The Invisibles

It is easier for us to respond somewhat sympathetically to people with visible disabilities- blindness, profound deafness, wheelchair-bound, intellectual disabilities, or other conditions for which a visual inspection suffices to tell us that the person has a disability. Whether or not we are truly helpful, we at least try to make certain minimum humane accommodations. We certainly don’t have the expectation that a wheelchair-bound person will walk, or a blind person will drive.

Yet we routinely have such expectations for our struggling students in school. We expect them to memorize their multiplication tables, long poems, work multi-step Math algorithms, learn non-phonetic spelling, or write five paragraph essays, when they have clearly and repeatedly tried and demonstrated that they can’t.

And then they are labeled as either lazy or stupid. Remedies vary- parents might arrange for after-school tuition, may shame the child for ‘bringing a bad name’ to the parents, may even beat him. Teachers will ignore and give up on such a student. They have enough to do, and can’t afford to spend time on a ‘lazy’ student. I met a few students who were asked to leave their school. Not only do we not help them, we heap abuse on them. A unique problem of this set of students. 

There is a fallacious assumption that the child is underperforming just to be ‘bad’ or to annoy the teacher. Teachers and parents will assign various motives to the student; yet they don’t even consider that the child may be underperforming because he clearly cannot do the work. If a student has a learning disability, it is unrealistic to expect that the child will improve with more of the same kind of teaching, yelling at him or her, blaming their parents, shaming or ignoring.

Children want to please adults. It’s very innate. Babies smile at their caregivers, toddlers read their parents’ faces to look for a smile or approval to indicate that they are doing a good job. Many new parents play a game of scowling at their infants and laughing when they cry. (For some reason, this amuses parents; I’ll never understand why…) There was an experiment conducted with toddlers crawling on all fours across the floor. When the floor changed from solid wood to clear glass, they stopped at the edge of the change and looked at their parents faces. If the mom was smiling, they continued assuredly across the floor. If the mom appeared anxious, they stopped. Such is the power of the smile on kids. From such a young age, children want to please adults, get their cues from them, and earn their approval. This trait continues through life- until it is killed by institutional cruelty and apathy. Children do want to please their teachers; but we have to earn their trust by helping them succeed. Would the babies trust their smiling parents if there was no glass floor at all, and they had fallen off the edge of the solid floor?

These chronically struggling students have an established record of underperformance and quickly acquire a reputation as lazy. Older students might have acquired negative behavior patterns as a coping strategy. They may be apathetic, defiant, passive-aggressive, depressed, off-task or distracting. They may play the part of class clown in order to attract negative attention. They embrace these negative personas as a mask to cover up their academic failures. These behaviors are not the cause of their academic problems, but rather the result of continued failure on the part of the teaching establishment to address their needs effectively.

Blind or deaf students, students on the autism spectrum, or with cerebral palsy, etc, have schools that cater to their specific needs. While I don’t necessarily agree with the concept of a segregated education, at least it is acknowledged that a different kind of system needs to be used to educate students with different needs. Students with learning disabilities, on the other hand, don’t fit into any of these schools, nor can they succeed in their regular classes. They are truly invisible, the most under-served section of our students. I feel for them.

Ignoring this section of the school population does have a negative impact on us as a society- it comes back to bite us. These are the students who have sufficient general intelligence to blend into society as adults, yet will have acquired no useful or marketable skills in school. Hence they are underemployed, bitter, and at loose ends. They might be the ones spraying graffiti, getting involved in petty crime, becoming con men, sitting on compound walls, idling with similar friends, winking and whistling at our daughters in the evening hours, and generally being a menace.

It is in our interest as a society to educate every student in our classrooms, not just the smart ones. The smart students can, and will succeed, with or without teachers. They are motivated, and have no processing disorders to hold them back. It is the struggling student who truly needs our help, empathy, skills and time. In him or her lies our true test of teaching, and our humanity.

And, yes, learning disability is a real disability.

Spare the rod…

                During my last visit to India this past summer, there was a news item on TV about a teacher lynching a student with a ruler for making one mistake in his recitation. A lynching- much more than a beating- 63 lashes with a ruler. A hidden camera picked up the action and news outlets beamed it to the world. I was beyond disgusted watching it; it made my stomach turn. Horrified students huddled in their seats, watching their crazed out-of-control teacher beat their classmate. Do you think this helped the student with his recitation?

When I attended school many years ago, teachers hitting students used to happen, but not too frequently. I attended fairly high-performing schools with many upper-middle class families, and while corporal punishment wasn't rampant, it did occur now and then. I would have thought that this practice would have become unfashionable by now. Apparently, not so. Sad to say, it still happens. A parent asked me in disbelieving earnest, “How can you bring up a child without hitting him every now and then?” Getting compliance from a child out of fear does not instill character. After all, character is defined as one’s behavior when no one is watching.

I have been a mother for over 20 years, and a teacher for about a dozen years. I am a teacher of students with special needs and with several aggravating behaviors. Yet I have never felt the need to hit any of them. More to the point, it wouldn't have helped. After all, what am I going to do? Hit a crying child to make him stop crying?

Beating a child is an exercise in futility. The beater is acknowledging that he or she is defeated, and doesn't know any more skills to manage the student. The beater is accepting failure, and using brute power to assert superiority over a child half his age, and probably half his size. (I very much doubt a teacher would pick on a student as tall as himself or herself. Unlike younger kids, I dare say they would defend themselves, physically if necessary.) It is a highly unequal and unfair power relationship, where the teacher is counting on the fact that the student will not defend himself/fight back.

This is just sad. It shows the teacher’s shortcomings more than the student’s. Beating a student every time he makes a mistake on his multiplication tables will not help him to learn multiplication tables. In fact, it will make him more anxious and make him stutter and stammer the next time he has to recite his tables. What is the point?

I realize that teachers don’t use physical punishment as the first step. It only happens after repeated infractions on the student’s part. Agreed. First the teacher tries reteaching the student, then the teacher makes the student stand on the bench, then sends him out of the classroom, then sends him to the office, then calls the parent for a conference and yells at the parent…. Then finally beats him. OK …, then what? Where do you go from there? What is the next stage? The teacher is now out of options.

Seems like teachers beat for two reasons- anger, and frustration. An angry person is a pitiable person who needs mental health help if he is beating kids out of anger.

Beating a student out of frustration- this situation can be helped somewhat. This is frustration felt by the teacher not towards the student, but rather toward oneself. It is frustration felt by the teacher at not having the skills to know how to help. Intensive training and practice in classroom and behavior management can help with this situation.

Physical punishment- and its ugly cousins, verbal abuse, shaming, disrespect- reflect more on the teacher than on the student. “Naach na jaane aangan teda…”

Learning Disabilities- Processing Disorders Simulation lab workshops in India

This Learning Disability- Processing Disorders Simulation Lab workshop was presented to B. Ed students and to in-service general education teachers in India in July and August.

The PowerPoint presentation before the lab activities

Explanation of fine motor simulation activity

Auditory Processing disorder station- participants on headphones



Sample of a participant's Visual Motor Integration (VMI) activity

Some comments:

• Very useful in order to understand the child's difficulties in learning. Useful for the regular classroom teacher to know the child's difficulties. - Sai Lakshmi, SpEd teacher, Pondicherry
• The LD activities set me thinking- I need to make more allowances and modifications. - Teacher, Bangalore
• This training should be included in B. Ed and D. Ed training itself.- Head Mistress, Mysore
• The simulation lab helped me to actually experience and understand the difficulties our children face. It helped me to understand children with LD. I got a clear view of some concepts like modifications and accommodations. - Sanyukta, B. Ed student, Goa

Finnish Wonder

Finnish students do so well in international testing that Finnish teachers are the new model of teaching excellence. It is indeed wonderful that they are so accomplished.

It speaks to the premium placed on education by the Finnish culture that the best students at university level choose teaching as a viable career option. They make a conscious choice to become teachers. This is as opposed to the Indian or the US system where the best university students seem to prefer the financially lucrative technical field, and the remaining graduates drift into teaching. The Indian value system is supposed to value education highly; however this theory is not apparent in our society. A look at the Sunday matrimonial columns will bear out this truth. How many eligible young men and women want to marry teachers?

The Finnish system has intelligent, motivated, educated, respected and well-compensated teachers. This is in contrast to many other educational systems where teachers have minimal specialized training, are unmotivated (teacher absenteeism in government schools in India is supposedly chronic), and inadequately compensated. It might all tie in to the value society places on teachers, lip service aside.

But this is a one-sided look, I think. What about the student body? The Finnish student demographic is much more homogeneous compared to either the American or Indian demographic. Finland, being a socialistic welfare state, ensures that there is a fair amount of social and economic uniformity among its citizens. This would do much to eliminate the teacher-student disconnect. When teachers are from a different socio-economic background from their students, it’s hard to connect with them. I remember telling more than a few parents to check their children’s grades online, until I understood that many of my students don’t happen to have much technology in their homes, among other things….

Immigrant students and second language learners might also be a less pressing concern for Finnish teachers, I imagine. In contrast, almost every year, at least half my students are English Language learners, having emigrated from some other country. Either their parents, or they themselves, were born outside the US. I imagine Indians classrooms must be similar. Maybe children from migrant working families come from adjoining states in search of work, and speak a different language. My students also come from other problems inherent in low-income neighborhoods. Incarcerated parents, hunger, abuse, drugs and crime are fairly common themes in my students’ families. I would imagine some variant of this theme applies in Indian government schools as well. Teaching in such circumstances is hardly ideal.

Indian and American teachers do an excellent job with middle-class homogeneous student populations. Indian students with a private school education immigrate to all parts of the world, and are usually the most successful immigrant group wherever they go. A look at the link between American real estate prices and students’ test scores shows that American teachers do a fine job of educating privileged students pre-primed for success.

Students from economically privileged families and neighborhoods consistently do well on standardized tests. It is not too hard (I would never call teaching an easy job) to teach motivated students who are primed to learn. But how successful would Finnish teachers be in Indian and American public schools, I wonder…?

When administrators transfer comparative performance pressure to classroom teachers, one has to wonder if it is a fair comparison to only compare teachers, while ignoring the student body.

That aside, if I ever had a chance to collaborate with a Finnish teacher in my career, I would value it highly; I dare say I would learn a lot. But then again… they might also learn a thing or two from me.

‎"Nobody can train teachers. Teachers train themselves - they inherit certain traits" Dr. Krishna Kumar at Ten Talks- The Teacher Foundation, Bangalore

I’m not sure I completely agree with this. Certainly, there are people who have a knack for teaching. But that’s talent in the raw. If we relied only on teachers with the intangible qualities of passion, purpose and talent to teach millions of children, it would hardly be enough. After all, how many such people can there be?

                For example, there are people with an aptitude for Science and the thought process necessary to shine in the field. But the human race would hardly be where it is now if all scientific advancement were left to the few who were so inclined and inherently talented. Conventionally trained scientists have contributed as much to the field as the self-taught mavericks.

                The object of any training would be to bring the magic of this ‘exotic secret knowledge’ that only a few seem to possess to the many. We need many such teachers to teach and nurture the many children of India. The few with inherited traits could lead the charge. 

Processing Disorders Simulation Activities

I'm a special educator currently teaching near San Francisco, California. I will be moving back to India shortly and want to work in the field of special education in India. My areas of interest include Learning Disabilites, integration into mainstream, lifeskills and vocational training, school-to-adulthood transition and teacher training.

I have a lab consisting of several activities that simulate various invisible processing disorders in children with learning disabilities. Disorders addressed in this lab include auditory processing, visual processing, visual memory, fine motor issues, visual perception, memory and autism. Activities create conditions that mimic classroom situations, and participants can get an experience of what kids go through all day long in school. This activity is very relevant and useful because many kids with such disorders are undiagnosed and continue to struggle in the classroom without help. They get labelled lazy or stupid and start believing it. They fall behind academically and catching up becomes really difficult.

When teachers and administrators go through these activities, they can actually understand what a struggle it is for such students. This empathy might translate into administrative decisions such as providing special education support services for struggling students, rather than labeling and marginalizing them.

Students with invisible disabilities struggle because they themselves do not understand why they are underperforming even when they put in effort. Eventually they might stop trying.

I will be in India next June and July 2013, and would be happy to present in any venue/ school/ city. Please let me know (via this blog) if there is any interest. 

My article in Deccan Herald (Bangalore)

Education for all?

Aug 30, 2012 :

The key to successful inclusive education is teacher training. Teaching to a heterogeneous classroom is a skill that has to be taught in teacher training programmes, writes Padma Shastry.When the word ‘sarva’ was included in the name of the governmental organisation ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’, a certain high and ambitious ideal was defined for India’s future. How well is it being realised?

It is early days, for sure, but are we on our way to achieving it? Or are personal prejudices, inadequate training, and policies undermining that high ideal?

I believe there is opposition to the recent mandate on including students from the socioeconomically disadvantaged population in schools. I can certainly understand why.

Teachers are used to teaching homogeneous groups of students. Every school caters to a certain demographic, whether it is middle class, economically disadvantaged, or the privileged. All students in a class or school are roughly from the same background. It is easier to teach a group of students with similar backgrounds.

It is also somewhat true that schools not only group along economic lines, but also along cognitive lines. Most private schools are exclusive in nature. I use exclusive in the sense of exclusion — they keep out students who do not fit the mould, either socioeconomically or cognitively.

They interview parents and have students take entrance tests. They take into account the education level of parents. Such checks make the student population at a school even more homogenous.

Class dynamics

Introducing students from socioeconomically disadvantaged populations or with disabilities into such a class changes the dynamic drastically. Such students bring a whole different set of issues into the classroom.

Even if they fit in cognitively (who says students from poorer families or students with special needs cannot be intellectually high achieving?), they might have other needs that the teacher and the school cannot meet.

Is this experiment, then, doomed to failure? Will the RTE experiment raise the quality of education for the disadvantaged? Or will it bring down the quality of education for the high achieving? Is that the fear? What happens when we introduce students with disabilities into the classroom?

I am a special education teacher; I teach students with disabilities. Should I not entertain any hope of seeing my students successfully integrated into mainstream schools? What if one of my students is a potential Stephen Hawking? Would our education system banish him to the hinterlands of segregated special education? Would we as a nation refuse to nurture such potential? Would my students remain as second class citizens?

I currently teach in the United States, and I do this type of inclusive teaching for a living. I teach in a government funded public school, where we have to educate every student who walks in the door. We have students from all backgrounds and several different types of disabilities in the classroom.

My own daughters attend such public schools and learn with students with disabilities. I only say this to illustrate that this is not a new experiment. It can be done, and it has been done. Of course, it goes without saying that the Indian model of inclusive education will look nothing like the US model, or any other for that matter. India will have to develop a workable model that reflects the realities of our country, our troubles and strengths. But, refusing to deal with it can hardly be the answer.

Specific courses

The Rehabilitation Council of India has designed courses that cater to specific disabilities. However, we do not find a class full of students with one type of disability in a school. Such homogeneous grouping would only be found in a segregated setting. How would such courses help in inclusive education?

The key to successful inclusive education is teacher training. Teaching to a heterogeneous classroom is a skill that has to be taught in teacher training programmes. Learning, achievement and success have to be nurtured and cultivated regardless of the circumstances of the student.

Teaching is a career, a calling even; it is so much more than just a job. Would a teacher, faced with a difficult student, challenge himself or herself to find a solution, or would he or she ask that the student be removed from school for failing to fit in? The latter scenario occurs much more often. That is a crying shame.

That is a teacher accepting failure. That is a teacher saying he or she has nothing more to give. That is a teacher saying that he or she has reached the limit of his or her knowledge. This last, at least, can be remedied by improved teacher education.

The rest of it is a mindset that can only be changed through greater self-confidence, self-worth and self-respect. After all, could I respect myself if I gave up on a student and accepted defeat?

I have also heard from teachers who ask if it is worth it to spend extra time on one or two students at the expense of the rest of the class. It doesn’t have to be so. This is where the skills and strategies of teaching a mixed class help.

Besides, such cost-benefit, or rather, labour-benefit analysis is unbecoming of the teaching profession. How do you like it when your doctor performs a similar mercenary analysis to determine your medical care? Teachers and doctors work with human beings, not iphones.

The construction site next door could produce a student who might find a cure for cancer. My student with cerebral palsy might be the brilliant scientist who could find an alternate fuel source. Does India really want to pass up on such students?