I prefer the term disengaged/disconnected/shut-down students to dyslexic students. The term dyslexia is being misused by people with vested interest to include many conditions that would be best excluded from the dyslexia definition. For instance, kids with auditory processing difficulties, kids with acuity problems, kids with neurological problems, and kids with sight problems should all be excluded from the dyslexia umbrella.
I have reasons for wanting to differentiate between individuals who are said to be ‘dyslexic’ and disengaged students. Problems faced by disengaged students can be 1) prevented and 2) overcome as disengaged students are a result of schooling-caused teaching problems. Disengaged students form, I believe, a majority of kids who leave school as illiterates.
Too many teachers know too little about how best to support and guide disengaged students.
In saying this, I am not teacher-bashing. I have the highest respect and empathy for all teachers who are passionate about teaching kids. As you all know I am not a qualified teacher but I am passionate about teaching disengaged kids. This blog was created for parents and teachers who may benefit from my experience in teaching disengaged kids.
The problem is that teachers are not being taught the fundamentals of how to teach kids in kindergarten. As such many kids who come to school are not ready and able to learn.
Teachers know that some students seem disengaged from learning in the classroom. However, most teachers do not seem to want to know why these students are in the first place disengaged. Perhaps it is because they already have a very tight schedule.
Most teachers seem to choose to ignore what they already know. I have posted many articles on my blog, and I have also written many articles on the internet and commented in many magazines (you may do a Google search on Luqman Michel to see the comments and articles I have written over the past five years).
Only a handful of teachers and parents who read my posts take their time to comment on my blog.
All and any comments my readers make are posted on my blog automatically. In other words, unlike in many other blogs, your comments are not moderated. You can also comment anonymously if you like.
I would be grateful if you could take a few minutes to give your views so that parents and teachers of disengaged students who read your comments may be enlightened. Please also take some time to read comments by parents of ‘dyslexic’ kids who were very encouraging when I first started posting articles in my blog in 2010.
The real difficulty in changing the course of any enterprise lies
not in developing new ideas but in escaping old ones.
John Maynard Keynes
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