Schools Shouldn't Play Doctor

This piece from the Libertarian-leaning Cato Institute is well worth reading. The institute's politics shows through in their support of school choice and their tendencies to blame teachers who are put in a difficult situation, but in the end their analysis remains sound.
While the President's intentions seem well placed, underfunded schools have a hard enough time balancing all of the tasks that they have already been given. Adding to that list will only serve to create more conflicts of interest between supporting and individual student's mental health and allowing the rest of the class learn.

Where Have All the Readers Gone?

Pretty scary news from a just release report from the National Endowment for the Arts on adult reading habits.

They found that US adults reading literature dropped from 56.4% in 1982 to 46.7% in 2002. Most startling was the finding that the number of readers in the 18-24 age group dropped 35.7% over the same period. At the same time, they didn't see a change in TV habits among adults over the same period.

I think the best analysis of this comes from the NEA chairman:
NEA Chairman Dana Gioia attributed much of the drop to the Internet and other forms of electronic entertainment. "People have become passive consumers of entertainment," Gioia said by phone. "We think of reading as passive because people do it sitting down, but it requires sustained attention. The ability to hold complicated situations in your mind is a human skill that reading develops, that has individual and social importance."

There was some other interesting data that came out of the report, including the finding that readers of literature were more than two and a half times more likely to do volunteer or charity work than non-readers. Yet another good reason to read with your child, and this NEA report isn't a bad place to start.

School district, mother file over boy's ADHD needs

All Joanie Derry wanted for her son was to have an individual education plan(IEP) that takes into account his ADHD. Unfortunately, her son does too well in the classroom to qualify.

It's sad that this situation ended up with in a
lawsuit, but the truly sad part is the lengths that the Manatee County School District went to in order to prevent her son from qualifying for and IEP.

While I'm not sure about the specifics of the case- somehow using ADHD as an excuse for acting out in class rubs me the wrong way- the courts ruling to order the IEP is a just decision.

Qualifying for an IEP for a child with focus problems can have a significant impact on a child's education. Simply the ability to have untimed tests, an accomodation not allowed without an IEP, can make a huge difference for a child that has a hard time focusing. While many students that are allowed untimed tests still finish within the normal time, the fact that they don't NEED to finish within the required time takes a ton of stress off of the test for the child. This made a huge difference in our house, where anything that could reduce the stress before the test made EVERYONE a lot more calm.

We have worked with a number of parents who found that after our program the school wanted to completely mainstream the child AND take away their IEP. If the child is ready, mainstreaming can be great, but we always advice parents to fight to maintain their IEP. Thankfully none of those parents have had to take their fight to court.

For more info on IEP's, check out this site