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Children Imprisoned Through Ignorance

By: Bill Allin, Sat Dec 10th, 2005 12:40:41 AM

For some kids, school combines the strict discipline of a prison with the oppression of living in an iron lung. No matter what they do, they have no chance of succeeding.

They are troubles waiting to happen. When one of them commits suicide, robs a store, starts a fight or bad mouths a teacher, we label them bad.

Most of us know what it's like to sit down to a classroom test we know we won't do well on. Imagine that feeling of impending failure spread over whole days, almost every school day and most non-school days.

Think for a moment about how you would act if you were trapped in this never-ending cycle.

In such situations, teachers aren't trained to reason that the child has a reading problem, a social problem or a brain dysfunction. A child can deceive a teacher into believing that he is lazy, forgetful or deceptive while disguising the fact that he can't read.

A 2002 ABC Canada study found that 22 percent of Canadian adults experience serious reading problems.

One of the least well-diagnosed problems that children have is slow thinking. Some kids and adults think slower than others.

No standard exists by which we could measure thinking speed. If a teacher misses the clues, the child may be diagnosed as "slow," meaning an intellectually challenged learner.

The kid may just need more time to absorb what others kids get in the normally allotted time. The child feels dumb, constantly fearing that an ax will fall on his head.

Some quite intelligent kids find themselves in special education classes with kids with much lower intelligence. Putting an intelligent child into a class with children of much lower intelligence is torture as the child will feel imprisoned with no opportunities to develop his intelligence.

He has no way out and he lacks the skill to express his problem to decision makers.

Children with average or above intelligence who have severe allergies that affect classroom performance and test results may also find themselves in special education classes.

As the child may be a behavior problem in a regular class, the school takes the easiest direction, a special ed. class.

Another under-recognized classroom problem is the child who reaches his daily limit of intellectual intake before others in his class.

Think of the feeling you have when a bad cold first hits, when your brain seems numbed because you're so stuffed up. That's what hitting the intellectual wall is like.

What does a child do when he hits the intellectual wall, when he is so stuffed with allergic histamines that he can't think, when he can't express and develop his intellect or when he is socially underdeveloped compared to others in his class?

Inevitably a problem will result, usually misbehavior, sometimes social withdrawal. Occasionally suicide may be attempted. If the problem doesn't appear in school, it may show as anti-social behavior in the community.

Many parents and teachers believe that some kids act out to get attention. They seldom act on their own conclusions. The reason is that they've been taught that children who act out to get attention should be punished.

The very children who need attention most receive punishment, usually of the kind where attention is withdrawn from them.

More human touch may be just what most misbehaving children need. Touch is a basic need, though no one dies from lack of it. Those who don't get enough touching often cause trouble for others and suffer loneliness themselves.

Sociologist/educator Bill Allin, in his book Turning It Around, shows how schools address intellectual development of children well, physical development less so, but do little to address the emotional development or extremely important social development.

A socially immature child, he says, will have a great deal of trouble learning intellectual material because problems with his peers take precedence in his mind. To a child, acceptance by parents and peers is always more important than classroom lessons. A socially inept child will inevitably learn slowly, no matter what his intelligence.

In schools, our ignorance of how the brains of children work and what kids need have done immense and lasting harm to untold multitudes of kids who may have needed little more than some gentle understanding and care.

Now that we know more it's incumbent upon us to make sure than kids with hidden needs get the attention they need and deserve. Every community will benefit from having more kids that are better adapted to the lives they live.

Contact Bill Allin:

705 - 657 - 9468

http://billallin.com/cgi/index.pl

turningitaround@sympatico.ca

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/turningitaround

Bill Allin

R. R. #1 Buckhorn

Ontario K0L1J0

Canada

About the author: Bill Allin taught primary, junior and intermediate classes of all socio-economic categories for nearly two decades in Canada. He gained an unusual perspective on children's needs, social skills and coping mechanisms that other professionals have overlooked. He holds a Master of Education degree from the Ontario Institute of Education, University of Toronto.

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