Sorry for the post title...I guess that I have politics on my mind...

It seems as if my post About that ADHD Serving a Purpose Thing really hit a chord (thanks to those of you who StumbledUpon it and welcome to those of you who are new here!) I was going to respond in the comments to some of the interesting points brought up, but they got long so I decided to start a whole new post.

Doc wrote:

His mother's description matches what my oldest son's k-2 teachers said about him, except they also started demanding I medicate him. I chose to homeschool instead. Today, at 24, my son is a rising executive in a large corporation, and they value his "intense drive", which also served him well in the Navy and college.

This was actually the point of my initial post about ADHD Can Serve a Purpose. That while these traits may not be overly conducive to sitting in school, they might actually have some value in the "real world." I cited a report that said that a higher number of dyslexics go on to own their own business. I also have a feeling that many of these types of kids will wind up with different but perfectly rewarding jobs (I have one friend whose son I am convinced will become one of those white water tour guides or some sort of other outdoorsy active career).

I have often said (only partly joking) that one of our main jobs is to help Jason use his intensity for good rather than evil. And I have found that if I project a skill that he has into his adulthood, I can learn to appreciate it easier now. I have no doubt in my mind that Jason will be perfectly able to advocate and look out for himself as an adult. My challenge is to help him see that advocating for others is a good thing as well. So it is not about eliminating these tendencies by saying they are wrong, it is about tempering them.

I saw a great example of this in an interview I saw with Michael and his coach. Basically the main reason that Michael said he was so good was because he just absolutely hates to loose. And his coach said that this competitiveness in everything (not just swimming) was one of the things that made him think that at 11 year old Michael could go on to become an Olympian. This can be a challenging trait in a young child (speaking from experience!) but again, if it is funneled into a positive outlet, it can be a good thing.

In another interview I saw, Deborah Phelps talks about how finding swimming really saved Michael because it gave him an outlet and a passion. And self-esteem because it sounds as if he was picked on somewhat as a kid. She also talked about how ADHD kids are so creative and passionate that they need this type of outlet on which to focus their energies. So the question is, how do we help kids find their passions, in and out of school?

Sabrina T wrote:

What does this say about our teachers? Still not getting the message, you can not medicate a child into conforming!

To be honest with you, I do not blame the teachers for this. That is too easy an answer. I really think that the biggest problem is that the current school model is not set up to handle teaching multiple learning styles and individual children. I have a lot of sympathy for teachers...if I had to teach 30+ kids each with their own unique learning styles and individual needs and be accountable to the school officials and lawmakers and parents while being worried about whether there was going to be enough money for my next pay raise or for school programs for that matter, I think I would go crazy. It is hard enough for me to meet the needs of two kids and I don't have to worry about state standards or having to cut through bureaucracy to get them what they need (thank goodness).

With the current school model, crowd control is important. You really can't teach a large amount of kids with an overly wiggly child. I have mentioned before that when Jason was younger, he would literally fling himself on the bed, jump up and down and run to the other side of the room and then fling himself again...all while I was reading out loud. He had a lot of energy that needed to come out. Even now at 11, when he is really thinking about something, he paces back and forth. We have both an indoor and outdoor trampoline that gets a lot of use and helps him to center. Accommodating this need is just not practical in a school setting.

I also believe that while there is more of a push for medication of ADHD kids in school, this does not mean that all teachers feel they need to go that route. There are a lot of good teachers out there who are doing great work. And there are some children for whom school is a safe haven and a godsend. I personally loved school and got a lot out of it and had some wonderfully fun and inspiring teachers. The problem comes, however, if you do not fit into that school (often left-brained) model.

Which leads us to SwitchedOnMom's (who I am lucky to know in real life and whose original link to the interview started this whole conversation) comment:

As always, your points about the flexibility of homeschooling for kids who don't quite fit the model are spot on. But as a mom who has had her feet in both the homeschooling and schooling worlds, I can't stop wondering about the thousands upon thousands of kids who for whatever reasons can't homeschool. What can be done to change the school experience so that it works for more kids? I don't have the answers but I have to think that there has to be a way to change the way kids are being educated.

This is the 64 million dollar question. And one which I think I will save for for the next post since this post is getting long and I need to get something accomplished this evening!

I have a headache tonight, so just a couple of quick mentions of some carnivals.

The Carnival of Children's Literature: Beach Edition is up over at Chicken Spaghetti. My recent post about Captain Underpants is included. Lots of great reads about all sorts of kid lit topics. Definitely worth a browse.

And Shez over at Homeschooling Twins has the latest Carnival of Cool Homeschoolers up. I forgot to submit something this time around, but be sure to check out those who, unlike me, actually had their act together!

I hope to have time to respond to some of the comments on my last post soon. Lots of good things to think about...and it definitely seems to have hit on a hot topic!

 

Despite some late nights, we have been enjoying the Olympics quite a bit (although I am really missing our TIVO here at the beach). Especially the swimming...I was on a year-round swim team for years and always loved it. The fact that I could still compete to better my score was perfect for me since I was not the most overly athletic or fastest kid.

I found this article about Michael Phelps fascinating. (h/t The More Child)

Starting with preschool, teachers complained: Michael couldn’t stay quiet at quiet time, Michael wouldn’t sit at circle time, Michael didn’t keep his hands to himself, Michael was giggling and laughing and nudging kids for attention.

As he entered public school, he displayed what his teachers called “immature” behavior. “In kindergarten I was told by his teacher, ‘Michael can’t sit still, Michael can’t be quiet, Michael can’t focus,’ ” recalled Ms. Phelps, who was herself a teacher for 22 years. The family had recently moved, and she felt Michael might be frustrated because the kindergarten curriculum he was getting in the new district was similar to the pre-K curriculum in their old district.

It immediately made me think of my post ADHD Can Serve A Purpose in which I argue that the struggle ADHD kids have in school is not because of any inherent pathology with the child, but rather results from a mismatch of their learning style with the learning environment.

How many parents of kids in school can relate to this:

She will never forget one teacher’s comment: “This woman says to me, ‘Your son will never be able to focus on anything.’ ”

Unfortunately not everyone else gets to prove their teacher so wrong in such grand fashion.

In the meantime, Michael the swimmer had appeared. By 10, he was ranked nationally in his age group. Ms. Phelps watched the boy who couldn’t sit still at school sit for four hours at a meet waiting to swim his five minutes’ worth of races.

<snip>

At age 12 Michael needed an algebra tutor, and was so antsy in school that his mother suggested the teacher sit him at a table in the back. And yet he willingly got up at 6:30 daily for 90-minute morning practices and swam 2 to 3 hours every afternoon.

So basically, once he found his passion he excelled and had no trouble focusing and working hard. Go figure.

The truth is, not everyone is going to find their passion in school. And many kids do not "fit" very well in the school model. But school, for most kids, is the absolute focus of their lives for 12 years. Which means that they spend 12 years focusing on their weaknesses rather than on their strengths. For the lucky some (like Michael Phelps), they find their passion outside of school and excel anyways. But what about the other kids who are not so lucky? Who grow up getting poor grades and don't have as publicly appreciated gifts? Or who don't have the encouragement to explore and find those gifts?

My belief is that all kids have their own gifts and I feel that homeschooling is an excellent way to help kids explore and find their passions. Because I can tailor our approach to how my kids learn, we can focus on their strengths. This does not mean that we ignore their weaknesses, just that they are not the sole focus of our schooling. Just the other day, Jason was talking about what a great reader he is (which he is). And this from a kid who did not start reading until just before 8. Being a "late" reader did not define who he was like it would have had he been in school.

We have also been working on spelling this summer and it is going well. If he was in school, he would be considered a poor speller. Yet, Jason does not see himself as a poor or struggling speller...he just hasn't gotten around to learning how to spell yet...it wasn't all that important to him. Now that we have been working on it, he is getting better rather painlessly (we are using Sequential Spelling which focuses on word patterns rather than straight memorization). He may never be a natural speller, but I am confident that by the time he is 18, he will be very competent. And the best thing is that the "poor speller" label will not be anything he has to overcome. Because it is not part of who he is.

The article ends with these wise words:

More to the point, I think, is the moral of her story, which offers hope for parents of any child with a challenge like A.D.H.D.: Too many adults looked at Ms. Phelps’s boy and saw what he couldn’t do. This week, the world will be tuned to the Beijing Olympics to see what he can do.

Every child should have some adult in his life who sees what he can do (be it a parent, teacher, coach or other mentor). And no child should ever be defined by what they can't do.

 

So in my last post, I expanded on a post by Cindy about how sometimes what could be considered "cheating" can actually be an effective learning tool. Another example of this is the use of audio books.

In my earlier post, About that Boy Thing, I talked a little bit about how we used audio books to help create a "relationship with reading."

I really feel that it has been our use of audio books combined with my valuing his choices in reading that has fostered his love of books. His use of audio books allowed him to satiate his desire for good stories and develop a wonderful relationship with reading, even as a "late" reader.

What I find fascinating is how many people do not consider audio books to be "real reading." The New York Times actually had an article called Your Cheatin' Listenin' Ways which debated the issue in regards to book clubs:

Is it acceptable, they debate within and among themselves, to listen to that month’s book rather than read it? Or is that cheating, like watching the movie instead of reading the book?

In the case of book clubs, I find the idea of “cheating” very amusing. Cheating who? If the purpose of a book club is for consenting adults to enjoy coming together to discuss and share the meaning of the book, what does it matter how it is "read"? Audio books are not Cliff Notes. They are not abridged versions that allow you to skim and not put as much time and energy into understanding or interpreting the text.

But what about for children? Is it cheating to let them listen to books? In my opinion, it most definitely is not. Audio books are merely an additional tool at our disposal. I am most definitely not arguing that learning to read is not important – listening to audio books should not replace the physical act of reading. But audio books can most definitely be used to complement and improve reading. Many of the skills that are developed through listening to audio books are indeed different than those used in reading, but they are no less important and in many ways can be used to increase reading skills.

But don't take my word for it. Here is a post which summarizes the Beyond the Book session from the International Association of School Librarian's Conference (h/t Book Moot):

Why audiobooks? Listening…

• Increases fluency
• Expands listening skills
• Raises reading comprehension
• Enlarges vocabulary
• Boosts pronunciation skills
• Supports struggling readers
• Expands literature experiences for proficient readers
• Improves test scores

Increased fluency & interpretation

• Expert readers model fluent inflection & enunciation within the story’s narrative flow
• Narrator’s voice reveals punctuation, accents, dialects, and cultural vocal patterns
• Listeners hear the story through another reader’s voice, gaining deeper meaning

Audiobooks provide opportunity

• Comprehension level when listening is often two years above reading level, allowing struggling readers, English Language Learners, and those with learning differences to join the community of readers through audiobooks alone or when paired with text.

There is much more to the post so check it out.

What it comes down to again, for me, is that everyone is different so why should we expect everyone to learn in the same manner? Some kids are more auditory (yes, even right-brained learners can be strong auditory learners) so why not let them learn in a way that makes sense to them?

I have to think a lot of the "hang-up" we have about "cheating" is a hold over from school where we were often graded and ranked based on our performance and there were "right" and "wrong" ways to learn. But with homeschooling, there is no right or wrong...you either learn or you don't. And it all counts!

Cindy has a post over on Life Without School called To Copy is to Cheat; Or is It?. In it she explores the concept of "cheating" with respect to kids' learning.

She gives examples of times when her children used techniques to improve their skills that could on first glance be dismissed as "cheating" but in reality were very effective methods of improving specific skills. Whether it is tracing a picture, copying a storyline, reading a book that is "too easy" or using the answers to figure out how a problem works, it can be easy to write off these activities as "not real learning."

She closes with saying:

Plagiarism is for profiteering; cheating is for institutions.  Using someone else's expertise in order to gain better techniques through modeling, copying, or tracing as a form of learning can be just plain smart.

Her post got me thinking about some other areas that our kids might use so-called "cheating" techniques.

The first one that comes to mind is using the pictures or the context of the story to help with reading. For most schools and even for some homeschool families, it seems as if reading is only considered "real" if it consists of sounding the word out using phonics. If a child figures out a word in any other way, it is dismissed.

Yet using the context and pictures can be a very effective way of figuring out words (especially right-brained learners who are more visually oriented). One of the things that I realized as I watched Jason move towards reading was that phonics was just one method of getting unknown words into our sight word memory. No one uses phonics to actually read (try sounding out every single word you read and you will realize this). Since the goal was for him to increase his fluency by increasing the number of words he knew, it seemed to me that it should not matter how the word was learned, as long as it was learned.

I found that while Jason could sound out a word, phonics was not his method of choice. His method of choice (as near as I could figure) was to identify the beginning sound and then use his large vocabulary and the context/pictures to identify the word. I remember one time soon after he started reading, we were reading a book together and came across the word "jackknife". He surprised me and got it with only a second's hesitation. When I asked him how he figured it out, he said that he knew that it started with the "j" sound and he saw a picture of the rabbit holding a knife so he figured that it had to be jackknife. Sounded great to me!

I will admit, that as very much a phonics reader, it sometimes seems to me incredible that he can pick up words in this way. But he does. Since reading "clicked" right before he turned 8, I have never had to give him "lessons" or "work" on reading with him. His reading ability has just steadily gotten better. And no, his method is not completely fool proof and there are times when I correct him in his pronunciation. But phonics is not fool proof either (just ask me how I spent the first three Harry Potter books pronouncing Hermione). 

I am glad that I was able to see past my school conditioning to give value to Jason's natural way of learning words. To see it not as "cheating" but to see it for what it is. A very effective use of his strengths in learning a very important skill.

This post has gotten long, so I will stop here for now. Tomorrow I hope (time permitting!) to discuss another area of reading that is often dismissed as "cheating" or not "really reading"...the use audio books.