Not making the grade? Perhaps your child is a ‘grey area’ student?

Most of my teaching career has been spent working with children who did not ‘make the grade’ for one reason or another. Many of these were what I call ‘grey area’ students.

‘Grey area’ students who are those children who not doing too well in class but who do not seem to have a specific learning difficulty.

Grey area students:
* struggle to finish their homework
* never seem to do well no matter how hard they try
* get frustrated and begin to lose their self confidence
* think they are stupid and will never be able to learn
* have done well in the past but now are meeting learning hurdles

They are the students that parents and teachers worry about. They know there is a problem but but have no idea what the problem is or what they can do to help.

Every class contains ‘grey area’ children. This would net be a problem if these children were getting the help they need to overcome their learning hurdles and do well in school, but they are not.

Classrooms are made up of children with all kinds of abilities. Teachers know which are the bright kids and which are the ones in need of extra support. Most teachers know how to get these children the extra help they need from the school system. Bright kids are sent on enrichment programs and children with obvious learning problems are referred for assessment and then either placed in a special class or provided with extra support in the classroom. (Well , that is how it has worked in all the school systems I have worked with).

And this is as it should be.

But, what about the kids that are left, the ‘average’ kids who are doing reasonably well in class, who have their moments of glory when they are good at something, but who may also have their moments of struggle and despair when they are not reaching their learning potential. What about the kids who are struggling to learn but who do not qualify for extra help, who are trying to learn but have met a barrier that they cannot overcome on their own, and who do not get the support they need to get them over their learning hurdles?

It is these ‘grey area’ students that I have come to be very concerned about. They inhabit the ‘grey area’ that exists in every classroom. The space where the teacher is concerned about the child’s learning but not concerned enough to start the process of getting him or her assessed for a possible learning problem.

As a result, these children are left to struggle, to gradually lose their self confidence as learners, and to never reach the learning heights of which they are capable.

Is your child a ‘grey area’ student? If so you need to do something to help.