James is 8. He is a bright, imaginative, sensitive and caring little boy, who loves being read to and adores animals, his family and playing with swords, toy guns and Lego.
He is soon entering his fourth year at school but he still cannot read even at his age level and his writing ability is poor. We wonder when, if ever, in his school life so far, he was taught how to form letters and numbers correctly and how to differentiate between upper and lower case. When he does attempt to write something and wants to use one of the big words he knows in his head, he has no idea how to even begin to spell it and if there are one or two correct letters in the final result, that is the best it will be.
He has a fascination for science, astronomy, robots and he loves creating his own toy machines from various bits of Lego and assorted craft construction materials. They have their own stories and he tells them very earnestly and concisely, using some very advanced vocabulary. He is very focused on what absorbs him but quickly loses interest and concentration if things are difficult or require patience or perseverance.
When James was about 6 his father began to suspect that he might be showing some signs of the same ADHD that he was personally familiar with and began the process of trying to have this assessed. He discovered that he needed to involve the school and have his teachers complete a form, which he then had to take to his GP for a referral further down the line. So began a frustrating, protracted exercise requiring a considerable degree of stubborn, implacable determination in the face of generally lackadaisical attitudes from those he had to deal with.
Weeks later despite his teachers being well aware of James’s difficulties, his father was still reminding the school that he hadn’t received the completed form and weeks later than that, he was losing patience with the medical centre, who apparently had overlooked sending it on.
Having had enough of the snail’s pace and long waiting lists within the public system, James’s dad pushed to have him seen privately, by a child psychologist specialising in such things as childhood ADHD. Despite this costing around $400, there was no quick appointment and it was at least three more months before he could be seen.
In the end, this much-awaited appointment produced very little. All that eventuated was a rather sage report (also very late in coming) which stated that because ADHD /associated learning difficulties are difficult to isolate as a diagnosis in children as young as James, specialists prefer to wait until ‘later’ when other possibilities are easier to rule out.
So, $400… thanks very much, but you’re on your own. Reading and writing problems? Over to you to sort out.
So this takes us back to the start of another school year coming up. James’s parents have just attended the usual pre-start, parent/teacher interview. You would expect some talk about James’s progress, any difficulties, strengths, plans of action etc. in such a setting? Sadly no – despite this particular teacher knowing James already, having ‘taught’ him maths last year, there was little talk of learning issues. However, there WAS a lot of talk about “value chains” and “leadership opportunities” in the “modern learning environments” which are really large barns containing about 100 children, who seem to have no desk of their own and where the exercise books of the past, which so easily recorded and displayed progress, have been replaced by loose, individual worksheets that get lost in backpacks or filed goodness knows where in the room.
James’s Mum and Dad are fuming, and rightly so. Bright achievers themselves, they are left with the impression that, for their son, school is a glorified daycare centre and another year of falling behind is his lot unless they themselves take over the teaching of the basics that seem to have been sadly neglected in the last three years.
They are taking it upon themselves, with the help of extended family and if necessary, some private tutoring, to allocate time every evening to go back to stage one and try to fill the numerous gaps in James’s learning. They will need to find incentives to make it work for James, but they are angry enough to make them determined that he will not be lost in the system.
This is but one story in our so-called “world-class” education system. This is a bright, happy, and well-adjusted child with every advantage but he is still falling behind in the areas that matter most, despite parental involvement. As a former primary teacher myself, albeit 35 years ago, I am appalled at how the priorities have shifted, and not for the better.
If this isn’t a crime, I don’t know what is.