Humbling moments for a know-it-all

I'm sometimes annoying because in certain subjects I can seem like a know-it-all.  I learn something about an area of interest and it sticks in my head. 

I like statistics (as if you didn't already know that). 

I like siting my sources ("don't believe me check here:__insert name of book or web page___").

Putting all that aside, this year my daughter has a harder teacher for language.  This guy is not going to take it easy on anyone, her report card showed evidence of that.

He said he has dyslexia and he also has a child with dyslexia.  He's not feeling sorry for anyone.  He is pushing. 

This attitude is in keeping with my brother (who also has dyslexia) who said, 
"Don't feel sorry for her,  make her work."   

My brother also admitted to riding the wave of lower expectations as a young person and he told me not to let her get away with that.

This guy may be the best teacher she's had yet.  I'm not sure but as I paint this picture for you I'm thinking this could be the case.

He explained to my husband and I the nuances of Orton Gillingham.  Wow,  there is a lot to know.  There is a lot to be broken down into manageable pieces, and geesh, this doesn't exactly look like it's easy to teach or to learn.

I told my mom later that I know if my brother hadn't gone to the school my daughter now attends he would have been completely illiterate.  He probably would have been a high school dropout.  She agreed.  It is hard to imagine what his life would have been like if had stayed on the course and my parents hadn't made the sacrifices they did to insist he learn to read.   Instead of that life, he has a good job,  is well regarded by his peers and is a hard worker.  He is a great husband and father and I really love talking to him. 

Back to my old theory about literacy in the U.S.

So I have this theory about the decline of literacy in the U.S. based on what I know about Whole Language and a lack of knowledge about teaching the 40% of the population who need the additional help and time to learn to read (and basically mostly don't get what they need currently). 

I'm always looking out for clues that I might be right on this one. 

So it's interesting to me that if you read this article signed by 132 Catholic educational professionals one of the main points of criticism for the Common Core mandates are that they are dismissive of literature.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/11/02/catholic-scholars-blast-common-core-in-letter-to-u-s-bishops/

Well,  one has to be able to read to enjoy literature in all it's glory.  And if a significant portion of the population doesn't or cant read well I can see how some people might think it's okay to push literature to the wayside.

So literature is seen by some as expendable.  As not necessary for the future manual laborers of the world. Of course I completely disagree.

One of the things that most saddened me about my children having dyslexia was the thought that all the wonderful books that helped me cope with my childhood were not going to be as easily shared with my children.  I'm not sure that this is true but for the moment no one is reading at that level in my house.  It is my hope that one day they will be.

I'll never forget finding Anne of Green Gables for the first time when I was 10 or 11.  A friend of mine had it on her shelf.  She was not particularly interested in the series and was willing to let me borrow them  (I had never seen them before in my school library).  The world of Anne took me away from the neighborhood where I lived and the drudgery that I considered my life.  It opened new doors for me and set a new example for how to be as a young girl. 

I have waited and waited to introduce my own daughter to Anne.   Thank goodness for the cartoon series (she loves that).  I did try reading it aloud to her but found it very wordy (I hadn't really remembered that part). 

So Common Core throws literature out (for the most part) and the Catholic educators have an issue with it.  Good. 

I still don't believe the federal government or the state government need to be dictating what teachers do in the classroom.  We aren't all going to be suddenly better off because some elected officials with larger than life egos all decide to tell the rest of us what is important for our children.  No thanks.  I doubt very much that my many Greats Grandfather who fought in the Revolutionary War ever thought things would one day appear this way.  I don't think freedom is about laws micromanaging teachers. 

Common Core and private school, Common Core and Catholic school

http://dianeravitch.net/2013/11/09/how-many-children-will-we-sacrifice-before-we-wake-up/

This article is so timely.  I just had a conference for my son in Catholic school and they were asking what the private school my daughter attends does with Common Core.

I was asking them why my kindergarten child is bringing home sometimes 6 pages of work to be done.  I know that this is not even close to age appropriate. I also knew some of this was new this year and they said yes.  The answer: Common Core.

They asked me what my daughter's private school does with Common Core mandates.  As far as I know right now, they don't use it.  It's a private school.  It doesn't take federal funds and therefore is not subjected to the mandates of the federal government.

They insisted that theirs also was a private school but I have a hunch that Catholic schools do take federal funds in some capacity and this fact, therefore makes them subject to Common Core.  I'm going to figure this out for sure.  Otherwise, I believe Common Core,  just like No Child Left Behind,  belongs in the scrap heap.  The federal government has no business micromanaging our already well educated and knowledgeable teachers around the country.

My daughter's school meets the children where they are.  Oftentimes children do not even come to her school until they are at more advanced age and almost completely illiterate because of the mediocre method of teaching children called Whole Language (and it doesn't matter if you sprinkle in some phonics, it's still whole language).  This doesn't work for a significant number of children (say 40%). 

Only the most diligent parents who have done a lot of research and had their child tested and have the economic means are able to take their children to her school. 

It's heartbreaking to me to think of the astonishing amount of children in the world who are struggling with this and do not have the many factors in place that my own child does.

Still,  I believe "to those whom much has been given much is required".  To me this translates into a real need to go out and tell people our story and let them share theirs.  To answer questions when they are asked of me and to be available to any parent who reaches out to me. 

Right now I'm trying to get The Big Picture shown at our Catholic school.  It's a long shot.  Really right this moment I'm thinking the answer will be no, but at least I asked.  Right?

I'm not giving up.  I don't care if people don't like me.  I must do this job and I must do it to the best of my ability.  I must push this envelope,  even if only one parent listens,  even if only 1 child is helped.

Levies defeated now back to dyslexia

While I have still been working on implementing changes at the Catholic school we are in (slowly, carefully,  gently although none of that comes naturally to me), I have been putting a certain amount of time into fighting off the privatization of education movement.

I can now breathe a sigh of relief that the levies which were due to take a huge amount of tax money and put it toward charter schools has failed.

Back to a full focus on dyslexia.

Thank you God.

Not that privatization or edu-business is taking this as anything more than a minor setback,  it's just that there are so many good people already in that fight.  So many caring parents.

In the game of chess a part that's really important is called the end game.  In the game of anything else the end game is also really important.  I believe that this will ultimately work out the right way in the end game because of this one simple thought:

Never mess with a parent's love for their child.  

Politicians should have known better but so often they are clueless, self serving and self absorbed.  In this case it's obvious how much that is true.   So many of them lost credibility on this issue that it's hard to name the ones who didn't.  Not doing their job of actually representing the public good,  not a wise move either.  Combine that right on in there with the one simple fact above. 

I'm expecting we will be seeing some change.  I'm certain of it.  It's in the air.

Hatchets and those who wield them

So again I'm going to digress into politics. 

I know, I know, again! Please stay with me.

One of the things I've noticed since the time of the Karl Rove antics is that the 1% love to make voters form previously nonexistent monitoring groups with their laws. 

A few years back they did it to the farmers in Ohio and got the majority to vote it in (using all sorts of shady manipulations).  It wasn't necessary and it wasn't in the general farmers best interest by any means.

Now the same thing is here again in my face and it's called issue 51 on our upcoming levy.  It's being lumped in with issue 50 which is questionable on it's own.

There is no need for taxpayers to pay for it (either one but I'm talking about 51 today).  It could conceivably override school board decisions (in the future that might not be such a good thing) and well,  the DOE and FBI already do a fine job of internally monitoring the school situation (the FBI only when things go wrong which they certainly have).

Why do we need another set of middlemen?  Or should I say set of Internal Auditors. We don't.

Yet,  this is a strategic tactic being used constantly by the 1%.  Invent a new group and give it power.  Make sure they are people who been "appointed" to be in the position. 

Sort of looks like a familiar business tactic I've seen.  You may know the one where things seem to be running along smoothly and suddenly the company hires this new guy (or woman) and they are polished, slick but strangely don't have the background in the industry that one might expect them to have. And you didn't realize that there was such a need for a new position in the first place.

At first nothing much happens.  Not too many folks ask,  what's going on.  Certainly no one asks the new slickster why they are suddenly working for the company.  That would be rude.  Shouldn't it be obvious.

Then the firings or layoffs start and the reapplying for your job.  That's when the normal folks around the office start to "get it".  A hatchet man (or woman).  That's what the slickster is.  Who knew?

That's what the internal auditors are also. 

Let's not kid ourselves,  although the 1% doesn't see it this way their greed is a bottomless pit and they aren't going to stop until they've exhausted every possibility of making more money and making the laws to facilitate making more money.  I know, astonishing,  I think so too.

Really I'd rather be sitting with some tea and a Jane Austen book yet I'm writing about this sort of corruption. A lot. My husband would rather I be doing housework and sometimes I do but the whole time I'm thinking about what the heck is going on in the world.  Was it always like this?  I have to say I think not but it's like this now.

To me it's like there is a parasite or a plague of parasites in this country and they are coming after every last thing they can get.  Right now their focus is on education but what's next paying to go to a formerly public park?  It could happen.

Parasites don't realize that eventually they kill their host.  They just don't get that fact and the 1% is no different.  No different at all. 

What I see

So once I became a parent in a school for children who are different I began to see similarities in the children I met at that school to children I knew from other places.

Kids who learn differently,  have parents who have done the homework,  have the money for the school, have sought out and found a diagnosis for their children completely form the student body of my daughter's school.

These parents have put in all the effort to get their child into a school that can teach them the way they need to be taught in order to learn.  That is the school my daughter attends.  It's chock full of caring parents who have turned every stone over that they could in order to help their child.  In most cases they are very open about their children's diagnosis and the treatments that are working for those children.

I started seeing some common threads. 

I'm not a pediatric neuropsychologist but I can tell the glaringly obvious signs that a child is a different kind of learner.

Asperger's, for example, occurs in 1 in 110 children according to the Center for Disease Control website. 

I disagree with that statistic.  I would personally put it in as 1 in 20 children,  possibly higher.  At least if I go by what I'm seeing in my children's classrooms.

I'm a person who is not that great at social cues myself so I recognize it when I see the way children in the schools act.

Not surprisingly some of the smartest (think book smart) kids are the ones who find things like playing by the rules of school the most difficult. 

This sort of thing is not a problem at my daughter's school which is set up to take on the challenge of patiently teaching children the way to act/not act in a social setting. 

These kids have been diagnosed for the most part.  They are in a sense out of the woods because they and their parents and teachers know that they are looking at a child with differences. They have the label and it's a road map to helping the weakness and strengthening the strengths.

In the Catholic school there is just not this much awareness.

It pains me to say this but just the other day while I was a lunchroom helper at the Catholic school I saw a small child being made fun of by the workers (I'm hoping the small child was out of earshot). 

Adult who didn't understand that people are different, they see things differently and that this is not such an uncommon occurrence.  Adults who didn't understand that some children are going to need to be told,  to be taught, what is appropriate and what isn't.

A small child in a school setting who isn't all that socially savvy is going to mess up. 

I'm pained by the lack of awareness. 

I'm pained by the shame I can see the children who are misunderstood getting heaped on them.

It's not just dyslexia (although that is my personal focus).  It's all the differences. 

I talked to a mother last night whose child is getting ready to graduate from high school in one of the local suburban districts.  Almost the whole time this child has been in school he has had an IEP for ADHD. 

The saddest thing she said to me was that his whole school experience not one person, teacher, tutor or otherwise has ever, "gotten him". 

To me that meant no one has: understood him, accepted him for who he is,  acknowledged his strengths, found the time to talk to him in a way where he felt accepted and intelligent.  

This is very sad and it's happening to way too many children and young people.

I'm not a teacher but it looks like I'm going to need to be

So my youngest already has his diagnosis of dyslexia although it was termed "mild" which I disagree with.  Dyslexia is dyslexia and it requires a different teaching methodology.

It was going to happen with a two generation family history and those early speech issues as an indicator.

So now it's time to start to learn to read only of course what is he getting pushed on him all day at school- Whole Language with a little bit of phonics thrown in.

I guess that incidental phonics is for all the parents who are like,

"What, is my kid supposed to memorize every word in the whole English language?"

He's coming home with these "books" and of course he isn't going to be able to learn to read that way. 

Bless his heart, he is trying to memorize, but really it's not going to work.

So our expensive private school doesn't have a kindergarten and this year it doesn't even have a first grade.  Which leaves us with what? 

Mommy. 

Only I'm no teacher. 

My mother was a teacher (she started in 1963) but she doesn't want to and wouldn't be willing to do this job.  Plus she's been retired for a long time and I doubt she remembers much.  She's got an active retiree life.  It's not fair to rely on a grandmother to teach your kid anyway (although plenty of them do it around the country when they realize that their grandchild isn't really learning to read).

My grandmother (her mother) was a teacher. She started sometime in the 1950's after her kids were mostly out of the house.  It was one of her non-picture books that started me on the road to really reading but that's a story for another day.

Nearly all my aunts were teachers but before the feminist movement how many choices did they really have anyway? 

These were smart ladies.  I think teaching was a valid (but tiring) option for a career back at a time when there weren't many other paths.

Thank God for the Internet and the public library.  Don't expect any miracles here,  I'm flying blind. 

Still,  I'm not going to let go of this time in his life by not doing anything at all to help him learn to read.  I'm going to try to figure out how to teach him as best I can using phonics.