the school of all students

To my EDUCATOR friends (Teachers, Principals, and Anyone else who works with kids ),

This video is IMPORTANT.

It's an 90 minutes, but  it's worth every minute (except the first 6, skip those).   listen to it on your commute, or when you're doing dishes, or instead of watching tv one night, just listen. Or read this blog, which is a partial transcription of a talk he gave at Townsen University. (http://georgetownsepac.blogspot.com/2012/04/what-silenced-say-evening-with-jonathan.html)

Jonathan Mooney is one of my new favorite speakers. He reads at a seventh grade level and spells at a third grade level and says he has the attention span of a gnat, yet, he graduated with an English degree from Brown University.

In one of his lectures, he talks about the school of all students. The school where all students are expected to sit still, pay attention, complete their assignments in the way that all students should. He shares his experience of going to school in the hallway and at the desk next to the principals secretary. All his life he was asked why he was so lazy, what was wrong with him, and what was his problem. Schools tell you you're broken. To fix yourself or get out.

So my question is: how do we address this?  How do we take away the stigma of learning disabilities? What do we say to the teachers who say I'm not trained for this, I can't deal with my one student who is acting out/throwing a tantrum/ being a distraction, I have 28 other students who I have to teach. What do we say to the person who categorizes a person as their disability. And how do we have these discussions with kindness.

I may be bias because I am passionate and am paying to be educated about this subject, but this is a conversation education needs to continue to have. "We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that she is someone today."

Let's stop forgetting to love and care for people where they are at.