One member of our community has written:
I get concerned at perceptions of students
with LD as trying to put
one over on the system and at assumptions
that reasonable accommodations
will somehow cripple them for "real life."
In fact, people with LD often
end up working harder than others on the things that cause them
difficulties.
I do hope it's clear that I certainly didn't doubt this student's
sincerity and that I hope to do my best for him. I wonder, though,
whether sometimes it might actually *be* crippling for some students
to be dissuaded--that was the issue in the instance I mention--from
trying to produce what they might produce on the page if given
patience and the occasion to do so? This student has been in
to see
his tutor since I posted my original note, and she reports that he
told her "nobody has allowed him to write since he's been in
sixth grade."
It seems safe to assume that most of us are doing our best as educators
in this community, and that when we somehow or sometimes are not
doing the best that can be done, enlightenment form colleagues helps
so much more than chastisement (however well-founded the latter
might sometimes be). When we share our ideas, even our frustrations
and the limits these might betray, we are asking
for help, affirming
our own community, right? We are
allowed to be limited or
baffled or just plain wrong sometimes. The responses I
am reading this morning are most informative, and I thank you all.
Yours,
Suzanne