RE: The Arts

As a parent of a child with learning differences, I couldn't agree with this more. These children need to be respected for their diversity of learning styles and have opportunities to pursue the subjects that not only match their non-academic abilities, but also provide at least one class where they can excel at a level comparable to their peers. Unfortunately, because of "teaching to the exit exam" our school district is taking an opposite approach and is now requiring that all learning disabled children be exposed to the same curriculum as other students. Since children with learning disabilities take longer to learn the same material, the school is devising a way to extend many of the core classes. This may seem like a good idea at first, but in order to do this our middle school is replacing these children's electives with an additional math class. Instead of a shop or art class that may provide a venue for doing something, anything, as well as his/her classmates, our middle school's children will now have double the classes of the subjects where they do the worse.  A shop class may also be the door to a vocation for a child that will never meet college academic standards. Also, anyone who understands learning differences, knows that many learning disabled children will never master algebra no matter how many classes they take. What is so sad is that this is really not being done for the good of the child. It is being done to demonstrate that the school offered the opportunity for all children to prepare for the exit exam. The school district says they only want to ensure these children can graduate. My response was "but what if you've lost the special child along the way".  I'd like to see us stop teaching to the test and teach to the child and respect the diversity of our children's learning styles. My daughter needs art and other creative classes to love learning. Without these classes, school will be nothing by drudgery.