THE INQUEST

THE INQUEST

The inquest had gone on for hours, and the class-teacher was still giving her evidence. Her lawyer, adamant that she was not going to carry the blame had rehearsed her evidence several times before coming to Court.

“My client Sir, is a highly trained professional.  She is a mature, experienced classroom leader, and has a string of successful students emerging from her care, year after year.

“As is usual, on this occasion her communication was extremely clear, and the children – for the most part – satisfactorily cooperative.  As you would well know Sir, there are always one or two in a classroom who seem to have a need to be defiant – or at least uncooperative.”

“Mmmm.  Yes Mr Andrews” the Judge replied, “I would like your client to give me a full description, in her own words, of what happened on that, as I understand it, somewhat hot, Tuesday afternoon.

“Well Sir, yes it was a hot day and my group’s allocated swim time was 1.30 pm.  My instructions to the students – all around 10 years of age – were the same as on each such occasion.  Children respond well to clarity and consistency.”

“And those instructions Mrs Barrows?”

“Mrs Barrows, kindly tell the Judge exactly what you said to the children.  The actual words you used.”

     “I said – It is time for our swim now.

              Get your togs and towel.

              Line up in two lines at the door.

              Now we will walk, quietly, in line, to the pool.”

“And what happened then”?

     “They did exactly as I instructed, and walked quietly in two lines to the pool”

“And then?”

     “Then they all changed into their gear, and as they emerged from the changing sheds they entered the pool.”

          “I see.  And your next instruction?”

     “It is usual to let them have a few minutes free play – for the girls to warm up, and for the boys to burn off their excess energy.

     So I gathered them all to the side of the pool and let them know that they had five minutes ‘free play’ before the actual instructional session.”

“Mrs Barrows, tell the Court what, and why, you said at that stage.”

     “Well, as is usually the case in every classroom in this country, I have two or three pupils – usually boys – who are typically boisterous, frequently uncooperative, and even overtly disobedient.  They don’t – or won’t – listen to, or comply with the rules.”

          “The rules?”

     “Yes Sir.  We have four basic school rules when in the pool.  No ducking.  No splashing.  No bombing, and No diving.”

          “And you reminded the class of this?”

     “Yes, very specifically – and even deliberately looking at each of these probable offenders as I reminded them of those four rules.”

“So all of the children heard those rules, and you took particular effort to ensure that the more unruly of the group were specifically addressed?”

     “Yes”

“So what did you observe to happen then?”

     “Well, thirty three of my thirty six students were specifically cooperative – as I would expect them to be.  They played, and enjoyed being in the pool.”

“And the other three?”

     “Within moments I noticed one was splashing another in the face – who responded by jumping on top of, and ducking the first.  The third boy saw this, climbed out of the pool, leapt off the side, and bombed the other two.  The exact scenario the rules are designed to avoid.”

“So what was your response to this behaviour?”

     “I called all three to the side and checked that they had heard the rules.  I asked each in turn, and on request they each repeated the rules to me – as I knew they could.

     So having checked that they had heard, knew, and remembered the rules, I checked that they were aware of their own actions – their own behaviour.  I asked the first to tell me why I had called him to the side of the pool, and he said ‘Because I was splashing’.  When I checked with the second he acknowledged that it was because he was ducking the other boy, and the third volunteered that it was because he bombed the other two.”

“So Sir, it is evident that my client communicated very clearly and effectively with the pupils concerned.  She gave clear spoken instruction.  She checked that they had heard, understood and remembered the rules, and she even checked that they were aware of their own actions.

I put it to you that she conducted herself in a fully professional manner, and that she is without fault, or to blame in this situation.

The three boys in question have a history of repetitive behaviour and discipline difficulty and may be regarded as potentially ODD – that is, Oppositional Defiance Disorder.  Psychologists tell me that we don’t really understand this condition Sir, but there are some boys who just seem to need to defy directions, rules and guidelines.  As a Judge I am sure you will be aware of this.

          “I see. 

At this stage Mr Andrews I would like to hear from the School Principal.”

“Yes Sir.  Mr Jacobs, as Principal, please advise the Court of your involvement on that day.”

     “As Principal I accept ultimate responsibility for discipline in my school.

My first involvement on that day was when I saw the three lads in wet swimming gear walking across the quadrangle towards my office.  I have to add at this point that this was not the first time the three have had to report to me, and my immediate reaction was – ‘When will these three lads learn?’

As is our agreed procedure with staff, I immediately checked to see if the lads knew, and understood why they had been sent to me – had they heard, understood and remembered the instruction, and were they aware of their own offenses.”

          “And your conclusion?”

     “The same as that of my staff member.  Thirty-three members of the class heard the instruction and cooperated – and this clearly signals to me that there is no lack, or difficulty, in the teacher’s communication style.  These same three boys are repeat offenders.  We have given them many chances and at some stage we have to decide that it is the end of the road.”

“Thank you.  We have yet to hear from the School Psychologist.

Mr Beckham, you have heard the accounts from the class-teacher and the Principal. Please, your perspective on this situation.”

     “Sir, it is a common scenario in classes and school systems, not only in this country, but across the globe.

We have what is commonly referred to in layman’s terms as the ‘Naughty Boy Syndrome’.  Mostly, but not exclusively, these are boys who seem to need to do exactly what they have just been told not to do – commonly within moments, or minutes of being told.

Parents and teachers find this so frustrating, and it often leads to heavy-handed discipline, punishment, as adults desperately try to find ways to get the cooperation of the child.

Unfortunately there are always a few who can’t be reached, they tend to become surly and resentful, and often end up living socially marginal lives, in and out of trouble – or even prison.”

          “Is there no hope?”

     “Many approaches and therapies have been tried, but with marginal success – ranging from Behaviour Modification to Boot Camp, and anything between, and our prisons are now over full.

     However there is however another school of thought with a different and interesting emphasis.  Let me approach this in a reverse sequence.

The literacy rate in our prisons is extremely low.  We know that our prisons are disproportionately filled with males – many of them school failures both academically and behaviourally.  We also observe that the rate of left handedness in our prisons is greater than in the general population. While left-handedness seems to be between 5 and 10 percent in the general population, some claim that it is as much as 50 percent in the prison population.”

          “Are you suggesting that there is some connection between male left-handedness, school achievement and personal behaviour Mr Beckham?  It seems a little remote, please explain.”

“My explanation Sir is tentative, and in crude terms only.

Right-sided, that is right-handed, right-footed, and right-eyed people tend to use their opposite side brain, and do most of their conscious thinking in their left frontal brain area.  This would appear to include about 85 percent of the population.

The other 15 percent may be left-sided, or perhaps – and more to the point – a mixture of left and right sidedness.  This apparently causes them to do their predominant conscious thinking in their right brain.  The suggestion Sir, is that we don’t all think in the same manner, that this is not a matter of choice, and that very few people are aware of how they think at all.

The significance apparently lies in the tendency of right-sided, left-brained people to process information using language as a thinking tool.  They think in words, just as I am talking to you right now.

By chance these people find school to be a user-friendly place, as our education system uses language as its basic teaching system.  Our teachers are required to teach in language, meaning that the pupils need to learn via language, and what they have learned is assessed via language – written exams.  This suits the majority well, and is for them a highly successful system.”

     “And the others?  What of this ‘right brain style?”

“Those others, the other 15 percent Sir, may well be the ones who struggle with our education system, and even with our rules system.

The right-brain style Sir, tends to be expressly pictorial.  These people apparently do most of their thinking in pictures, and in their number we tend to find architects, engineers, artists, musicians and hands-on, practical workers – farmers, builders, plumbers, electricians, drivers.  The suggestion Sir is that their picture-thinking style has advantages in these sorts of activities, but that it is a real disadvantage in our language-based school system, and it is a real struggle for them to do well.”

     “This is all very interesting and may perchance be valid Mr Beckham, but I cannot yet see how it is related to the incident with the three boys that we are dealing with in this Court today.”

“As I understand it, it is that tendency to think in pictures Sir.

Let me explain as it was explained to me.

If I ask you to think of a tennis racket, it is almost inevitable that you will see a picture a tennis racket in your head.”

     “Yes, I see my own old Spalding.”

“If I mention the words ‘Teddy Bear’, it is similarly the case that you will picture some personal version of such a soft toy.  However, if I tell you ‘Do not think of a step-ladder’, what happens?”

          “I immediately picture a step-ladder, then remove it promptly from my mind so as to cooperate with your instruction.”

“But you do initially think of a step-ladder.”

          “Yes.”

“Now Sir, don’t think of, or even consider the Eifel Tower”.

          “I did because you named it.”

“Yes, precisely.

Now consider the picture in a child’s mind when a parent says “Don’t spill your drink.”

          “I think I follow the pattern. The words created the picture….”

“Yes Sir.”

          “… and the picture, so planted in the brain, acts hypnotically so as to induce the person – in this case our three lads – to behave in the very way they have been instructed not to.”

“Yes.  The other pupils, who think mainly in language – that is, in words – probably do have much the same picture in their minds, but for them, the word message predominates, and they comply with the words, and are seen to be cooperative.

The picture thinkers are less able to focus on the words and their consequential behaviour is more likely to follow the picture that the words left in their pictorial brain.  For them the command “No diving” generates the urge to dive, and they are as confused as the rest of us as to their own behaviour.”

          “And the solution to the problem would thus rest with ….?

“The adult Sir.  The professional.  We can’t change the way the child thinks – this is their natural process.  But we can educate our adults.  If this explanation is indeed valid, we need to help teachers, parents – and perhaps Social Workers and Counsellors – and with due respect Sir, our Judges, to understand that their own language – by stating what is not allowed – causes some people to act in certain ways, and to appear disobedient, oppositional, non-compliant, naughty – to be seen as being behaviour problem children.”

          “A case of blaming the victim?”

     “My colleague who explained this to me suggested that these children are like diesel engines – perfectly good motors, until we put petrol in their tanks.”

Laughton King

1.1.13

AN EXPERIMENT IN UNLEARNING

AN EXPERIMENT IN UNLEARNING

Although names and dates have been altered to protect the innocent, the following story is not true – but the point it is making is valid, and is well demonstrated.

Experimental Psychology 201.

Setting – Animal Behaviour Laboratory.

Subject Matter – Rats, and Humans.

Method:

Place one rat, and one University student (of roughly equal intelligence)in separate cages, and starve for three days.

Construct an access way leading to five separate, parallel, dead-end passages.  The passages are numbered 1 to 5.

Place a container holding cheese at the far end of passage-way 4.(p4)

Procedure. Phase One.

1.  Release the rat into the access way.

Observed Result: The rat smells cheese, enters the access-way, goes to Passage-way 1 (P1), and enters looking for the cheese.  Failing to find cheese in P1, the rat exits, then goes to P2, P3, then finally at the end of P4 the rat locates the cheese, nibbles contentedly and consumes the cheese.  Happy rat!

2. Repeat the exercise, starving the rat for three days then releasing the rat to search for the cheese.

Observed Result: The rat searches, repeating exactly the same behaviour as in the first trial.

3. Repeat the exercise exactly as before.

Observed Result: The rat presents exactly the same behaviour as in the previous trials – although a little more quickly.

4. Repeat the exercise yet again.

Observed Result: Released rat momentarily hesitates at the entrance of P1, P2, P3, then quickly explores P4, finding the predictable reward. Very smug and happy rat!

Interpretation:

Rat demonstrates an effective, fast learning style, needing only four exposures to determine and predict a pattern of events.  Rat could be seen to have a high, measurable level of intelligence.

5. Repeat the whole exercise, but this time move the cheese from the end of P4 to the end of P5.

Observed Result: Released rat enters the access way, smells the cheese, and goes straight to P4, expecting to find the cheese. Failing to find cheese the rat quickly exits P4, and reverts to its original, established routine, exploring P1, P2, P3, P4, before finally locating the cheese at the end of P5.  Happy rat.

Procedure. Phase Two

1. Release starved human (variety ‘student’) into the access way.

Observed Result: Student smells the cheese (thinks ‘pie’), enters P1 to find food. Failing to locate any tasty morsel, student exits P1 and sequentially explores P2, P3, and P4 before finally locating the food at the end of P4.  Student hogs into the food (making a complete pig of himself, and looking for beer to wash it down).

2. Repeat the procedure as with the rat, and student is observed to similarly repeat his behaviour, as per the rat.

3. Repeat the procedure again, and student is observed to go straight to P4, successfully locate the food, scoff it down looking very pleased with himself.

Tentative Observation; does this faster learning suggest to us that the student is marginally more intelligent than the rat?

4. Repeat the entire exercise, but this time shift the cheese from P4 to the end of P5.

1.  Observed Result: Released student goes straight to P4 expecting to find food. Student fails to find food, looks confused, hesitates, then exits P4 to check the number ‘P4’ on the entrance.  Ascertaining that he is in the right place, student re-enters P4 to again look for the food.  Failing yet again to find food student mutters to himself, goes back to the access-way, counts aloud the sequence of passages off (using his fingers as a calculator),says aloud, ’I’m sure it was P4 where the food always is’, re-enters to have a final search, before finally shouting out “There’s been a mistake, someone has stuffed up.  Where is my food!  I’m not doing this for fun you know!”

(Student is subsequentially paid off and asked to leave the laboratory).

INTERPRETATION

Overall results suggest that the student is a marginally (but significantly) faster learner than the rat.  The student may tentatively be seen to be more intelligent than the rat.

The rat however is specifically faster and more able to unlearn than the student.

Therefore although the student may be seen to be a faster learner than the rat, the student shows a distinct tendency to hold onto ‘learned information’ even though the situation may clearly demonstrate that the information, the ‘knowledge’, is no longer valid.

DISCUSSION

Results of this experiment strongly indicate that the rat is likely to be a better survivor than the human in a changing environment.  The rat is more likely to abandon learned information when it is no longer strategically useful, whereas the human is more likely to cling to units of ‘knowledge’ even though those old learnings may threaten his future survival.

It can also be projected from this experiment that if the human attains erroneous ‘knowledge’, (that is, information that it accepts as being true, valid and therefore useful) it is likely to hold on to this misleading ‘knowledge’ even though other more valid information might be available.  The tendency to retain ‘knowledge’, along with the restricted ability (or unwillingness) to ‘unlearn’ specific information may be a significant factor in limiting the progress of human knowledge and understanding.

RELEVANCE

It is recommended that teachers, trainers and information presenters should be mindful of units of ‘prior knowledge’ that their students may bring to a learning situation, and take specific steps to address the ‘unlearnings’ necessary to allow more relevant learnings to take place.

As in the case of the study of ‘dyslexia’, such erroneous prior knowledge may be the product ‘authoritarian statement’ – the words of a respected writer, publication, teacher, authority or elder; they may also be the long-term residue of early child-like understandings, accepted, but never examined nor challenged; and they may also have been accepted from commercial advertising information – often presented as ‘research based’ information – which is presented purely to support a commercial, money-making venture.

In any event the recipient (indeed most people) is likely to hold information which he has never been caused to question.  These information units survive in the form of ‘personal truths’ – unrecognised pivotal beliefs that he is not even aware that he holds.

SUMMARY

Effective learning may initially involve significant unlearning of erroneous ‘knowledge’.

Laughton King

30.12.12

International Recognition!!!

Sometimes things happen, just when you need them most, as if by Divine intervention.

Being dys-lexic is often a lonely, dark and depressing style of life.  Making a stand, and attempting to bring some light into this world - both for those who do have dys-lexia, and for those who do not - is equally lonely and often brings an unwanted response from the public.

Just last week my energy was down and I was feeling quite inadequate and depressed about some work I had been doing, but where I felt I had missed the mark with the people concerned.  I didn't feel good about the whole interaction, and went to bed giving myself a hard time, even considering closing my work right down.

However when I opened my email the next morning, the following letter awaited me.  I had no idea this survey was going on, but am just buzzing about being included in the best 25 websites in the world.

The real beauty of this all though is the link included in the letter which puts the reader directly through to those best 25 sites.

So there you have it.  No need to wade through 25,000 dyslexia sites trying to find one that really has something to offer.  All that hard work has been done already -, and here is that letter;

Hi Laughton,
I am pleased to inform you that Dyslexia as a Daily Life Issue has been recognised for excellence due to the contribution its top quality editorial offers the dyslexia world.
KwikMed are a leading health (care) provider and and are regularly covered in the mainstream national press for their professional, modern approach to healthcare. They are one of just two fully licensed online pharmacies in the USA. This year, our specialist panel of judges have reviewed hundreds of different sites from across the internet before hand-picking the very best for each category. Dyslexia as a Daily Life Issue is among the elite selection of awardees that our judges felt made a real contribution to the dyslexia category and you can see your site in lights here:
http://www.kwikmed.org/25-five-star-rated-dyslexia-sites/
Please accept my warmest congratulations, as well as our appreciation of your continued hard work and excellent quality editorial. I hope it continues for many years to come! We’re rolling the awards out fully with our members soon and hopefully it will bring some deserving attention your way.
There are some great winners on the list, including some sites that have less exposure than your site does, and were selected by our judging panel for their unique perspective and contribution. It would be great for all if you let your readers know where they can find some great resources on dyslexia by linking to the awards. Either way it would be great to hear from you.
Once again, I would to send you my congratulations for your well-deserved recognition.
Best regards,
Lily

Ciao, Laughton
November 2012

UPSIDE-DOWN, AND BACK-TO-FRONT

An interesting incident last week yet again led to a deeper understanding of the way in which the 'dys-lexic' (Diesel) picture-thinker mind can work.

Dys-lexics ('Diesels' in my terminology) tend to be plagued by reversals.  As children we get horribly mixed with our left and right, and with our left or right directionality.  Not only do we attempt to print, or read from right to left across the page (instead of left to right), but we often reverse the shape of the letters (putting d for b) or put the letters in the wrong order through the word we are writing. (tac for cat). It is also often the case that we print our 'e' and our 's' in reverse, and that we create individual round letters (o, a, p etc) in a clockwise, rather than the required anti-clockwise direction.

As an amateur carpenter I know that I am likely to mix and inter-place my numerals (3.25m) so as to cut my timber too short (2.53m), while the same tendency wreaks havoc with my telephone bill, and has nothing short of dire consequences when I try to write cheques!

We often hear such reversals in the speech of Diesel children, (aks instead of ask), who also commonly get the beginnings of words 'fack to bront'.  I am personally inclined to think that this happens because (at least in my own case) when I talk I am actually 'reading' what I am saying off a small (over-worked!) screen in my mind's eye that works in the same way as a TV News-reader's cue screen.

My first encounter with this left me feeling very burned when as an 11 year old child, trying desperately to remember the name of my new class-teacher (Mr Don), I blurted out a loud greeting in front of the class, "Good morning Mr Nod" - and quickly discovered his complete lack of humour, and specific lack of tolerance for this 'dys-lexic' kid.

This whole sad business of reversals takes on yet another dimension when we realise that the numeral 9 is just an upside-down 6, that in just the same way 7 (when printed) is an upside-down 4, and that 5 is an upside-down then reversed 2.  In short, reversals  of one sort or another account for at least six of our nine numerals!  All part of what we call DYSCALCULIA, which is just another aspect of 'dys-lexia'.

And now I see that there is more.

Last week a local small-block farmer was describing a toxic plant that we all deal with locally - sometimes known as Giant Carrot-weed.  He commented that it is well-known historically as a particularly nasty poison, and was used to kill Aristotle, or Socrates or some similar famous philosopher - but he couldn't remember the proper name of the weed.

"I can see the word in my mental picture" he said. "It has a 'y', then an 'ew '. " - and neither of us could make any sense of this.

Sitting opposite him at the table I grabbed a pencil and paper and printed it as he had 'seen' it - 'yew'.
"There it is, that's it" he said.  " 'hem', the name is Hemlock".

From where he sat, reading my print upside-down and back-to-front, what he 'saw' in his brain suddenly made sense.

When we recognise that our brain will sometimes both reverse and invert the picture (probably associated with a genetic tendency to left-sidedness) - fack to bront and down-side up - we begin to understand why we see things differently and why we can be such good problem solvers.  It may also help us tolerate the strange comments and behaviour we see in our children.

Laughton King
28/9/12

FEAR OF STUFFING UP

To say that I am computer illiterate is an understatement. In fact I have an enormous fear of laptops and the things they do, that is based in my huge, historic fear of failure, of stuffing up and not being good enough.

In reality it is not the laptop I am afraid of, but rather my capacity to stuff-up when using it. Hence I avoid it whenever possible – and hence I have neither visited nor added to my blog in at least two years. Hardly useful, but that’s how it is - and just to get on to my blog tonight has taken me over an hour!

I have always known that my thinking on any topic develops like a staircase – a flat area for a distance, then an abrupt riser, where the product of my observations and thinking suddenly breakthrough. And I’ve just had another riser. Admittedly this 12 inch riser comes hot on the heels of a 45 mile long flat area, but it is better than nothing.

Over the last five years I have been touring New Zealand and parts of Australia presenting seminars to teachers, parents and kids, under the banner of DYSLEXIA DISMANTLED. So far, around 410 presentations. It has suddenly dawned on me that these have been slowly evolving into a three-part series.

The first part comes from my observations of children over 35 years operating as an educational psychologist, and involves identifying what it is that makes these children different from others, understanding how that works, and building a useful pictorial model to work with.

The second part involves examining the implications of this in terms of the individual child’s academic performance, their behaviour, and their (resulting) self-concept.

The third part is the complex process of applying the learnings of the first two, in terms of what we need to do to work with these children in a more useful way. That involves identifying what we should stop doing, and what we should do differently to allow these children to engage, and to find more success in school.

In the seminars each of these parts takes about two hours in their briefest form, meaning that we can do three hour seminars, or whole day (6hr) presentations to get the basic ideas across. Schools commonly request a follow-up, whole day workshop once that have had an initial exposure and directly experienced the positive impact across the school.

As the response to these seminars causes me to look closer at the ‘problem’ of dys-lexia, more and more I am convinced that dys-lexia is actively caused by the way in which we teach in our schools, (see my comments on putting petrol into diesel engines in earlier blogs), and that it is initially more an issue of what we need to stop doing, rather than what we need to learn to do – although this is surely a challenge as well.

For those who may be interested; I am a solo operator, not employed by any organization, nor do I belong to any group. Now that I have stopped paying my annual fees, I am officially not a ‘psychologist’ any more either.

With no organization behind me I rely on other people to arrange my speaking engagements in their home area. Thus, if you are interested in a seminar or workshop in your school, town or area, please email me directly. I may ask you to consider inviting other schools etc in your area to also host workshops or seminars, in order to make the travel factor affordable. A week’s work in any part of NZ or Australia, (or any other part of the world) generally makes it a financially viable exercise.  I try to keep my fees to an absolute minimum, as it is simply not okay that a lack of funds prevents these kids from having a chance.

Please email me with any questions.  (laughton.king@win.co.nz).

www.dyslexiadismantled.com

Laughton King
March 2012

DISENGAGEMENT AND 'BEST-PRACTICE'

DISENGAGEMENT and 'BEST-PRACTICE'

When I ask adult dys-lexics about their schooling years, and specifically ask what it was that made the positive difference in that nightmare setting, typically the response I get is something along the lines of, “Miss Jones, She made the difference.”

And what the Miss Jones of the world did can be adequately summed up as ‘Gave time, consideration, and TLC’.

So there you go, as far as the dys-lexics of the world are concerned, what any teacher needs to do, in order to deal with the problems associated with this elusive, amorphous thing called ‘dys-lexia’ is give copious quantities of time, consideration and TenderLovingCare.

Great – but not great, as any teacher would just role their eyes and sigh, suggesting that this is what they have been doing their entire teaching career – and the situation still seems to be getting worse.

So, lets look at the scene from a different angle to see if we can find some better sense – or at least a way in.

If we were to focus on the negative classroom experience of both the student and the teacher, we could say that it is characterised by an overriding notion of DISENGAGEMENT – meaning that the child is to some extent removed from what is going on in the lesson.  This could include;

1. - Being bored and dreamy in class and not actively paying attention;

2. - Being physically present, but otherwise withdrawing their energy from the situation (except perhaps to entertain themselves);

3. -Being physically absent from class.  We currently have Secondary schools with up to 40% absenteeism per day.  (That is, 40% of the pupil number are actively absent from at least one class-session per day).

Although it could be argued that point 3. above is really only an issue at secondary level, its preliminary levels are well documented at primary level and are evident in most if not all schools.

If it is the case that active disengagement is at least one of the major factors in the educational career of the dys-lexic child, then it certainly behooves as to ask what measures we can possibly take to prevent this creeping disease.  In fact this is a commonly asked question and is being examined by researchers and skilled educators all over the world.

Unfortunately when we ask a question of this nature we typically lead ourselves into looking for gaps in our system, for things that we could do as-well, instead-of, differently, or better.  What we are less inclined to do is examine our current belief systems, our current understandings of ‘good practice’, or even ‘best practice’, and check to see if they really are worthy of such classification.

Working one-to-one for over 30 years with both children and adults who have experienced difficulty in our education system, I have enjoyed a privileged position and a privileged relationship, and via this have been given information that, sadly, has taken me a life-time to process and recognise.

Although I seldom have directly asked 10 year old lads what it is that teachers do that makes the classroom situation so intolerable for them, when I look back and sense their frustration, anxiety and anger, I recognise a common theme in the feedback they have been giving me.  For them it is not about what the teachers are not doing that creates their difficulties, but rather it is about what the teachers need to STOP DOING.

Their feedback strongly suggests that teachers as a body hold, value and are guided by  a whole range of beliefs and practices (truths) basic to accepted teaching philosophy and style that incrementally erodes the diesel student’s self-concept, their experience of success, their willingness to participate, and eventually their active engagement in the classroom.

Asking for feedback from the students themselves is risky, (some would even say it is unprofessional  and unethical) in that they may tell us something that we don't want to know. Irrespective of this potential debate, any seller of consumer products knows that customer feedback is essential to survival in the marketplace.  Our education system studiously disregards the opinion and the voice of the 'failed' student. To my ears the feedback from the children themselves is that their failure and withdrawal is a product of teacher belief and activity, and that teachers are unwittingly undermining the ability of some children in the classroom, and are inadvertently creating the very problem that they are working so hard to remove.

Although such a statement will predictably and understandably generate an indignant self-protective response from members of the teaching profession, there may be more value in it than some are initially willing to allow.

Yes it is the case that exhaustive and ongoing research has led us to our classroom philosophies, beliefs and style, and that the overwhelming evidence is that this has led to some remarkable and positive techniques and approaches in teaching – but we know that it is still the case that our system does not work for a significant proportion of the children.  Ironically but understandably these are the children who consume a disproportionate amount of any individual teacher’s energy and patience.

In my new book (DYS-LEXIA - THE BIGGER PICTURE), to be published early next year, I will spend some time looking at ‘teaching truths’ - beliefs that are so implicit to our teaching head-space that often we do not even recognise that we hold them, and operate within them.

These ‘teaching truths’ have evolved because they equate with effective teaching with most of the children in the classroom, and we naturally hold fast to methods that are seen to be effective.  But we know they are only effective for MOST of the children we teach.  What we fail to see is that for other children these very same principles, methods and strategies may be actively problematic, and creating a world-wide problem of 'disengagement'.

Laughton King

August 2012