article about schools and diagnoses
Schuyler
Apparently schools in the UK are being accused of using labels of special needs
to cover up poor teaching:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8000168/Ofsted-schools-exaggerating-special-needs-to-hide-poor-teaching.html
In a system where testing scores is how a school demonstrates value and where
you can get more funding if you have more children who have a diagnosis of one
learning disability or another it seems inevitable that these will be the
outcome. It may help people who are pulling their children out of school to
realise that the motivations of the school and it's beuracrats are different to
the motivations of the child or the parent.
Schuyler
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
to cover up poor teaching:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8000168/Ofsted-schools-exaggerating-special-needs-to-hide-poor-teaching.html
In a system where testing scores is how a school demonstrates value and where
you can get more funding if you have more children who have a diagnosis of one
learning disability or another it seems inevitable that these will be the
outcome. It may help people who are pulling their children out of school to
realise that the motivations of the school and it's beuracrats are different to
the motivations of the child or the parent.
Schuyler
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Jenny Cyphers
***It may help people who are pulling their children out of school to
realise that the motivations of the school and it's beuracrats are different to
the motivations of the child or the parent. ***
In a quote from the article, it's easy to see just how the motivations of a
school are very different than the motivations of a parent. Having higher
expectations and better teaching won't lead to fewer children being identified
as having special needs. I think it has little to do with "good" or "bad"
teaching at all and I truly believe "higher expectations" are often more harmful
to children.
“Higher expectations of all children, and better teaching and learning, would
lead to fewer children being identified as having special educational needs.
I wonder how many parents really believe that? Probably lots! I opted not to
send Chamille to school when she was 5 and ready for kindergarten because I
realized that she was a body with a dollar sign attached to it, nothing more.
What was good for her, based on what I felt was good for her, as her parent,
was dismissed entirely because of low kindergarten enrollment and the need to
have her butt in a seat at that school.
That was a huge turning point for me! While an individual teacher might have
seen some of the cool things about Chamille that I saw, teachers have very
little power to change or do anything different, and they change each year.
They also wanted to start off her kindergarten year without even knowing her, by
putting her in therapy because they thought she was lacking in fine motor skills
since she didn't like to hold a damn pencil. The larger system didn't care at
all, it doesn't care at all. It can't. It cares about numbers and
accountability of funds. Period.
Not one single person could persuade me different.
I'm so glad I recognized that! It didn't take long to find unschooling. About
2 weeks into our homeschooling I stumbled across the old unschooling dot com
boards and it fed my soul and change our lives so drastically and so beautifully
that I would never go back and change anything! I'm glad the school system
showed it's ugly underbelly and I'm glad I saw it for what it was instead of
believing what they told me!
Unschooling is so completely different from what schools do! I'm not diagnosing
my children to fit into anything. They fit into the world because they exist
and we mesh, like play dough, and squeeze and squish and change and fit into our
surrounding and we are impressed upon and change and grow and shift and add to
our beings. My kids don't need to be rigid square pegs trying to painfully fit
into round holes! For that, I'm so eternally grateful!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
realise that the motivations of the school and it's beuracrats are different to
the motivations of the child or the parent. ***
In a quote from the article, it's easy to see just how the motivations of a
school are very different than the motivations of a parent. Having higher
expectations and better teaching won't lead to fewer children being identified
as having special needs. I think it has little to do with "good" or "bad"
teaching at all and I truly believe "higher expectations" are often more harmful
to children.
“Higher expectations of all children, and better teaching and learning, would
lead to fewer children being identified as having special educational needs.
I wonder how many parents really believe that? Probably lots! I opted not to
send Chamille to school when she was 5 and ready for kindergarten because I
realized that she was a body with a dollar sign attached to it, nothing more.
What was good for her, based on what I felt was good for her, as her parent,
was dismissed entirely because of low kindergarten enrollment and the need to
have her butt in a seat at that school.
That was a huge turning point for me! While an individual teacher might have
seen some of the cool things about Chamille that I saw, teachers have very
little power to change or do anything different, and they change each year.
They also wanted to start off her kindergarten year without even knowing her, by
putting her in therapy because they thought she was lacking in fine motor skills
since she didn't like to hold a damn pencil. The larger system didn't care at
all, it doesn't care at all. It can't. It cares about numbers and
accountability of funds. Period.
Not one single person could persuade me different.
I'm so glad I recognized that! It didn't take long to find unschooling. About
2 weeks into our homeschooling I stumbled across the old unschooling dot com
boards and it fed my soul and change our lives so drastically and so beautifully
that I would never go back and change anything! I'm glad the school system
showed it's ugly underbelly and I'm glad I saw it for what it was instead of
believing what they told me!
Unschooling is so completely different from what schools do! I'm not diagnosing
my children to fit into anything. They fit into the world because they exist
and we mesh, like play dough, and squeeze and squish and change and fit into our
surrounding and we are impressed upon and change and grow and shift and add to
our beings. My kids don't need to be rigid square pegs trying to painfully fit
into round holes! For that, I'm so eternally grateful!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]