Both of these readings made me think about my own personal experience in school. From elementary school to about my junior year of high school I was kept out of history lessons and/ or was not allowed to take history classes, because I needed extra help in reading. Because of this I always felt different and not good enough. And now I'm struggling with the history classes I need to take in order to graduate. I was never formally diagnosed with a learning disability even though I strongly believe that I do have a learning disability. I can connect to "An Indian Father's Plea" because I wish that my school had cared enough to have these meetings with my parents to share their concerns if they even had them. I understand that it was the school who made the decision to pull me from class and put me in a different room for extra help but I feel like there are so many better options they could have done to help me, have me miss the english lessons something that was in a way related to my struggles. I also feel that if the school were to reach out to my parents about their concerns about my struggles, I think my parents would have been very defensive and think that the school was trying to say there was something wrong with me. But in fact that's not what they are saying but because most parents aren't properly educated about learning disability and the true meaning of having a learning disability along with the fact that there is a stigma around those with learning disability. In "An Indians Fathers Plea" Wind-Wolf's parents obviously felt that he didn't belong there and didn't need it so they fought for him so he wouldn't be separated/"over helped". I agree and disagree with his parents, yes of course Wind- Wolf should not be separated from his classmates, it will only make it worse for him. They will just make fun of him even more than that already are. But because he grow-up learning things differently than the rest of the class he may actually be struggling with the way the school system makes teachers teach. The teacher obviously sees that he is struggling, and may need extra help but didn't know how to give him the help he needed or she didn't have the resources to help him herself. This just proves that the school system is very disorganized, they have schools full of students who all have their own struggles and challenges, but they don't know how to properly insure each student is succeeding and getting the proper help they need.
It's crazy how the school systems are so quick to make such a hasty decision when it comes to supports needed for a student to succeed. It's unbelievable that they're is not a better system in place for supports to be made available to struggling students.
ReplyDeleteI also find it heartbreaking how school systems are quick to misplace a student based on their own learned behaviors that fall within their power and privilege. Rather than having further evaluations for the children to meet their specific needs, they are brushed to the side to whatever is convenient for the school. Completely unfair.
ReplyDeleteIt's really unfair of the school to have excluded you solely because of your learning disability. Also very frustrating that some school systems don't utilize the tools and procedures to assist the students that need the extra help to succeed.
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