Monday, April 28, 2003
Learning Disabilities
After six weeks or so of school, homework marathon sessions and plenty of wailing and knashing of teeth, it is apparent to me that Spring's kids put the “fun” in “dysfunctional” when it comes to education. Spring has held countless parent/teacher conferences (even after numerous reminders they still didn't get it that she worked at night, which didn't help matters at all) attempting to resolve the situation but it finally came to a head. In short, they have a major learning disability that the local elementary school is ill prepared to deal with.
A few weeks ago Spring had them tested at Sylvan since she was concerned over their academic standings at school. The results were startling (at least to me, I think Spring expected as much): they were too smart.
Yup. Their disability is being too smart for the educational system to deal with.
The Younger, in 2nd grade, was at a 5th grade reading level (combination of current vocabulary use, reading skill and reading comprehension). The Older, in 3rd grade, scored at an incredible 11th grade reading level! No wonder they were having so many problems at school—the work was way below their level. And it certainly didn't help that they switched shools only two months before summer vacation to a state heavy with standardized tests from a state with year-round schooling.
It's a real mess.
So it was last week that Spring decided the best course of action was to remove the boys from school and home school them. No more hours of fruitless homework, no more wailing and knashing of teeth, and no more dealing with overworked and underfunded teachers (I'm being kind; Spring has less of an opinion on their former teachers).
Today was the first day of home schooling for the boys. I think it went well, but we shall see how it works out in the longer term.
