Teacher’s Purpose is to Have Students Go to School to Succeed, Not Fail!
First Day of School, South Barrington, IL
Now that children are returning to school, I think back to the stress of starting the new year for our family. Everyone is excited, but the teachers are not always familiar with their new students. They may have received notes from the prior year’s teacher, but not in our case. We moved around the country when the boys were little. Our boys had a different school (and the teacher) almost every year from 3 years old pre-school until sixth grade. These were critical years to learn to read. But teachers want their students to flourish and support those who work hard to achieve success. It wasn’t until our oldest son was in fourth grade that he started failing at school. Teachers thought he was lazy, but he was actually dyslexic and gifted too.
The hypocritic oath of "do no harm" should be something that teachers pledge for their students. It is easy for a teacher who teaches to hard-working students whose learning style matches how they teach. But when the student doesn't learn, only the child suffers. A competent veteran teacher of 30 years did not notice the signs of dyslexia. She said our son was lazy or maybe depressed since we just moved to the big city of Chicago from Nebraska. Indeed, they thought, our boys were lagging because of poor teaching back in the small-town USA. Our son may have been a straight-A gifted student back there, but the big city had better teaching methods. Or so they thought.
As a “just fix it” parent, I promptly took him to a psychologist, where they diagnosed him with depression. Looking back, of course, he would be depressed since he was failing at school. In prior years he was the teacher's pet. He was always willing to help, especially if technology was required. He would fix the projector, audio, or any issue a teacher needed assistance doing. He stayed after class to clean the chalkboard or straighten up the classroom. His pleasant smile was now crushed by consistent failure at the school.
Depression caused by lack of awareness of Dyslexia
At this same time, our youngest son was in first grade. He was having a problem reading. They called me into a teacher's conference recommending he participates in "Reading Recovery." The teacher recognized he was very smart, so she assured me he would be in the program only for a short time. It was most likely because of his "lack of education" in the schools in Nebraska. Or, they thought that I was not modeling good reading behavior at home. He just needed a little extra help, they said. But by the end of the year, the program didn't work, and he still couldn't read.
By this time, I was up to my eyeballs in research on the internet. I learned about my rights as a parent to request an evaluation. The school balked about doing this when they were so busy at the end of the year, but I was determined. They complied with the assessment but refused services because he was in the "range" of an average student. Who would have guessed two years behind is “normal” even for a gifted student? It was not over.
We went to an outside psychologist for an unbiased evaluation. The results concluded our oldest son had dyslexia and dysgraphia, problems with reading and writing. Based on these results, our youngest son, we found, had similar symptoms of dyslexia. Their recommended solution…homeschooling. She explained that they would not be successful in the typical public school forum. Teachers who didn't have a background in learning differences would not know how to teach someone with extreme abilities for both gifted skills and dyslexic challenges.
Homeschooling was not an option, but neither was doing nothing. We searched for another school for all three children. Interviews at gifted schools, dyslexic-specific schools, and private schools came into play. Our goal answered the following question, “are your teachers' dyslexia aware and trained?” Although our middle son does not have these challenges, having a school aware of the array of learning differences would make a difference for all of them.
In 2001, the controversial book came out, Coloring Outside the Lines by Roger Schank. “He believes that every day of the school year, our children are being failed by an academic system that does nothing to stir a lifelong passion for learning." So what happened to the teachers' purpose of successful learning? Even worse, the “do no harm” philosophy for our students. Instead of training teachers on Critical Race Theory, how about Dyslexia Awareness? For African American and Latino students, their dyslexia challenges are primarily undiagnosed. If we can teach everyone to read, their likely hood of success will follow. This awareness alone would have a win-win for both teacher and student. It would fulfill the teacher’s purpose for students to go to school to succeed, not fail.
Authors of The Marshmallow Mystery, Can You Find, Did You Know Series
That is why our book, The Marshmallow Mystery, was written in the Dyslexic Font. We want to bring dyslexia awareness to teachers and parents supporting reading success. My story of our children’s struggles will continue for future generations unless we bring awareness to everyone. Teacher’s jobs are hard, but the failure of our children shouldn’t be an option.
