The Perfect Student
The ideal student must be obedient and cooperative, have very good visual and aural skills for perceiving and remembering two dimensional abstractions on a piece of paper, have good physical control for learning how to write etc., have a very high level of discipline and self control so that he can concentrate on his work and disregard everything going on in the classroom except the teacher. At 6 or 7 years old, he is expected to do tedious and repetitive work precisely as instructed. This may work for the some children, but it is a completely incompatible environment for those who by nature have a high energy level and are highly stimulated by all the activity around them. Also some students may simply not yet have the academic skills necessary for the lessons being taught at the time required by the curriculum. Also some of classroom activities often prescribed by teachers are not appreciated. Often these are boys who for some strange reason do not find coloring in flower patterns, or dancing the clap clap bow dance entertaining at all. Because much of the classroom activities are incompatible with their personalities, some children may cause considerable difficulty for the teacher and much of her time has to be spent dealing with their disruptive behavior. Thus, the non academic group activities may also not be suitable for some children.
Discouraging Initiative?
It is interesting to note that the conformist behavior necessary in a school classroom may be stifling to personalities who may destined for certain achievements. The dilemma is that non-conforming behavior is a requirement for those who will eventually become entrepreneurs, explorers, inventors, musicians and artists or be involved in other endeavors which need initiative, originality and creativity.
The ADHD Label (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) The children who have difficulty converting over to socially acceptable classroom behavior not only have difficulty with their own studies, but also seriously affect classroom work of other students. Much time is used by the teacher attempting to contain disruptive behavior of some, so the others can do their work.
Academic Capability
However, some students who find the classroom environment a perfectly happy place and don’t have any difficulty complying with the discipline may still experience learning difficulties.
Dyslexia, a Label for Many Things
The acquisition of early literacy and numeracy skills typically involves repetitive exposure to, and practice with, simple characters such as combinations of letters and numbers. This is to develop the skill of fast pattern recognition and to associate the patterns with sounds and then to meaning. This is the foundation of all reading and mathematics. This also is the first opportunity for difficulty with some students.
For instance, visually recognizing and remembering the difference between the letters: p, b, q and d is not easy. This is understandable, because in fact, these four letters are all the same character except that they are rotated and/or mirrored. For some children noticing and remembering the difference is very difficult. Word and letter reversals and inversions are common with many children and some adults. In most children these reversals fall away with age. However, the problem can stay with some people for a lifetime.
But there are many other difficulties associated with reading such as jumping from one line in a text to another, being unable to return to a place in the text, difficulty with spelling and being unable to copy from the blackboard. (transference)
Unfortunately for possibly 15 percent of the class, no matter how well behaved or how much effort is put into classroom learning, the student may still have difficulties keeping up with the curriculum. The classroom teacher will no doubt try to help these children, but there simply isn’t enough additional time during school hours bring them from behind. Some remedial measures are taken which may be sufficient for some, but typically is not sufficient for all.