Many of us have seen the bumper stickers: “Proud Parents of an Honor Roll Student,” “I Raised An Honor Roll Student” and I’ve even seen a bumper sticker making fun of parents for displaying the pride they have in their high achieving children, which says, “My Kid Beat Up Your Honor Roll Student.” My opinion, it’s great to be proud of your child who works hard for the A’s that they achieve but it’s also fine to be proud of your child who has worked hard for the C’s on their grade cards. We've cheered in my house for C's.
See, sometimes my kids can give it their all and still only receive C’s and that works for me, but sometimes those C’s could be turned into A’s with a few tools that are lacking. Granted, they’re already starting behind because they both have specific learning disabilities, which are both grossly misunderstood, at least in many of the schools we’ve been in, one child with dyslexia, dysgraphia and the last time he was evaluated, executive function came up and the other dyscalculia. We do work hard with school staff and administrators while writing their IEP’s to help, “level the playing field” which is supposed to look like this: _____________________________________ but let’s be honest, a lot of times looks like this: _____/\___/\_/\_/\____/\___/\__________/\____ Whose fault is the not so level playing field anyway? My opinion, the decision makers who choose to ignore or refuse to train administrators and staff on these specific learning disabilities. It just blows my mind when I meet with parents and hear some of the things they’re being told by their schools, like, “let’s wait and see,” I’m sure that works for some things, but I don’t see a student’s reading or writing improving by using that philosophy but like I’ve said before, I’m no expert, just a mom. Another mind boggler, retaining a student who is behind in reading. What mastermind thought that was a solution? Make them repeat the same year over again without making any adjustments? Is that because the first time was so successful, let’s try it again?
Hopping off my soapbox for now but I would like to congratulate parents in Virginia who have been pushing for legislation to help their dyslexic students in public schools and just this week legislation was signed into law by Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. We're working on that here in North Carolina having our first bill introduced last year, it wasn’t successful, but sometimes it takes time to change minds, beliefs and educate and right now bathroom usage is an important issue for our North Carolina Government, not teacher salaries or whether you can read the placard on the door. Hmm…
See, sometimes my kids can give it their all and still only receive C’s and that works for me, but sometimes those C’s could be turned into A’s with a few tools that are lacking. Granted, they’re already starting behind because they both have specific learning disabilities, which are both grossly misunderstood, at least in many of the schools we’ve been in, one child with dyslexia, dysgraphia and the last time he was evaluated, executive function came up and the other dyscalculia. We do work hard with school staff and administrators while writing their IEP’s to help, “level the playing field” which is supposed to look like this: _____________________________________ but let’s be honest, a lot of times looks like this: _____/\___/\_/\_/\____/\___/\__________/\____ Whose fault is the not so level playing field anyway? My opinion, the decision makers who choose to ignore or refuse to train administrators and staff on these specific learning disabilities. It just blows my mind when I meet with parents and hear some of the things they’re being told by their schools, like, “let’s wait and see,” I’m sure that works for some things, but I don’t see a student’s reading or writing improving by using that philosophy but like I’ve said before, I’m no expert, just a mom. Another mind boggler, retaining a student who is behind in reading. What mastermind thought that was a solution? Make them repeat the same year over again without making any adjustments? Is that because the first time was so successful, let’s try it again?
Hopping off my soapbox for now but I would like to congratulate parents in Virginia who have been pushing for legislation to help their dyslexic students in public schools and just this week legislation was signed into law by Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. We're working on that here in North Carolina having our first bill introduced last year, it wasn’t successful, but sometimes it takes time to change minds, beliefs and educate and right now bathroom usage is an important issue for our North Carolina Government, not teacher salaries or whether you can read the placard on the door. Hmm…