Smart Kids Can Do Poorly in School

Every week I speak with parents who call me looking for answers to their sons and daughter's troubles in school. Halfway into these conversations many parents stop and say, "It is amazing how much you seem to understand our situation. It's like you already know us." In many respects, I do already know them. I know them because their situations are not unique. I have heard the same story, with the same emotions and the same symptomatic descriptions repeatedly, week after week, month after month:

She is struggling and can't quite keep up.

It's not that he is failing; he is just not shining anywhere.

I know she can do better. She wants to do better.

I am afraid if we don't do something, we are going to lose her.

He used to enjoy school. Now it all bores him.

I know these children because they are everywhere and they keep coming. The growing industry around labeling and treating children with specific learning disabilities should be everyone's concern. It is difficult to know just how many children are labeled as having a learning disability, but estimates are that one in every five children is referred to educational testing at some time in his or her pre-K-12th-grade career.

There is much emotion and confusion around the topic of learning disabilities today. You've felt it, haven't you? Since you were first confronted with the idea that your child was not keeping up, you have felt like you are on a rollercoaster ride. Between the conversations with family members who each offer different advice and the special meetings at the school with teachers (who despite their best good intentions, don't seem to understand what you are going through) you have felt the weariness of not knowing what is going on and the apprehension about figuring it all out.

On the school's recommendation, you've been to the doctor, although on your way there you wondered if it was necessary. You considered a psychologist, and all the while questioned whether or not anything was really wrong with your child.

The one thing that all parents share in common with this experience is that once they realize things are not quite right, it is extremely difficult to find the answers -- the answers that are as unique as your child. And to make matters worse, while you are looking for answers, time keeps marching on. School doesn't stop and wait while you try to figure it all out. Your child doesn't stop and wait. Your boss doesn't call you in to the office and say, "Kerry, I know you are having trouble figuring out what is going on with your daughter, why don't you take a few day paid leave to sort through this."

'Even if your boss did say that, this is not a problem that can be resolved in a short time.

The reality is that many smart kids do poorly in school.

In February 2001, The New York Times published a memorable article about a scientific study by a group of psychologists. The group claimed to have done an "exhaustive" review of Winnie-the-Pooh literature and then catalogued and diagnosed a range of clinical, personality, and psychological disorders among the major characters in the Winnie-the-Pooh books. Their study, called the Pathology in the Hundred Acre Wood: A Neurodevelopmental Perspective on A. A. Milne, was one in which the authors describe the various deficiencies of each character. Pooh, for example, has impulsivity issues signaling ADHD, which is compounded by his addiction to honey. For him, they prescribe Ritalin and adherence to the Zone diet. Piglet, they contend, is beset by generalized anxiety disorder and may benefit from a low dose of paroxetine. Owl, though bright, is dyslexic; no drugs are able to help him. Christopher Robin spends too much time playing "make-believe," perhaps signaling some future malfunction, and the scientists noted the total lack of adult supervision in the Hundred Acre Wood.

The study was a great joke, highlighting our increasing tendency to label each other and focus on weaknesses rather than strengths. An amazing number of people didn't get it. They complained research "shouldn't be used for stuff like this." Other people got it but didn't think it was funny.

"These things are much too serious to be joked about," they said. The joke is in the madness of it all. We have created in real life a storybook world that is as crazy as the study done on the Hundred Acre Wood. Most of the labels we ascribe to children overlook what is right about children. We prefer to concentrate on labeling weaknesses. Teachers and parents must begin to change the focus from labeling weakness to proclaiming strengths.

I'm not suggesting that the students who are labeled LD do not struggle -- they clearly do, and suffer as a result. And I am all for helping kids catch up and learn what they need to know to get ahead in life, but the way in which we do that -- with a sole focus on the weakness of the students -- is only half the equation. If we are going to remediate weaknesses, we must have an equal commitment to building strengths. We don't help children succeed when we place all the blame for the learning problems on them. We assume that the struggle in school is entirely the student's fault when there are many factors that can contribute to a child having difficulty in school:

• If an adolescent is left home alone most afternoons, with no one to talk to her or help her solve problems or learn how to interact, the child may become delayed in social or intellectual development.

• If teachers have a learning style that is at odds with the child's style (such as a highly visually oriented adult and an energetic child who learns by doing, not by seeing), the mismatch may appear to be a learning disability in the child.

• If a child is fed a constant diet of junk food and gets little exercise, he may be unable to concentrate in school. If early instruction in reading and math was poor, a student who cannot catch up may become so frustrated that he gives up.

People will have to learn to rely on different types of evidence that measure individual achievement and satisfaction. This is going to require a major paradigm shift, but just like every other important shift in outdated, conventional thinking, the process begins with the individual. We can make things better for future generations, and for our own futures, if we begin instilling a positive, strengths-based focus in the youth of America.

Follow Jenifer Fox on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jeniferfox

Comments

[dloan]

I have been a teacher/ educational consultant/ school administrator at Denver Academy since 1978 and spend much of my day reading profiles and consulting families. I agree with much that you have to say but probably go a bit further in what I see as some to the issues with education today. There is a minority of people( approximately 30%) in this country that can thrive in a traditional learning environment. With this in mind it is no surprise that only 27% of the people in this country have a college degree or higher.The educational system uses limited approaches to teaching and assessing students knowledge. Classrooms across the country are not engaging enough. there are not many jobs out there that require their employees to sit and listen for four to five hours a day. One of the most important issues for students in classrooms is " How do I come across to my peers?" Classrooms today have too many students with too wide of abilities for a teacher to do their job effectively. Students don't feel safe intellectually, sometimes physically, emotionally and or socially. Denver Academy has a totally different approach which includes diagnostic assessments, teaching and assessing students with different learning styles and creating classroom where students feel safe physically, intellectu­ally,socia­lly and emotionally. Over 90% of our students going on to college and higher academic programs. We want students to be recognized for what they bring to the classroom instead of what they don't bring.

[Jenifer Fox - Huffpost Blogger]

Denver Academy is a fine school, a cousin of mine attended there back in the 1980's. Like you, I believe the work[lace is as guilty as schools are at not accommodating learning styles. Managers around the country would do well to learn lessons from schools who deal with learning differences. Thanks for your thoughtful comments.

[Teacherparent]

I am wondering what I can do over the summer to help my child rebuild the confidence he lost during school. He is in seventh grade.

[Jenifer Fox - Huffpost Blogger]

Let him have plenty of time to play and use his imagination.

[mredder4]

I hesistate to ask, but what was Tigger's diagnosis?

[Jenifer Fox - Huffpost Blogger]

He was a good and loyal friend. I suppose someone can find something grossly wrong with that.

[nicksiewert]

Great post. As you point out, one of the reasons there is so much emotion attached to this issue is that time is such a weighted factor. Parents can watch their children "falling behind" and realize that the chances of them catching up fade with every day. There is really so little time to educate children that each moment seems precious. So time becomes the enemy, just as it is for the history teacher desperate to "reach the Civil War before Christmas." Hopefully we can find some creative ways to rethink the pacing of education and even individualize it for different learners. Each learners developmental spectrum is different so the timing should be too.

[Jenifer Fox - Huffpost Blogger]

If we can make it to walk on the moon, and invent iPods the size of your thumb, you'd think we could get this right. Maybe nobody sees it as a profit source worthy of longterm attention.

[rjmiller]

Parents just want the easy way out, the easy solution that removes any blame from them. No one wants to be told their kid isn't keeping up because the parents aren't putting in the effort to help and encourage them, they'd much rather hear it's an LD that is easily solved by pills.

Or maybe the kid is just lazy and doesn't pay attention because he doesn't care enough. I know that was the case with me, but I was put on Adderal anyway. It didn't help in high school, but it was great for the all nighters in college.

[Jenifer Fox - Huffpost Blogger]

What causes laziness do you think? Bad diet, lack of interest? I wonder about the long term effects of medication on kids.

[cinemaven]

I have a very typical-learning friendly son.. he was born in the beginning of March, he has no problem learning by rote and is calm, quiet and agreeable. He was identified gifted and given plenty of teacher time on special projects that instilled confidence and moved him even further ahead. He's now 22, out of college and pursuing a career as a standup comedian.

My other son is extremely left handed, born in Sept., very active, energetic, chatty and a visual learner. He has less impulse control than his brother and since he started school, teachers have tried to identify him as ADHD or LD (although he's actually brighter intellectually than his brother). His left handedness was a huge problem when the class began cursive writing and his teacher insisted that he was being lazy and slow (even though I, as a leftie, explained that his writing speed had diminished considerably and he was getting hand cramps). He was resourced out for writing classes.

Today, my youngest is almost 17 and has finally started to do well in school after many years of being a straight C student. Now that he has more control over course selection, he is engaged.. he's also allowed to use a laptop to counteract his writing problems. Sometimes parents have to accept C's and understand that it's the system, not the child :)

[Jenifer Fox - Huffpost Blogger]

I am very interested in left handedness. It was one of the first educational myths we busted through. I don't know anyone who ever died because they got a C in high school. Grades are rarely ever measures of long term retention and learning.

[cinemaven]

As far as I know, dealing with handedness issues still isn't dealt with in a teaching program but it's a barrier issue to about 50% of lefties. About 1/2 of kids who are left handed adapt really well except during the few years they are involved with cursive writing. Cursive is pushing a pencil uphill for lefties and the teaching expectation is that kids will increase in speed since that's what happens for about 95% of kids. The 5% who are utterly left behind due to both speed and hand pains and fatigue begin to doubt their intelligence and skill sets.

For the most part, teachers are wonderful once this is explained but many right handed parents of lefties just don't know about the issues. My son had one teacher who wanted to have him practice cursive two hours a night... my son loved writing (both printing and keyboarding) and was an enthusiastic story teller so I knew that two hours of forced labor practicing letters would squash him. I declined and he received D's that year (grade 5).

It was difficult helping him to understand that grades are for teachers and for us, it was effort and knowledge. Seeing him today, bright and heading into his last year of highschool with B's and A's is gratifying. Only one high school teacher has given him problems for using the laptop or printing instead of cursive.

[Jim Clark 1]

Ms. Fox, each time I read one of your posts I find myself with a combination of exhilarating inspiration and painful frustration. Inspiration due to the unimpeachable logic of your arguments... and a resultant hope that the education "system" and parents everywhere will adopt easily what you so articulately, passionately, and accurately argue. Frustration because I know that you and your strengths movement face such an uphill battle.

We accept as a society pieces of your perspective -- that we each are unique; that people don't try hard at things for very long that they don't enjoy; that we are more likely to build confidence if we concentrate on things we are good at; that being good at some things makes us more willing to try being good at new things -- so why cannot the educational system and our society accept your overall premise. Is it because it would indeed require, as you say "a major paradigm shift"?

It seems that society would rather condemn our children to repeat the unhappiness and boredom too many of us associate with our own personal educational histories than it would to embrace change. We want change in theory, as long as it doesn't overturn the apple cart of standard operating procedure, however ineffectual. Your argument is sound. Your movement deserves to succeed. The question now becomes one of movement-building strategy: how to give the right apple to the teacher... at the same time as we seek to overturn the apple cart.

[Jenifer Fox - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks for your thoughtful and smart remarks, Jim. You are a good thinker.

[Mark Augustine]

I know that my teachers always said I was not living up to my potential. Reading this I realize it was quite the opposite. It was my school that wasn't living up to my potential. AA Milne - now there's someone who would get me. Sadly he was not my teacher. But I did finally find a teacher who helped me find my way into what I do today - if that experience could be implemented on systematic level we would really have something.

[Jenifer Fox - Huffpost Blogger]

When the Strengths Movement and the curriculum associated with it are also implemented in a systemic way, the learning disability paradigm will fade into the background.

[LeftRight]

I had issues in school, starting in the third grade, with a major temper problem. I was never medicated for it, I worked my own way through it (with a couple times of going to a shrink who did NOTHING for me!!!) and I'm a better person for it.

I barely graduated high school (1.97 GPA, a semester late) but now that I've learned that I CAN enjoy learning, I've done much better at everything since then!

[Jenifer Fox - Huffpost Blogger]

I barely graduated high school either. I ended up in graduate school at Harvard. Go figure.

[Andrea Salas]

What about college students? I graduated high school with a very high GPA but I can't keep up with the college work. Can learning disabilities develop later, such as in the college years?

[Jenifer Fox - Huffpost Blogger]

I know a lot of people who do not do well in college who were excellent high school students. I think my answer to this is more about discovering the root of the problem. Is it you or the school as Mark Augustine points out in a column above. You can discover both how you learn and what your true passion is and that may be a helpful thing. Just because you don't learn it in school doesn't mean you can't DO it in real life.

[RadicalRepublican]

MS. Fox,

Just last week Holly Robbins wrote an article illustrating very similar concerns. I've long held that an active child does not necessarily have a disorder. We don't have a problem with children who don’t do well in sports or music but we call a child who is interested more in what's on the other side of the window than in what the teacher has to say learning disabled. That's thinking through a very narrow field of view. I went to school with a guy who consistently failed classes and was in remedial education. All he did was draw cars and engines. He grew up to be a good mechanic and still works in the field.

By the way Eeyore should be under 24 hour surveillance for his own protection. I'm worried that he might try to hurt himself.

Respectfully,
RR


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/holly-robinson/teachers-dont-like-boys-m_b_215963.html

[Jenifer Fox - Huffpost Blogger]

Hi RR,

I read that article, thanks. The problem with Eeyore is that his lack of self esteem brings everyone down. That is what happens when people are pressed down--they tend to try and take everyone with them.

[been2there]

Gifted children do have a pacing problem-- they are also prone to learning disability. While ADD is overdiagnosed and used as a catch-all, every one of my children's teachers said, "I never believed in ADD until I had your child." I eventually home-schooled; one child began college at 16, one at 14. One has finished a BA, one is just now ready to go back. Neither ever used drugs, alcohol, or other self-destructive coping mechanisms. I have been on both sides of the teacher's desk, and even with parents who are working with teachers, there is only so much that can be done; on the other hand, the school district tried very hard to pretend that there was nothing wrong.

[Jenifer Fox - Huffpost Blogger]

I once ran a Talented and Gifted program in a middle school in Colorado. I think the thing with these kids is more about need for engagement than pace. Unfortunately teachers often think that means piling on more work...kind of a "That'll slow them down" mentality.

[Teacherparent]

It's so nice to have an educator who tries to connect with the parent perspective. Having children who are different certainly does not make them disabled. I have refused to give my children ADD medicine even though his teachers have suggested it. I knew a woman who actually wanted to give her kid Ritalin so she could do better on standardized tests. I think that is a form of child abuse.

Please keep writing here. You are an inspiration in a system that needs all the positive it can get.

[Jenifer Fox - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you for your comment. I think many parents feel confused by schools and don't know how to ask for what they need because they are uncertain as to what is necessary and what isn't. My role is to help navigate that for both teacher and parents.

[billyfromphilly]

I'll tell you my experience. I always had okay grades (~3.3 GPA), but I was already bored to death. I always thought that the pace was too slow and the work was very underwhelming. The classes that I excelled in were the hardest and most fast paced. The rest of the time, I swore I had ADD.

[Jenifer Fox - Huffpost Blogger]

Billy,

You always did well, though, right? I wrote a previous blog on school boredom. You can check it out under my blog site.