SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

Mrs. Enigma

From time to time, I give a plug for my free book, How to get the right education for your child. So today, I decided to reproduce a few paragraphs from my book. This excerpt is taken from the chapter entitled “Exhausting the System” (pp. 20-22) and concerns what parents should do when they finally realize that their child is in serious trouble academically.

“Looking back, you realize that Jack’s primary teachers were all worshipping at the altar of child-centred learning. Whenever you would summon up your courage and ask about Jack’s reading problem, these teachers would assure you that Jack was developing appropriately. Further, they would warn you not to communicate your foolish worries to Jack, lest you damage his self-esteem. As a result of their well-intentioned claptrap, Jack has lost three years. There’s nothing you can do about that now. But perhaps his new grade 4 teacher is more open-minded? Will she provide Jack with the kind of teaching he so desperately needs? How to find out?

“Before deciding how to approach Mrs. Enigma, put yourself in her shoes for a moment. Every day, Jack’s teacher stands in front of a class of 25 nine-year-olds, many of them with special needs. Mrs. Enigma has nine students with severe reading problems. Three of them have behaviour problems. One student has been very upset by her parents’ recent divorce, and two don’t speak English very well. One, severely-disabled and with his own teaching assistant, often shouts uncontrollably, drowning out the teacher’s words.

“To add to her difficulties, Mrs. Enigma has never had special training on how to cope with challenges like these, and so she is just doing the best she can. Furthermore, she was away the day they mentioned phonics at her faculty of education - so she doesn’t have a clue how to teach kids to read.

“Because Mrs. Enigma is teaching grade 4 for the first time this year, she has had to develop her entire course of study, finding or making the necessary teaching materials. (Despite spending almost $10,000 per student, her school board can’t seem to afford textbooks. In any case, whole class sets of texts are against board policy.) Being the busy mother of two preschoolers, Mrs. Enigma hasn’t a lot of spare time. She does find a few minutes now and then, however, to scan the newspaper headlines. She knows how much criticism the schools have been getting lately. Furthermore, you are not the only parent who has been in asking for special treatment for her child.

“Still want to visit her?”