Remedial Teaching Or Money Spinning? By Bindu Vas, SAR NEWS
There are two types of birds that are found in the desert. The vultures -- that look for dead and rotting meat. They thrive on such food. The other is the hummingbird -- which looks for desert blossoms on cacti and other plants. It survives on the nectar from such flowers. One looks for death and decay. The other looks for life. They both find what they are looking for. We all do! This is a little story that has influenced me much in life. And I constantly ask myself the question whether I am like the vulture or like the hummingbird. I now ask whether our schools are like the vultures? Looking for dead and rotting meat -- like dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, weak visual recall memory? Learning disabilities is the term given for these problems. I am aware that these are fairly serious conditions and timely intervention in terms of diagnosis and remediation can facilitate development of the child’s mental faculties. This is not the part that bothers me. What is alarming is the number of cases that are cropping up in private schools (especially the elitist schools). Remedial teaching is the buzzword in such schools. There are innumerable cases of children going to these schools who are found having learning disabilities like ADHD, ADD, weak visual recall memory, etc. Needless to add that such students require some very expensive remedial teaching -- which is of course provided by these schools. Of course, I understand that with the progress science has made, we are lucky to be able to find out early in a child’s life what his disabilities are and provide support to enhance his skill in that particular area. My concern is the people who are diagnosing these disabilities -- in schools. Are they qualified to form such opinions? My concern is also for the parents of these children who are called "learning disabled" – they take the word of the teacher as the truth and probably jump at the option provided by the school -- which is remedial teaching. We first weeded out "special children"; out of normal schools and herded them into "special schools" -- under the guise of "they require specially trained teachers to attend to them". Now we seem to be putting the normal schools under the microscope again in order to remove those children who are having difficulty coping with the archaic methods that are employed to teach them. In my schooldays, a child was "fidgety" or "very naughty" but thankfully they had not yet come up with phrases like ADHD for such kids back then. Are we labeling children harshly now than before? Is remedial education the next big money spinner -- after "tuitions"? We all know enough "psychology" to know that labeling children is the worst thing parents do (sometimes children label one another) which affects the self-esteem of a child. We as parents would be indignant if a teacher had to label our child "stupid" or "dimwit" and yet we seem to be so much in awe of the teachers in an elitist school that if he tells us that our kid has "ADHD" -- we meekly nod our heads and seek their opinion on what can be done about it. The other point of view that I subscribe to is "tell me one among us who is not disabled in some way?" I mean don't we all seek 'personal growth' in our lives -- and doesn't that mean we try to overcome those aspects in our personality that we can change? Time and again the real life stories I have read or heard about children (or adults) who overcame big impediments and succeeded in what they want to do – has been because they (or their parents or teachers) believed that that person's "abilities" far outweighed their "disabilities". The belief such people had in them was "I will not let my disability stand in the way of life". Let me give you an example that will make this clear: How was Braille writing invented? When one blind man dreamt about wanting to 'read' a book! The point I make is why do we start out by telling a child what is "wrong" with him instead of telling him all that's "right" with him? I think only when we can accept a child with all his faults -- can he feel motivated to become all that he is capable of becoming. And when we label a child as someone with a "problem" -- the chances that he will feel accepted despite his disability. ### Bindu Vaz grew up in Bangalore and elsewhere, and worked in Colombo and Mumbai before opting for Goa. SAR News is published from Bangalore, and can be contacted at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Its editor-in-chief is the Pune-based journalist Michael Gonsalves. GOANET READER welcomes contributions from its readers, by way of essays, reviews, features and think-pieces. Story-ideas, articles and links to interesting writers on Goa are welcome. We share quality Goa-related writing among the Goanet family of mailing lists. Please do send in your feedback to the writer. Our writers share their writing pro bono. Goanet Reader welcomes your feedback at [email protected] and is edited by Frederick Noronha [EMAIL PROTECTED]
