew that. We all did.
The people who could have stopped the mean manager didn't have any idea the sort of abuses that were going on at the food pantry. They were the clueless board of directors, a group of mostly church people who didn't really want to know the reality of running a food pantry. They were well protected from any truth by the silver tongued manager.
Despite the manager's meanness Barb handled many kinds of people within the food pantry and she did her job well.
Still, she never really thought she could leave that mean and horrible manager and get a different job. It seemed that she didn't think anyone else would hire her.
Barb's husband Frankie was a volunteer at the food pantry (he was on disability). I don't think Barb could drive but Frankie could and did drive everywhere for the food pantry. Frankie did a lot for the food pantry as a volunteer and was never actually compensated in any real way for all his work.
It was always clear to me that Barb was in charge both at the food pantry and at home. She was intelligent and knew her way around in the world. Frankie would have done anything she asked him to do. They took care of each other.
Barb and Frankie were quite poor. In fact, they often lived off food from the food pantry themselves. They felt fortunate to have a roof over their heads and a junky old car to drive.
They never had enough for a big family dinner let alone Christmas presents for all their children and grandchildren. The one time they had a real Christmas was the year Frankie finally got his first Social Security disability check. That year they had everyone over and bought them all small gifts. They also bought a new-to-them minivan.
Despite such hardships they stayed married and lead honest lives.
When I saw them, Barb's words were almost always misspelled and her handwriting was like a child's. She was clearly wonderfully intelligent and had learned to work well in her surroundings but my guess is and will always be that she had dyslexia and really never got what she needed as far as schooling was concerned. She was clearly a bit embarrassed by her handwriting. She also had no knowledge of how to use a computer.
By the time I knew her Barb had diabetes but she did not follow what would have been prudent measures. Frankie's health was what one might expect with a man who had been impoverished his whole life, poor dental health and plenty of other complications.
Frankie died first, suddenly, a few years ago. I believe he was in his late 50's. Barb quickly followed him to the grave. Their daughter told me that Barb never did recover from Frankie's death. I believe her.
The part I wonder about- the part that haunts me- is whether it would have made a difference in Barb's life if she has gotten what she needed as far as her learning difference was concerned.
I'll never know.
Somehow it still seemed worthwhile to tell this story of these people. Barb and Frankie, people who I know will be deeply missed.
Our rural friends
One thing I learned from my child advocate was that while they had never been hired up to that point by a parent in my (city) school district, they had been hired all over our state often times in rural areas. I found that interesting.
This past weekend I spent some time with friends who live in a VERY rural area. It didn't take long for me to ask how their (same age as my daughter) liked school and so on. Here is the story:
There are 2 towns, Smallville and Betterfield. Smallville folk knows it's the underdog area. Betterfield likes the idea that it's bigger and better than Smallville. Smallville had it's day back in the 1950's and 60's when the middle class still had a decent hold in the rural U.S. Nowadays Betterfield is now the "better" school district and you can even tell when the marching bands play in the parade which one is the more sought after. One is more show offy and one is more humble. This sort of story plays out all over the place all the time.
Our friends are at Betterfield. After all it's supposedly better.
One might think "better" would mean that more than the marching band was better but no, same old song and dance with school districts and learning differences and teaching methods as a (cynical) parent, already knows.
Without any access at all to schools that specialize in dyslexia or much knowledge about child advocates or the IEP process guess how some rural people are coping? Read on.
The grandmother of this little girl knew that she wasn't learning how to read at school and was falling behind, so she, the grandmother, checked out a book about teaching phonics from the local library.
She said she had been renewing the book for the past 3 months, only returning it when she had to. She had been teaching her to read at home on her own.
She said she had seen real improvement in her graqnddaughter's reading as a result.
This past weekend I spent some time with friends who live in a VERY rural area. It didn't take long for me to ask how their (same age as my daughter) liked school and so on. Here is the story:
There are 2 towns, Smallville and Betterfield. Smallville folk knows it's the underdog area. Betterfield likes the idea that it's bigger and better than Smallville. Smallville had it's day back in the 1950's and 60's when the middle class still had a decent hold in the rural U.S. Nowadays Betterfield is now the "better" school district and you can even tell when the marching bands play in the parade which one is the more sought after. One is more show offy and one is more humble. This sort of story plays out all over the place all the time.
Our friends are at Betterfield. After all it's supposedly better.
One might think "better" would mean that more than the marching band was better but no, same old song and dance with school districts and learning differences and teaching methods as a (cynical) parent, already knows.
Without any access at all to schools that specialize in dyslexia or much knowledge about child advocates or the IEP process guess how some rural people are coping? Read on.
The grandmother of this little girl knew that she wasn't learning how to read at school and was falling behind, so she, the grandmother, checked out a book about teaching phonics from the local library.
She said she had been renewing the book for the past 3 months, only returning it when she had to. She had been teaching her to read at home on her own.
She said she had seen real improvement in her graqnddaughter's reading as a result.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
I've been seeing more traffic on this blog than normal so I would like to welcome any new readers and say thank you for your visit.
Now on to dyslexia and the IEP process:
It has nearly been a year now that I've known we have a learning difference in our family.
I am now well versed in the excuses and unethical (and unknowingly wrong) behaviors of many school professionals but I'm still amazed that recently I've heard these incorrect pronouncements regarding IEP's (Individualized Education Programs):
1. "You have to be two years behind in reading in order to be considered for an IEP"
UNTRUE, there is no number of years a child has to behind in order to begin the IEP process. The sooner you, the parent, begins to know more about how your child's brain works (aka: diagnosis) the better.
There is an abundance of valuable free testing that the public school is required to provide at your request. They don't have the right to refuse your request but they certainly have a great deal of experience at it and it is the general rule of thumb that many districts and school professionals will say whatever the have to not to have to do the extra work.
Do not let the school district get out of doing this testing because many of them (perhaps) do not know their obligations.
2. "The school district told us that they wont write an IEP until second grade"
INCORRECT, the school district does not get to determine what grade to write an IEP in and a child can qualify even in preschool.
In the case of a child with a known physical disability school professionals know better than to try to put off a parent who is requesting (and needing) an IEP (for wheelchair access as an example) but in a the case of a learning difference like dyslexia it often doesn't show itself until the child is struggling to read and obviously having trouble next to their peers.
This is the glitch that lets a great deal of school professionals push parents off. The parents don't know (we are new here) and the school districts and their cronies know this. Many of them have been pushing away concerned parents for many years.
This is where parents of children of learning differences such as dyslexia need to bond together and share information.
I follow a number of groups that are concerned with dyslexia and are run by parents who are FED-UP with the nonsense and misinformation that is being passed around by the school districts.
I will only give a small benefit of the doubt to school professionals here: sometimes many of these people are simply BADLY INFORMED.
Is it malicious? I do think that many times there is a ringleader who misinforms the others. Like any office setting there is that "go-to person" who supposedly knows what they are talking about with IEP's and the whole gang follows whatever that person says, not investigating it for themselves.
It often takes a big wake up call for a district to start acting appropriately
For example, a school district near my house was sued for $150,000 for not following the law for a child with dyslexia.
I know that sounds like a lot of money but this child had to suffer for many years and the school district wronged this family for well over a decade. This family had the means to hire the premier attorney in the whole United States for this issue: Peter Wright in the Virginia area. (I follow his website at www.wrightslaw.com)
You, the parent need to make your mission to know more than the teachers or district or whoever is putting you off.
Sadly, I personally only saw our public school system give my daughter the testing she was legally entitled to (and that they are required by law to provide at my parental request) after I hired a professional child advocate.
While I think this is money was well spent I certainly wish more school professionals were not only more ethically minded and/or better informed.
In our case I was very much prepared to take the time and energy to get to a due process hearing (this is essentially suing the school district). It was clear to me that we were being wronged but I have huge advantage over many parents who aer new to learning differences. My family has been dealing with a known learning difference (dyslexia) for 2 generations now.
Whatever flavor of excuse to not write an IEP is being pushed on to your family or someone you know do not let your mission to get your child tested/diagnosed/ an IEP be de-railed.
Go to your state educational website and investigate the process for filing a complaint.
Also call a local child advocate and have a talk (you can find them listed by state on the website I mentioned above). My child advocate gave me a great deal of free advice before I ever paid a penny.
Now on to dyslexia and the IEP process:
It has nearly been a year now that I've known we have a learning difference in our family.
I am now well versed in the excuses and unethical (and unknowingly wrong) behaviors of many school professionals but I'm still amazed that recently I've heard these incorrect pronouncements regarding IEP's (Individualized Education Programs):
1. "You have to be two years behind in reading in order to be considered for an IEP"
UNTRUE, there is no number of years a child has to behind in order to begin the IEP process. The sooner you, the parent, begins to know more about how your child's brain works (aka: diagnosis) the better.
There is an abundance of valuable free testing that the public school is required to provide at your request. They don't have the right to refuse your request but they certainly have a great deal of experience at it and it is the general rule of thumb that many districts and school professionals will say whatever the have to not to have to do the extra work.
Do not let the school district get out of doing this testing because many of them (perhaps) do not know their obligations.
2. "The school district told us that they wont write an IEP until second grade"
INCORRECT, the school district does not get to determine what grade to write an IEP in and a child can qualify even in preschool.
In the case of a child with a known physical disability school professionals know better than to try to put off a parent who is requesting (and needing) an IEP (for wheelchair access as an example) but in a the case of a learning difference like dyslexia it often doesn't show itself until the child is struggling to read and obviously having trouble next to their peers.
This is the glitch that lets a great deal of school professionals push parents off. The parents don't know (we are new here) and the school districts and their cronies know this. Many of them have been pushing away concerned parents for many years.
This is where parents of children of learning differences such as dyslexia need to bond together and share information.
I follow a number of groups that are concerned with dyslexia and are run by parents who are FED-UP with the nonsense and misinformation that is being passed around by the school districts.
I will only give a small benefit of the doubt to school professionals here: sometimes many of these people are simply BADLY INFORMED.
Is it malicious? I do think that many times there is a ringleader who misinforms the others. Like any office setting there is that "go-to person" who supposedly knows what they are talking about with IEP's and the whole gang follows whatever that person says, not investigating it for themselves.
It often takes a big wake up call for a district to start acting appropriately
For example, a school district near my house was sued for $150,000 for not following the law for a child with dyslexia.
I know that sounds like a lot of money but this child had to suffer for many years and the school district wronged this family for well over a decade. This family had the means to hire the premier attorney in the whole United States for this issue: Peter Wright in the Virginia area. (I follow his website at www.wrightslaw.com)
You, the parent need to make your mission to know more than the teachers or district or whoever is putting you off.
Sadly, I personally only saw our public school system give my daughter the testing she was legally entitled to (and that they are required by law to provide at my parental request) after I hired a professional child advocate.
While I think this is money was well spent I certainly wish more school professionals were not only more ethically minded and/or better informed.
In our case I was very much prepared to take the time and energy to get to a due process hearing (this is essentially suing the school district). It was clear to me that we were being wronged but I have huge advantage over many parents who aer new to learning differences. My family has been dealing with a known learning difference (dyslexia) for 2 generations now.
Whatever flavor of excuse to not write an IEP is being pushed on to your family or someone you know do not let your mission to get your child tested/diagnosed/ an IEP be de-railed.
Go to your state educational website and investigate the process for filing a complaint.
Also call a local child advocate and have a talk (you can find them listed by state on the website I mentioned above). My child advocate gave me a great deal of free advice before I ever paid a penny.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Figure a timeline such as this one:
Sept-Oct 2011- bad teacher reports about not paying attention etc.
Nov 2011- I begin to search frantically for a doctor to test our daughter quickly
Dec 2011- testing (after a one month waiting list)
Dec 2011 - I meet a lady in the grocery store who knows about people who tutor children with dyslexia for free. I am excited to learn of such a thing
Jan 2012- test results: dyslexia
Jan 2012- search all over for any tutor at all who will work with her, send paperwork to free tutoring place
Feb 2012- realize I am not going to find anyone this way and we need help. Stick her in expensive (and worth it- private school for Orton-Gillingham immersion. Thank you God!
June 2012- Get a letter from free tutoring place saying they will accept her for fall tutoring but need to assess her.
This brings me to now. I called the free tutoring place the other day (I had been putting them off because I wasn't certain if she could go back to the private school or not and didn't want her tested needlessly -again). I was honest about where she was at with her school and situation.
Here is what I found out. Their agenda isn't so much providing free tutoring as it is providing training for people who want to learn the Orton-Gillingham method (mostly teachers). Geesh good thing I didn't have to rely on that for my daughter.
Okay so yes I come to this from a parent's point of view but they really want children who have had NO real experience with Orton-Gillingham, this gets in the way of their training. They want to go through the whole sequence themselves with the child. Mostly parents have private help already but they find that out after they have accepted the child and put them into their program.
Their customer (the REAL customer) is the teacher who wants to learn to tutor Orton-Gillingham.
I'm still digesting all this. I'm sort of in shock that it really is THIS DAMN BAD for parents of children with dyslexia.
So while in my own personal life my child is 90% likely to go back to her fantastic private school (thank you God!) I cant help but think of all the children in my community (and throughout the country) who are 1. Not getting the teaching methods they need in school 2. Not really going to have too much opportunity outside of a school setting to get the teaching methods they need.
This is not okay. I personally see our educational system as in a state of emergency until learning differences can start to be handled in such a way as a small fortune isn't required to get children what they need to learn to read.
Our society is digging a very deep hole for itself.
Classism has got to go and so has No Child Left Behind. The entire system of writing IEP's needs revamped and we are going to need boatloads of people who are able to teach adults to read one day if this country is ever to maintain it's position as a first world country.
Sept-Oct 2011- bad teacher reports about not paying attention etc.
Nov 2011- I begin to search frantically for a doctor to test our daughter quickly
Dec 2011- testing (after a one month waiting list)
Dec 2011 - I meet a lady in the grocery store who knows about people who tutor children with dyslexia for free. I am excited to learn of such a thing
Jan 2012- test results: dyslexia
Jan 2012- search all over for any tutor at all who will work with her, send paperwork to free tutoring place
Feb 2012- realize I am not going to find anyone this way and we need help. Stick her in expensive (and worth it- private school for Orton-Gillingham immersion. Thank you God!
June 2012- Get a letter from free tutoring place saying they will accept her for fall tutoring but need to assess her.
This brings me to now. I called the free tutoring place the other day (I had been putting them off because I wasn't certain if she could go back to the private school or not and didn't want her tested needlessly -again). I was honest about where she was at with her school and situation.
Here is what I found out. Their agenda isn't so much providing free tutoring as it is providing training for people who want to learn the Orton-Gillingham method (mostly teachers). Geesh good thing I didn't have to rely on that for my daughter.
Okay so yes I come to this from a parent's point of view but they really want children who have had NO real experience with Orton-Gillingham, this gets in the way of their training. They want to go through the whole sequence themselves with the child. Mostly parents have private help already but they find that out after they have accepted the child and put them into their program.
Their customer (the REAL customer) is the teacher who wants to learn to tutor Orton-Gillingham.
I'm still digesting all this. I'm sort of in shock that it really is THIS DAMN BAD for parents of children with dyslexia.
So while in my own personal life my child is 90% likely to go back to her fantastic private school (thank you God!) I cant help but think of all the children in my community (and throughout the country) who are 1. Not getting the teaching methods they need in school 2. Not really going to have too much opportunity outside of a school setting to get the teaching methods they need.
This is not okay. I personally see our educational system as in a state of emergency until learning differences can start to be handled in such a way as a small fortune isn't required to get children what they need to learn to read.
Our society is digging a very deep hole for itself.
Classism has got to go and so has No Child Left Behind. The entire system of writing IEP's needs revamped and we are going to need boatloads of people who are able to teach adults to read one day if this country is ever to maintain it's position as a first world country.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Talking to a teacher
I had the privilege of meeting a woman this past week who was a first grade teacher until 1978. At that point she stopped working to take care of her family and never went back.
Until........now. She has a granddaughter who needed someone to come and help in the classroom. I told her our story and how the "whole language" method of teaching reading is truly faster for some but does not work at all for a child with dyslexia.
She completely understood what I was saying. She said she was in disbelief that teachers are no longer required to teach anything that actually resembles phonics anymore.
In a sense both she and I have been in a time-capsule. Her, because she left teaching in 1978 and me because I was never in that line of work and my frame of reference is from being a kid at the same time she was a teacher (I'm in my 40's).
My mother was a teacher. First in Florida in the 1960's which in the photos looks like it was an ideal teaching situation, every child sitting in their seat listening attentively (ha).
Later, during my childhood she worked in the inner-city (it burnt her out to the point where her health was compromised which is probably no surprise to anyone who has ever worked as a teacher for a marginalized population).
Still, she always taught her children to "sound out" the words.
I doubt it ever occurred to any teacher at that time that "faster" (aka: whole language) would be better. Those teachers of that time would have most likely told you that "faster" wasn't going to do a complete job for a lot of people. (Yes, even then they knew that).
Let me digress for one moment with a theory my neighbor has: when my mom (now in her 70's) was picking her career in college there were very few choices that would lead to gainful employment for a woman. Generally the choices were: nursing, teaching and secretarial type employment. For my mom and many of my aunts it was teaching. My grandmother was a career teacher too, all of them were in elementary education and knew a lot about child development. At that time teaching was something that worked with raising a family (summers off, etc).
My neighbor who was also a career teacher (and is now in her 90's) said that feminism changed the overall quality of teachers everywhere. In her theory the minute women could choose doctor, scientist, professional and so on they left the teaching field in droves to earn more money and more prestige.
She believes that far fewer brilliant women find themselves in the education field anymore and fewer still in elementary education.
I know, just sort of let this sink in for a moment.
Her point is not to bash feminism (which I think most of us hopefully realize has opened up a lot of deserved opportunity for women everywhere) but to show how under appreciated the education field really is.
As a parent who is concerned not only about my own children but the fate of children everywhere, in the U. S. (which frankly could use a real honest-to-God boost at this point educationally speaking and otherwise) I want good teachers sitting there instructing my child and my child's peers.
At this point No Child Left Behind (NCLB) micro manages public school teachers with Master's Degree's in what amounts to practically 5 minute increments. This is not acceptable.
Good teachers who still want to teach phonics so that every child in their classroom can read are doing it on the downlow (translation: they are shutting the door and teaching what they know works despite the ridiculous governmental requirements that are placed on them).
I don't think good teachers have ever really been a common thing. We can all hopefully remember that special teacher who saw potential and brought us to a better place because of some extra attention. But I have a suspicion that those sort of teachers are fewer and fewer and that it's gotten harder and harder for them to keep their jobs.
These days teaching doesn't end at a normal child-coming-home-from-school hour. Those days are over. Also the whole summers off doesn't do it anymore. I don't believe teachers of today are more greedy I think the demands on their time are out of control.
And for the students of today I say this: the society we have created is strangling us with a caste system that we vehemently try to deny.
Private school, parochial school, homeschooling, and (some) charter schools are supposedly better choices than many public schools depending on what suburb one lives in.
How is that just? It is not.
I have known enough graduates of the Ivy League to know that it is the same as wearing designer jeans. It doesn't actually make someone smarter to have an Ivy League degree. This is our caste system at it's finest. Those schools are so prohibitively expensive to keep out nearly everyone of modest means (unless you are an obscure brainiac who playes an unusual musical instrument that they currently need - these are businesses first, always remember that).
But back to our public schools. Those lists that the school provide to military recruiters starting in the beginning of high school of the potential recruits (those children they deem unable to go to college or have choices beyond high school) those are class-based lists.
Those public school "gifted and talented" classes where a great teacher gets a great bunch of students to work with where they are not subjected to the requirements of No Child Left Behind because they are deemed "gifted". Those are class (caste) based. Impoverished children of single parent household are not getting into those type of classes. Those children are from the more privileged public school parents.
Do I sounds like an angry mommy yet? I'm not just concerned about my own child, who I will personally see to it has as much success as humanly possible under the circumstances.
I am an angry citizen.
I hear the cries of those children with learning disabilities who are blaming themselves for what they think of as "not being smart enough". I see it in their posture. I know their stories even if they don't know that I do.
But I also know this.
Those children teachers want to medicate (whether it's actually necessary or not). Those children who some teacher or guidance counselor decides aren't college-bound (for economic or whatever reason). Those children - the children of the poor, or the neglected children, or the learning difference child- I know those children.
I know more of those stories than anyone would ever guess should they just look at me on the outside.
And I have an agenda and perhaps even a vendetta.
I have a personal mission to let those stories be heard.
Even if no one is reading now one day they will be.
So I say this to you, Universe, I'm not going to shut up. I'm not going away. I will write and talk whether anyone hears me or not because eventually they will.
Until........now. She has a granddaughter who needed someone to come and help in the classroom. I told her our story and how the "whole language" method of teaching reading is truly faster for some but does not work at all for a child with dyslexia.
She completely understood what I was saying. She said she was in disbelief that teachers are no longer required to teach anything that actually resembles phonics anymore.
In a sense both she and I have been in a time-capsule. Her, because she left teaching in 1978 and me because I was never in that line of work and my frame of reference is from being a kid at the same time she was a teacher (I'm in my 40's).
My mother was a teacher. First in Florida in the 1960's which in the photos looks like it was an ideal teaching situation, every child sitting in their seat listening attentively (ha).
Later, during my childhood she worked in the inner-city (it burnt her out to the point where her health was compromised which is probably no surprise to anyone who has ever worked as a teacher for a marginalized population).
Still, she always taught her children to "sound out" the words.
I doubt it ever occurred to any teacher at that time that "faster" (aka: whole language) would be better. Those teachers of that time would have most likely told you that "faster" wasn't going to do a complete job for a lot of people. (Yes, even then they knew that).
Let me digress for one moment with a theory my neighbor has: when my mom (now in her 70's) was picking her career in college there were very few choices that would lead to gainful employment for a woman. Generally the choices were: nursing, teaching and secretarial type employment. For my mom and many of my aunts it was teaching. My grandmother was a career teacher too, all of them were in elementary education and knew a lot about child development. At that time teaching was something that worked with raising a family (summers off, etc).
My neighbor who was also a career teacher (and is now in her 90's) said that feminism changed the overall quality of teachers everywhere. In her theory the minute women could choose doctor, scientist, professional and so on they left the teaching field in droves to earn more money and more prestige.
She believes that far fewer brilliant women find themselves in the education field anymore and fewer still in elementary education.
I know, just sort of let this sink in for a moment.
Her point is not to bash feminism (which I think most of us hopefully realize has opened up a lot of deserved opportunity for women everywhere) but to show how under appreciated the education field really is.
As a parent who is concerned not only about my own children but the fate of children everywhere, in the U. S. (which frankly could use a real honest-to-God boost at this point educationally speaking and otherwise) I want good teachers sitting there instructing my child and my child's peers.
At this point No Child Left Behind (NCLB) micro manages public school teachers with Master's Degree's in what amounts to practically 5 minute increments. This is not acceptable.
Good teachers who still want to teach phonics so that every child in their classroom can read are doing it on the downlow (translation: they are shutting the door and teaching what they know works despite the ridiculous governmental requirements that are placed on them).
I don't think good teachers have ever really been a common thing. We can all hopefully remember that special teacher who saw potential and brought us to a better place because of some extra attention. But I have a suspicion that those sort of teachers are fewer and fewer and that it's gotten harder and harder for them to keep their jobs.
These days teaching doesn't end at a normal child-coming-home-from-school hour. Those days are over. Also the whole summers off doesn't do it anymore. I don't believe teachers of today are more greedy I think the demands on their time are out of control.
And for the students of today I say this: the society we have created is strangling us with a caste system that we vehemently try to deny.
Private school, parochial school, homeschooling, and (some) charter schools are supposedly better choices than many public schools depending on what suburb one lives in.
How is that just? It is not.
I have known enough graduates of the Ivy League to know that it is the same as wearing designer jeans. It doesn't actually make someone smarter to have an Ivy League degree. This is our caste system at it's finest. Those schools are so prohibitively expensive to keep out nearly everyone of modest means (unless you are an obscure brainiac who playes an unusual musical instrument that they currently need - these are businesses first, always remember that).
But back to our public schools. Those lists that the school provide to military recruiters starting in the beginning of high school of the potential recruits (those children they deem unable to go to college or have choices beyond high school) those are class-based lists.
Those public school "gifted and talented" classes where a great teacher gets a great bunch of students to work with where they are not subjected to the requirements of No Child Left Behind because they are deemed "gifted". Those are class (caste) based. Impoverished children of single parent household are not getting into those type of classes. Those children are from the more privileged public school parents.
Do I sounds like an angry mommy yet? I'm not just concerned about my own child, who I will personally see to it has as much success as humanly possible under the circumstances.
I am an angry citizen.
I hear the cries of those children with learning disabilities who are blaming themselves for what they think of as "not being smart enough". I see it in their posture. I know their stories even if they don't know that I do.
But I also know this.
Those children teachers want to medicate (whether it's actually necessary or not). Those children who some teacher or guidance counselor decides aren't college-bound (for economic or whatever reason). Those children - the children of the poor, or the neglected children, or the learning difference child- I know those children.
I know more of those stories than anyone would ever guess should they just look at me on the outside.
And I have an agenda and perhaps even a vendetta.
I have a personal mission to let those stories be heard.
Even if no one is reading now one day they will be.
So I say this to you, Universe, I'm not going to shut up. I'm not going away. I will write and talk whether anyone hears me or not because eventually they will.
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