Blog: School Struggles, Learning Disabilities & Other Kid Stuff

If you know where the title of this essay was derived, then you may have been exposed to the poem “Casey at the Bat” in school.  “Casey at the Bat” is one of America’s beloved poems that used to be taught joyfully in the schools.   Funny, I don’t remember the teachers using a “research-based,” scripted teacher's manual to teach “Casey.”

Teaching literature should  convey joy, excitement and love of literature. Without these elements, how else will children connect to literature? 

By its nature, school places a certain demand on the child throughout the day. Most children throughout their day typically face a number of tasks that they find challenging and difficult to manage. When faced with such challenges many will work through their difficulty to arrive at solutions and complete the tasks before them.

What about the kids who are the concerns of these blogs – the shut-down learner types who have ADHD tendencies?

 They aren’t working through their challenges so readily!

I know.  It’s heading into those dark days.  Kids don’t want to get out of bed.  Homework’s becoming a misery.   As the weather gets colder, the household tension meter is rising.

If you can, try if you can to step back a little from all of the academic tensions and turn down the heat of the household. Your kids are probably feeling overwhelmed by the ever exciting  and growing mountain of worksheets that they can barely handle.  In short, they need support.

I know it’s been some time since I last posted.  A lot has been going on that has kept me from writing, not the least of which was my taking part in the “TeachME” conference in Dubai on 11/11 & 11/12/09.  “TeachME” is sponsored by the Rearden Educational company based in Lebanon.  For the conference, Reardon brought together 15 international trainers and 25 talks over the two days of the conference.