Colours
The System needs to change!
Elizabeth Wilkinson: 23rd October 2015
Some days I truly wish I had a magic wand that I could wave, in order to change the direction & path that some people are headed.
Sometimes young people make choices based on a lack of awareness, consequence and understanding of other people’s intent; choices that can have a long lasting and far reaching effects.
So many of our Dyslexic/SpLD* children are raised to be happy, fine and dandy youngsters, before starting school they are raised to think positively, are faced and headed on a positive path – then we send them to school, we send them off to enter the Education System!
A system that fails so many: using an outdated & inhumane approach of focusing on weaknesses instead of strengths; the design of our current Education System means that teachers are unable or do not have the time to focus on individuals. Rather, it teaches our youngsters to accept mediocrity, that they are ‘not worthy’ of better things and that they are ‘naughty children’. This label of ‘Naughty’ sticks with some of our youngsters when they leave school, it even sticks with some into adult life.
I have worked with, met and chatted with hundreds of adults who were made to feel like this at school, and who still in their heart of hearts, feel that is what defines them; that they are not worthy of, or feel that they don’t have the right to strive for better things, a better life; many become a slave or a prophecy to that ‘naughty’ label from school!
And let me just confirm here, that the adults/children I’m referring to have come from good families, with supportive parents. Parents, who love them, care for them, fought their corner when it came to school & education, and have always focused on and celebrated their child’s positives, strengths and successes and didn’t focus on their academic weaknesses. But still their children are weighed down even into adulthood, by the emotionally oppressive label that seems to have defined them at school: ‘Naughty Child’.
On average our children spend 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, 39 weeks a year, for 11 years in school. That’s when we could leave school at 16, now of course the age one can leave education training etc, has been increased to 18!
That’s a whopping 12,870 hours in an education system that is failing its Dyslexic/SpLD learners! For those who stay in education until they are 18 that is 21,060 hours.
12,870 hours in a place that is designed to pay more attention to the things our SpLD children may not be great at, taught in a way that does not engage or inspire; instead of celebrating and nurturing the things they are good at, in a way that meets their learning needs. This can create a horrible negative energy that then becomes learned behavior and quite often is perceived way of life for so many!
Back in 2013 the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Rt Hon Chris Grayling gave an MP’s ‘Crime in Context’ speech, this stated the percentage of young offenders who were dyslexic:
‘A high proportion of them – maybe more than half – will have dyslexia (43-57%). That compares with just 10 percent in the population as a whole.’
Surely this figure alone is proof that the education system is failing?
PLEASE, those of you in positions to implement or influence change, I implore you to do so! Our dyslexic children deserve better than prison, they deserve a good education that teaches the way they learn! We must enable them, as we enable others, to achieve their full potential!
If taught correctly, shown how to cultivate, harness and embrace their skills, potentials and abilities; how to action ideas and build futures instead of focusing on weaknesses, the world would be a MUCH better place and the prisons a lot emptier!
*Specific Learning Differences
Source: crime in context speech: www.gov.uk/government/speeches/crime-in-context-speech [23.10.15]
© Elizabeth Wilkinson www.theddc.org.uk
