Who decides what slow learning is in this country? Every student deserves a free public education with teachers who understand their educational needs. Not only are corporate reformers slamming slow learners, they’re pushing children to grow up faster than is humanely possible. All our children are expected to be hyperlearners!
Slooooowly!
There is nothing wrong with learning slowly!
Last week, Scott Brister who is the chairman of a Texas Commission on Public School Finance, was discussing how to spend funding allocated to special education in that state. He questioned whether they should spend money on the brightest kids or the slowest learners. Of course, it sounded like he didn’t think money should be spent on the slower learners.
He claims his words were taken out of context, but such comparisons have always been behind denying students special education services.
Consider the 1972 case Mills v. Bd. of Education. Mills arose when seven children with disabilities were denied schooling. Washington DC school administrators claimed they didn’t have enough money. The court ruled that the school district would have to spread the money they did have across the district to serve all children.
Brister’s comments are especially troubling because Texas education officials appear to be going out of their way to deny students with disabilities services.
For years they placed a cap on students with disabilities, refusing them the educational assistance they were entitled to. They continued to break the law with little no oversight from the U.S. Department of Education.
What if you learn slowly? Learning slowly might not be a bad thing. Reflecting on the world around you could mean you are thinking seriously. Einstein was said to be this kind of thinker.
If a student learns slowly due to a disability, they still deserve the best schooling.
HYPERLEARNING!!!!!!
Slow learning is also troubling in today’s hyperlearning atmosphere.
Last week at a Congressional hearing, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos promoted dual enrollment for high school students—earning college credit in high school. She even suggested pushing job preparation down to the middle school level—like 12 year olds should be ready to commit to a vocation.
Many policymakers like hyperlearning. They think it makes America look strong and ready for the 21st Century Global Economy. What do they want—ten year old children running companies? They also make it sound like the world is going to collapse if they don’t make children learn faster than ever before!
We’ve become a nation that freaks out if a first grader isn’t reading fluently, when other countries like Finland don’t start formal reading instruction until third grade. In America, kindergarten is the new first grade. Some say it’s the new second grade!
So if a child is developing normally, will they still be called slow in today’s superlearning environment?
Parents who rely on IDEA, believing it will protect their slower-learning child, need to pay close attention to their school board’s discussion on funding. Nothing should be taken for granted.
Be especially careful that children with disabilities aren’t put on computers in the classroom where they will get the bulk of their instruction.
If Texas can get away with ignoring IDEA for so long, why should we expect other states to follow the law? And the term slow learner should give us pause.
Children who work slower may need additional help, or they may be moving along at the speed that is most appropriate for their developmental age.
If they are in special education, they might need more individualized attention. Whatever their needs, what they need should be determined by parents and teachers close to the child, not some far removed board with people who have ulterior motives and a business agenda.
“What if you learn slowly? Learning slowly might not be a bad thing. Reflecting on the world around you could mean you are thinking seriously. Einstein was said to be this kind of thinker.”
Indeed – see
http://sloweducation.co.uk/
Thanks, Roger. Much appreciated.
Texas has now decided that grades 6 and 7 special education students can only have a 4 function calculator on the STAAR math test. How is that individualized? A month away from the test they take away their support. It seems they do not have one clue about the needs of special education kids. If they were not struggling with basics they would have been successful in elementary. So now lets stimie them further by keeping them bogged down with basics while the rest of the new material goes unlearned.
Texas is a mess when it comes to special education and education in general.
https://www.texastribune.org/2018/02/01/federal-assessment-cap-texas/
I work as an Education Assistant supporting students with special needs, and most of the children who people refer to as slow learners- a term I do not like, since no one could provide the standard for regular learners- can progress with individual help, and direct instructions. Many a time I have been told that students cannot cope at the grade level, and I sit with them give detailed explanation, and prompt them for a bit, and after several iterations, they would say “I get it now”. It is not that they cannot get it, but they take more time, and need what I heard Dr. Daniel Willingham refer to as hard teaching, but the current teaching regime is grab and go, much to such children’s disadvantage.
Sometimes children are slow because things do not immediately make sense to them, and nothing is wrong with that. The late great mathematician Lawrence Schwartz said he could not proceed with anything unless he understood it. I started off as a good math student when I was at school, and then I faltered, and I later picked up math again after studying accounting, and decided to try and understand what my problem with math was. I realized that in learning math, sometimes things may seem strange, but you must not ponder on it, but do it and you will eventually learn to do it, and you will eventually understand it. I remember observing the math brains at school, and wondering why I could not maintain membership of that exclusive club, but I never relegated myself to not being a math person or to thinking that I would never master the more abstract aspects of the subject. Now, I realize that I missed steps because of the way math is taught. The instructors always assume that you know certain things, which you may know, but your knowledge is not immediately transferred to the current situation, and you become lost. The concept of assuming knowledge of things can happen in any instructional situation, and I believe that this is what happens when children are deemed to be slow.
I am an implant to North America (Canada), and I can sometimes see why there are so many students with disabilities; maybe it could be the result of instructional disabilities. Teachers never give a thought to the fact that their subjects are novice learners, and it is not unusual if they may not understand what is taught on the first pass. They may need several representations of a topic before it is understood, and that is not unusual. The problem is that they are taught something very superficially, and then they are given assignments which require a greater depth of knowledge, so it is not unusual when some students are unable to cope. A simple way to help students, is to provide detailed notes, but this is never done. I have seen material assigned that was only taught through innuendo. This was okay with me, but not for the students who are novices, and who possess no background knowledge or proper reading skills to make inferences.
Students who are slow learners, are not given the intense interventions that they need. When you place children with cognitive issues in a general education classroom, you do not remove their problems, but you only make them more visible.
Thank you, Marcia. This is very well said. I agree with it all except for your point about teachers.
I think teachers are pulled in many directions due to the reforms they are made to follow. Good teachers try to address individual learning needs. When I taught as a resource teacher in both middle and high school, most teachers were always asking what they could do to assist students especially with note taking.
We would discreetly provide a buddy to that student to share notes they’d take in class.
But you’re right to point out the difficulties involving Inclusion, especially when class sizes are large. Teachers lose sight of student needs or they have no time to adequately help students.
Thank you!
Hi Nancy,
I was remiss in my explanation, and I should have highlighted the fact that teachers do not have much input in what is taught, and how special education is handled is not a decision that teachers make, Everything is handed to them along with a curriculum that is a mile wide, and they must show that they are teaching everything on the curriculum, so there is not much time to spend with anyone who cannot “pick up” quickly. The problem is like an octopus:; it has many tentacles.
Yes! We are completely shaking hands! Thanks for such good perception and taking the time to comment.
“In America, kindergarten is the new first grade. Some say it’s the new second grade!” This is the absolute truth. At the time when it should be more and more possible to group children in a way other than in age, we are obsessed with how our kid does compared to another. Mark Twain was right. Americans will compete about anything (refer to Jumping Frog of Calavarus County). We are all about our kids getting there first. This is so much foolishness. I have noticed that children ultimately catch up with each other.
I agree with you on the eventual catching up. I am an education assistant, and I have observed that immaturity can contribute to slow learning, but then we do not know what fast learning is like or ideal learning. I take time to learn things, but I also remember them longer, and I can always explain what I have learned to other people which surprises fast learners-people who gobble without digesting. I think that people who teach must consider the development of the students that they teach. They are novices, and the teachers are experienced, but they never consider the naivete of the learner, and how it affects their ability to learn. This is why scaffolding is important, but it is forgotten. You support children until they can stand on their own. Some need the scaffold in place longer than others.
I agree with both of you. Paying attention to a child’s development is so important, and children all move along the road differently. Thank you.