• 14Jul

  Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Movie Review

  school, teacher No Comments

  Harry Potter fights off soul-sucking monsters, dark wizards and bureaucratic teachers in the latest movie installment, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. You can read without fear: all spoilers are avoided.

  This episode focuses on what happens when educational decisions are made, not by teachers, but by government bureaucrats like the lovely pink Delores Umbridge whose installment at Hogwarts is a detriment to learning.

  The story of Harry Potter has always centered around Hogwarts, that fantastical training grounds for wizards and witches and safe haven against a harsh family life and of course the evil Lord Voldemort. This episode focuses on what happens when educational decisions are made, not by teachers, but by government bureaucrats like the lovely pink Delores Umbridge whose installment at Hogwarts is a detriment to learning.

  The first thing the new bureaucrat does is establish her legitimate authority.

  The first thing the new bureaucrat does is establish her legitimate authority. Then, under the guise of “law and order” or “following the rules” she begins implementing changes that in reality merely further her power in the school. Her rise to power is aptly displayed in the film by a wall covered in educational edicts each individually hammered into place by the eager Mr. Filch.

  Some students thrive under this new authority…students like Draco Malfoy and his cronies Crabbe and Goyle. Of course the Weasley’s–in particular Fred and George–don’t take to the new addition to the staff. The results of their inevitable rebellion are visually impressive and hilarious.

  The heart of the conflict (besides Voldy vs. Harry) lies in the Ministry of Magic’s refusal to accept or acknowledge, and prepare against, Voldemort’s return. This polarizes wizarding society with Dumbledore and Harry with their supporters on one side, and the Ministry (government) with The Daily Prophet (media) opposing. The conflict spills out into Hogwarts as the ministry tries to undermine and eliminate Dumbledore as Headmaster.

  Is it possible for the government to be involved in education without turning it into a political tool to further their own agenda?

  Does any of this sound familiar? The U.S. Federal government laid down the law (literally) on education a few years ago with No Child Left Behind, and the resulting increase in bureaucratic involvement in education has led to controversy after controversy. Is it possible for the government to be involved in education without turning it into a political tool to further their own agenda? Harry Potter says “no” but you’ll have to decide for yourself.

  For pure entertainment value, HP5 delivers a thrilling package that won’t disappoint. Cutting the lengthy book into a lengthy film requires eliminating a great deal of material, but it was masterfully handled and only hardcore sticklers (of which there are many) will be unhappy. Those new to HP or less than enamored with him should find plenty to like in this movie.

  From a Cognitive Training perspective, the movie is no better than Transformers, Live Free or Die Hard or any other eye-candy flick. No thought is required to enjoy the ride. On the Brain Training Food Pyramid, this is a High-Fat, High-Sugar treat to be enjoyed only occasionally.

  Good luck!
  Allen Dobkin

• 10Jul

  Gaping Flaws in Standardized Testing

  homework, school, teacher No Comments

  1. Mandated exams take away from limited teaching time.

  Don’t just count the time required to actually take the exams, include the time to prepare students for the logistics, endless faculty meetings, time to take practice exams. SAT and ACT testing takes place on Saturdays…so why not FCAT (Florida’s Big Test) testing, too?

  2. The Tests do not provide the intended measure.

  What each test measures is how well a student took that particular test. Period. Claims that the exams measure reading ability, math mastery or science proficiency are all disputed.

  Here in Florida, we have a huge immigrant population who speak English as a second language. Since the government must acronymically label everyone, these students are referred to as ESOL – English Speakers of Other Languages.

  What’s the problem? These students must take their exams in English, not in their native language. Thus, their exam grades reflect a combination of their English Mastery and the subject matter. Imagine having to take a Science test in French. They can’t win. If I had to take a reading test but in Spanish, they’d say I was illiterate, too!

  3. Exams are skewed by culture.

  The standards, questions and priorities are all set by primarily middle-class white people. They assume a certain set of background knowledge that is common among middle-class white folk, and since the impoverished, minorities and immigrants have a different background, they are penalized.

  4. High-performing schools are penalized.

  An ‘A’ rated school will have a tough time showing any progress or improvement. They may have the ‘A’ but the law of diminishing returns increases the difficulty and expense in terms of resources to push scores even higher.

  5. Poor schools are penalized.

  If we are going to make an apples-to-apples comparison, we can’t ignore the impact of having the right, and enough, tools for the job. If there are not enough teachers, text books, classrooms, or computers at a particular school, learning achievements will naturally falter when stood side-by-side with an affluent school that has their own T.V. studio. That problem is doubly compounded when you consider that students at those poor schools are poor themselves and thus face the socioeconomic disadvantages that come with that dilemma.

  6. “Improvements” are baloney!

  How can you tell if a school improved? Compare this year’s score with last year’s, right?

  WRONG!

  The students who took the exam last year are not the same students who take it this year. They are different people. It’s an entirely new student body! Think how this might apply to real life. At work your boss sends group 1 to a leadership seminar, then he sends group 2 to the seminar. Everyone then takes a quiz on the material covered. Group 2 scores higher…the seminar must have improved!

  There is–maybe–a way around this: the growth model. Under the growth model, reported by the NY Times, schools are evaluated at least in part by how individual students progress on exams. So little Susie is no longer compared to Johnnie, who is a year behind her. Instead Susie as a fourth grader is compared to Susie as a 7th grader. This makes more sense, but still won’t save us.

  7. Exams ignore student effort.

  This won’t be popular, but let me be honest for a moment: some kids fail because they don’t make (enough of) an effort. You can’t teach the unwilling. Why they are unwilling is important yes, but is a completely separate issue from school/teacher efficacy. Again, poor students are prone to find school useless.

  There are students with Christmas tree attendance, who drop out to sell fruit and run cock-fights, who have to miss two weeks to watch their siblings while their parent is gone, who live with a distant cousin because mom and dad are stuck back in Haiti. They can’t make enough of an effort. They’re just trying to live. But standardized tests insist on cramming them into the middle-class white mold in which they so obviously do not fit.

  8. Testing decisions are made by unqualified bureaucrats.

  We’re talking about government agencies from the White House, Department of Education, State Government, School Districts, Administrations and advisory boards and committees. The government is the body which cannot deliver your mail on time and buys $800 hammers, remember? Why would we trust that they can deliver high-quality education?

  Elected officials and appointed officials have their own agendas. Academics have their own agendas. Teachers have their own agendas. Yet the more contact, training and experience with students one has, the less influence one has on the big decisions. This guarantees that education is used for political gain, with education taking a back seat.

  These people decide when, how, who, what, and where testing takes place. They decide what is on and off the test. They call the shots, and most have little or no experience actually teaching.

  9. Testing ignores parental involvement.

  Along with hundreds of additional factors that impact student performance, parental involvement is completely ignored. On one end of the spectrum are the parents who are in regular contact with teachers, who hire private tutors, who help with homework and maintain a great learning environment at home. At the other end is an unrelated guardian who demands that the student drop out and get a job so they can help pay the bills. That has a real impact, as do all the intermediary positions, yet are totally ignored.

  ---

  I’m sure you can come up with dozens of flaws I missed. But all hope is not lost! Next time I’ll be writing:

  Why Standardized Testing Is So Desperately Needed!

  Good luck!
  Allen Dobkin

• 06Jul

  Beating ADHD Students

  ADHD, ADD, Sparks of Genius, cognitive decline, learning disability, parenting, school, teacher No Comments

  It happens in classrooms and homes all over the world: through no fault of their own, ADHD children are beaten with Sticks. Sadly, many of these children grow up and become romantically involved with a spouse who all-too-eagerly takes up the Stick-bashing role. Some even learn to beat themselves.

  Of course the Stick I have in mind is the proverbial Stick whose natural predator is the Motivational Carrot. ADHD sufferers get the stick even more often and, tragically, it just doesn’t create lasting results. So why do we (and we all do) use it?

  The Stick is used so often due to the (false) belief that it is more effective than the Carrot.

  Here is a phenomenal example of how powerful the Carrot can be. The number one fear of American’s is not Osama bin Looser, it’s public speaking. I’ll let Scott Adams of Dilbert fame take it from here as he describes his experience at a Dale Carnegie Public Speaking Course:

  I think there were about 25 people in the class. On day one, our instructor described the method he would use. It was simple to the point of making me think it couldn’t work. The Dale Carnegie approach to teaching public speaking is to compliment the speaker for whatever he or she does well, and never mention any flaws.

  That’s it. That’s the entire technique.

  The theory is that when you focus on flaws, you don’t address the underlying problem of being uncomfortable in front of people. If you tell someone to take his hands out of his pockets, he will, but he’ll transfer his nervous habit to some other mannerism. At best, you end up with robotic speakers afraid to do something wrong. I had already taken a few public speaking classes that focused on flaws, and I can confirm that the successful graduates were a bit like R2D2.

  Most of my classmates in the Dale Carnegie course were basket cases when it came to public speaking. Some knew they had a serious problem and others were forced by their bosses to attend. The first day was grim. One woman stood frozen in front of the group, unable to generate an intelligible word. Beads of sweat literally dripped off her chin. It was horrible to watch. She choked out a few words and returned to her seat, defeated. Our instructor came to the front of the room and said, “Wow. That was really brave.”

  And it was. We all knew it was true. This woman had put her head in the lion’s mouth. Suddenly we all realized we had witnessed something important. We applauded. And it changed her. Each week, she managed a little bit more. And each week the instructor and the class recognized her achievement. By the end of the course, everyone in the class was an exceptional speaker, and we all looked forward to our few minutes in front of the class. It was like witnessing a frickin’ miracle.

  What I am taking away from this story is how powerful the Carrot is when wielded properly. This is the secret to Sparks Of Genius’ success in working with Challenged children, many of whom have attentional issues. They come to us with a track record of failure and scars from the Stick. We find their strengths and help them build a track record of success while playing Cognitive Training Video Games in our Electronic Playground. The transformation is amazing and gratifying.

  I’ll be looking for more ways to use the Carrot in my own teaching and parenting, and hope you will, too!

  -Allen Dobkin

• 29Jun

  Everything I know about Parenting I learned from my Granddaughter

  parenting, school, teacher 1 Comment

  One of my favorite stories about the power of negative suggestion happened when my niece was 5 and playing with a dime. When her father said, “Jessica, don’t put the dime in your mouth, you’ll swallow it,” the dime was history and we were in the emergency room.

  My granddaughter Isabel is my stepdaughter’s child, so I never experienced living with a two-year-old, especially in a situation where I was doing some of the parenting. When I teach parenting classes, I always feel a little sheepish, because it is much easier to teach the principles of good parenting than to live them. I have a great respect for parents hanging in there and doing what needs to be done for their kids. But when Isabel and her mother lived with me for two weeks, I got to walk the walk. And even though Isabel is younger than our clients, the principles of good parenting remain true, whatever the age of the child.

  It is much easier to teach the principles of good parenting than to live them.

  It was quite humbling to find myself doing things that I would caution a parent against. For example, I advise parents to acknowledge the child when they are doing behavior that you want to reinforce and to just give consequences with as little emotion as possible for behavior that you don’t want. And because I knew these principles, I was able to acknowledge Isabel when she did what I wanted. “You’re doing such a good job of sitting in your chair and eating your cereal.” Simple acknowledgment, making sure that she knew the specific behavior that I liked. With an older child it would go like this: “Johnny, I really like the way you are sitting at your desk and completing your arithmetic homework. Doing your homework will help you keep up with things at school.”

  
  

  But when Isabel did something I didn’t like, things became much more “interesting,” especially when she was taking my vintage vinyl records off the shelves and playing with the knobs of my turntable. Here I also learned another valuable lesson. Kids, even toddlers, have radar for when you are tired or wanting to attend to something else, and this is the time they pick to act up, just to make sure that you’re still with them. You are their laboratory for learning about how the game of human relationships are played, and if you give them a big emotional response for behavior that you don’t want, even though you are telling them “no”, you are reinforcing that behavior.

  All healthy children test the limits. With a seven year old, it could be doing things in slow motion when they are late for school. For a seventeen year old, it could be bringing home the car after curfew.

  For a two year old, I tried to distract her with something else or tell her the behavior that I wanted her to do. “The turntable is Nana’s and it’s just for looking. Why don’t we play with your blocks over here?” For a seven year old it could be putting them on a point system and giving them extra points for getting ready on time or laying out their clothes the night before and reviewing what the morning routine will be like. For a seventeen year old it could be going over the responsibilities of using the car before they go out and giving them consequences for violating the rules. But going ballistic will either terrify the child so that they don’t feel safe exploring their environment, or, with a braver child, make the behavior that you don’t want more likely.

  Another lesson that I learned is that when a child is tired, hungry or bored, those are the times that they are most likely to get into mischief.

  It’s important to tell a child what you want them to do rather than what you don’t want them to do, but it’s so much easier to say “don’t” or “no.” When you say “don’t do this”, you are giving them the subtle suggestion to do it. And they respond to you. This is why when you say “don’t put your cereal on the floor” rather than “I need you to keep your cereal in your bowl or in your mouth” you get more cereal all over the floor. For an older child it would be the difference between saying, “Johnny, stop slapping your brother,” instead of “Johnny, please keep your hands to yourself.” And of course if you had noticed Johnny and his brother when they were playing nicely and commented on that , it would have been all the better.

  I also noticed how many times I ended my sentences with “OK?” as in “You can have a cookie when you finish your supper, OK?” When you do this, you are actually making the child the parent, because the child gets to decide whether things are ok or not.

  But even as I watched myself making mistakes, I was grateful that I knew the principles of positive parenting, because at least I could correct myself and get the behavior that was not only good for me, but good for my granddaughter.

  When Isabel stayed with me I realized how wonderful it is to be with a child and to get to look at the world through their eyes. But I also learned what an awesome responsibility and opportunity it is to teach them how to interact in the world. This is the struggle and the gift of every parent. And the job never ends.

  One night when I told Isabel what a good job she was doing of sitting quietly on my bed and playing with her toy and how much I appreciated that behavior, I got rewarded. Isabel told me she loved me! These are the moments that make all the work, the aggravation and the yogurt rubbed into your glass table worthwhile.

  By Ninah Kessler, LCSW
  Life Coach

• 27Jun

  How Can You Help A Socially Awkward Child?

  ADHD, ADD, aspergers, parenting, social skills, teacher No Comments

  Even popular kids experience some feelings of exclusion and social clumsiness.  For a child with a Learning Disability (LD) or Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD, ADHD) or Asperger’s Syndrome, the social aspects of growing up are painful, embarrassing and often full of loneliness.  With the growth (real or illusionary) of school shootings like Columbine and Virginia Tech, the need to adequately socialize kids who live on the fringes of social networks has also exploded.

  How can we help reach out to children who are lacking friends?   Here is some helpful information reported by our friends at LiveScience.com.

  When a person feels authentic pride, he or she was more likely to score high on extraversion, agreeableness, genuine self-esteem and conscientiousness. Hubristic pride was most often linked with narcissism and shame.

  Read the article here.

  We as teachers and parents can capitalize on this information in two ways.  First, we can help a child avoid a potentially embarrassing situation.  Socially awkward kids possess few and weak social skills.  When they are having a bad day, don’t shove them into difficult (for them) social situations or force them to participate in group activities or play dates.  Since this is a challenging area for them, we need to build a track record of success and set them up for success by controlling some of the circumstances under which they interact with peers.

  The second way we can use this information to help them make and keep friends is to build them up prior to an encounter.  On the way to the neighborhood birthday party, remind the child of their successes and accomplishments, and have them help you remember the things they are proud of.  The achievements can be social, or they can be academic, sports-related, or anything that helps them feel genuinely good.   Your child will feel better and perform better under social situations when they are feeling good–just like anyone else would!

• 15Jun

  How to Boost Your Child’s Self-Esteem

  ADHD, ADD, Sparks of Genius, aspergers, auditory, cognitive decline, homework, music, school, teacher No Comments

  Self-Esteem is always a hot topic: what does it really do for people? How is it developed? Is it good to have a lot, or can you have too much? What effect does self-esteem have on school performance? It isn’t always easy to spot. Why?

  “A given person with high implicit [or inner] self-esteem may be outwardly self-promoting or may be outwardly very modest,” said study team member Anthony Greenwald, a psychologist at the University of Washington.

  Full Article Here

  Low Self-Esteem is often confused with learned helplessness. Learned helplessness develops when a child is in school and has difficulty with, say, math. He struggles in math, possibly due to a weak teacher or just doesn’t have the same internal aptitude that others do. Maybe he was sick for a key week at school. For whatever reason, the child does poorly. Spurred on, the child decides to try his best for the next exam. Math being recursive, his lack of understanding of the prior material keeps him from really understanding the new stuff, and he gets a bad grade again even though he tried his hardest.

  The child concludes, “I’m bad at math.” That is learned helplessness.

  Contrast that experience with low self-esteem. A child goes to school and, despite good grades and many friends, feels like he or she isn’t any good in general.

  Both conditions can lead to lack of effort in school and reduced performance, but one is based on a faulty conclusion drawn from real evidence while the other is a conclusion drawn despite external evidence (or due to internal evidence only).

  The outward symptoms may look and sound the same, and the two issues are very similar, but they require a different touch to handle effectively.

  This is where Sparks of Genius shines. What we do in our Electronic Playground is help children uncover hidden strengths, then we leverage those strengths to make improvements in other areas. How do we create total transformation? Through the 9-5-4 Program.

  Even though there are 9 Intelligences, schools only care about one or two; Sparks of Genius taps into all 9.

  • Verbal intelligence
  • Mathematical intelligence
  • Spatial intelligence
  • Musical intelligence
  • Kinesthetic intelligence
  • Interpersonal intelligence
  • Intrapersonal intelligence
  • Spiritual intelligence
  • Naturalist intelligence

  Increase three or more [Cognitive Skills] and you’ve got a Total Transformation.

  There are 5 Cognitive Skills. Increase one of these, and you increase cognitive ability. Increase three or more and you’ve got a Total Transformation.

  • Attention
  • Memory
  • Learning
  • Thinking
  • Processing Speed

  Finally, there are 4 Executive Functions. These are higher-order functions and essential for long-term success.

  • Organization
  • Planning
  • Prioritizing
  • Decision-Making

  Students come to us, go through fancy, high-tech evaluations, and Dr. Kessler puts together a customized work-out regimen that plays on the student’s strengths and pumps up the areas that are weakest. 2-3 hours per week on a home computer, plus an hour in our high-tech, high-touch playground is usually all it takes. The results last, and they generalize to school, athletics, home, and the social realm.

  Good luck!

  Allen Dobkin

• 10Jun

  Tips on Parenting and Homework

  ADHD, ADD, anger, aspergers, homework, learning disability, parenting, school, teacher No Comments

  10 Steps to Argument-Free Homework

  Get homework done quickly and efficiently without wearing out your vocal cords.

  1. De-escalate.
  2. Use positive reinforcement.
  3. Express interest in homework, schoolwork and grades.
  4. Treat homework time like it is a big deal.
  5. Do your homework visibly.
  6. Spend 15 minutes negotiating Homework Expectations.
  7. Write down and post the Homework Expectations.
  8. Give your child three free passes.
  9. Reward a Perfect Homework Record.
  10. Email the teachers!

  What about kids with Learning Disabilities?

  Challenged Children, those with any kind of learning disability, need the exact same treatment. They need all the rules, reminders and rewards even more! Don’t let their disability fool you: expect them to perform to their 100% capacity. If we settle for less, we do them a disservice.

  -From www.whyschoolsux.com

  Read the article here.

• 04Jun

  Get the Biggest Advantage for Your Child

  ADHD, ADD, Sparks of Genius, aspergers, homework, learning disability, parenting, school, social skills, teacher No Comments

  Our nation has shifted its educational focus to standardized testing performance, for good or bad. One result is that parents, schools and districts are all looking for ways to play the system. If a school can massage the numbers just right, they get more funding. If parents can have their child diagnosed ADHD or with a Learning Disability, then the child can get extra time on the FCAT and SAT, which leads to a higher score and better college prospects. Plus, a little Ritalin or Adderall goes a long way. For anyone. Are your children getting lost in the shuffle? We hope to show you a trick or two to make sure that your kid has the best advantages, no matter what gimmicks are used by other parents and schools.

  Are the children getting lost in the shuffle?
  We hope to show you a trick or two to make sure that your kid has the best advantages, no matter what gimmicks are used by other parents and schools.

  The NY Times ran an interesting feature highlighting the advantages in redshirting: keeping a child out of kindergarten until he or she is a little older, as much as a year.

  Click here for the full article.

  Tool #1: Train your child to think that he or she is the boss.

  This may seem counterintuitive. After all, we often fight our kids to get them to do their homework. You want to transition your child’s current thinking from the perspective of “Educational Victim” to “Educational Entrepreneur”.

  Educational
  Victim	Entrepreneur
  Homework is an imposition	Homework is a challenge/tool
  Teachers are authority figures	Teachers are like employees
  I’m never going to use this in real life	How can I use this in real life?
  No dreams beyond play	Big, earth-shaking dreams
  High level of concern with appearing smart or cool	High level of concern with overcoming challenges
  Parents complain about school system	Parents participate in school system

  The institution of education, whether by accident or design, tends to create Educational Victims. In order to transition your child to thinking like an Educational Entrepreneur, requires adult-to-adult conversation. Your child doesn’t have the tools to change their own attitudes, so you must show them the way. Here’s how you do it.First, fix the “Stinking Thinking.” When you hear your child say things like, “I’m never going to use this in real life”, or “Miss Stinkyfoot is a rotten teacher” or “I hate homework”, take ten minutes and walk through this process. First, ask them exactly what is bothering them. Make them get specific. “He’s a jerk” doesn’t cut it. Once the complaint is out in the open, you must reframe it from the perspective of an Educational Entrepreneur. Here are some common translations.

  Translate Stinking Thinking
  Stinkin’ Thinkin’	iThoughts
  Homework is boring	Let’s turn it into a challenge: how much can you finish in 15 minutes (then take a fun break).
  Mr. Soandso is mean to me	Let’s find a way to make him a friend…just like we would as an adult with a mean employee
  I’m never going to use this in real life	Sometimes the content isn’t what is important, but mastering the PROCESS is. The best businesses have the best processes, not necessarily the best products.
  The subject is boring.	Tie the subject in to real life and show how it is important.
  I’m bored/hate school.	This student is stuck in victim mode. Reframe the school experience so that the child is the boss. Consider that the child may be overwhelmed and need some one-on-one help.

  To be continued tomorrow.

  -Allen Dobkin

• 31May

  Gimme a break! How to get kids to work more, waste less.

  ADHD, ADD, aspergers, homework, learning disability, parenting, school, stress, teacher No Comments

  ROWE, ROWE, ROWE your boat…at work but not at school. ROWE stands for Results Only Work Environment. Long story short: let people work how they want, when they want. Only measure the results. Performance and morale improve.

  There workers can come in at four or leave at noon, or head for the movies in the middle of the day, or not even show up at all. It’s the work that matters, not the method. And, not incidentally, both output and job satisfaction have jumped wherever ROWE is tried.

  Full article here.

  How can we use Results-Only to get our kids to perform?

  The bottom line for teachers and parents is that they need to get cooperation from 1-150 kids on tasks that, lets be honest, often aren’t interesting to them. If the child has ADD or a Learning Disability, the challenge is even greater.

  Are our schools results oriented?

  With few exceptions, in my opinion, No. This does vary from school to school and teacher to teacher, but overall I think that the atmosphere in America’s classrooms (big generalization here) is one in which students are evaluated on a mixed curriculum of education and discipline. In other words, the student’s grade is determined by both his or her mastery of the material and by how well he or she fits into the stereotypical pigeon-hole of a “good student”.

  It is not enough for a student to learn the curriculum. He or she must also meet the teacher’s expectations of behavior and discipline or their grades will suffer. Which means that their collegiate futures are at risk. Which means their behavior in and around the classroom will in part determine their future.

  Why is this bad? In my opinion, it is appropriate to evaluate behaviors, rule-following, conscientiousness and sociability. However, this evaluation needs to be made separate from an academic evaluation. Not merely out of fairness but because a student’s behavior does not reflect his or her mastery of the material. If the student has mastered the curriculum, and demonstrates that mastery on assessments, then his or her grade should reflect that mastery.

  Further, teachers evaluate behavior based on their biased backgrounds. Students with different backgrounds are unfairly penalized. Since most teachers are middle-class, poor students suffer.

  What do I mean? I mean that the student should not be penalized because he or she did not complete a non-assessment assignment (busy-work) or was disruptive in the classroom, or had a poor attendance record. Notice that each of these items are strongly correlated with poverty and a low socio-economic status. They also fit the profile of kids with Learning Disabilities.

  In my opinion, when teachers mix assessment grades with behavior grades, they are doing these kids a major disservice. I am especially thinking of my LD students. These kids’ futures are already at risk. If they are graduating on a regular diploma, and most are, then they need every point they can get on their GPA. When I go into an Individualized Education Planning (IEP) meeting for a student, and I see that his assessment grades are A’s, B’s and C’s but his report card is full of C’s, D’s and F’s I conclude that the student’s needs are not being met. Isn’t it obvious? He can ace the exam, but has seven zeros for homework assignments…he’s learned the material. Even more, he did it without doing the homework. For him, the homework was really just busy work.

  The goal of our schools should not be to pump out mass-produced cookie-cutter worker.

  Corporate America is realizing that if you let good people make choices about how and when to work, everybody wins. Lets take that lesson home and into the classroom. Recognize that people have different learning styles and preferences and that the goal of our schools should not be to pump out mass-produced cookie-cutter workers.

  Teachers: create multiple routes to success. Keep behavior and academic evaluations separate.

  Parents: realize that your kid needs breaks. LD and ADD kids need LOTS of breaks. Split their homework session in two. Have a physical activity planned for in between.

  One last quick story: a student of mine often comes in completely brain-fried. You know, that horrible feeling that you can’t even spell your own name right…for no reason! Once I realize we are up against the wall we go for a ten-minute walk and talk about video games. This lifts the mind-fog and learning can begin again.

  Good luck!

  Allen Dobkin

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