Slow Learners

(source: http://quoteaddicts.com/topic/children-innocence-quotes/)

I like the wise quote above. It reminds me that every kid is unique and cannot be compared one to another. Each kid has his/ her own quirks, antiques, characters and intelligence. As I am doing a revision on my thesis for my post graduate program in school management, I remember the time when I conducted the research. I learned a lot as I observed my students during the research time.

My thesis is a class action research based on the English teaching. The idea is so simple. I made a lesson plan for reading practices based on the Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences approaches and Carl Jung's idea of Learning Styles. At first, I had to measure the Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles of each student in the class. After that, I made the learning strategy which then I put the learning strategy into lesson plans. I used the lesson plans to conduct the research and then measured the results at the end of research time. From my research, I found out that some 'slow learners' somehow can perform better when the learning strategy is similar to their intelligences and learning styles. They seemed also enjoy the learning process too. Therefore, I believe actually there's no 'stupid' kid in the class, but many demotivated students and labelled students.

I, myself, just found out that I might suffer mild case of AD/HD when I attended a class of "Teaching Special Needs Students" by ACSI Indonesia. In that class, the psychiatric explained about the characteristics and symptoms of AD/HD kids. I found out I got 10 points out of 15 points. These findings put me into the mild case of AD/HD. When I was a kid, I was labelled by my mum and teachers as 'creative' and 'destructive'. I was often found out busy with chalk or pencil in my hand to draw something on the floor or wall. Or.. I was found out trying to break the clock, music box or radio to see the mechanism inside. My head was full of ideas and people often saw me daydreaming. And one thing... I couldn't see numbers.. Whenever I tried to count, it seemed that most of numbers ran away! That made me desperate when I had to do the math test and my mum often hit me with broom stick when she lost her mind teaching me how to count. I simply couldn't count! No wonder,  I was desperate and demotivated student in my class. I got low scores in most of my subjects.

Until one day, a teacher taught me seeing the patterns in numbers and trained me  the patterns to add, multiply, divide and subtract. Then, I got better result in Math. I became a motivated student and even I got highest result in my class when I finished my elementary school (though some parents gossiped I got the highest score because my mum bought a test sheet before the test - Yea right.. as if my family had that money!). Then, I got myself entering one of the favorite junior high schools in my hometown with scholarship! It was all because a teacher try to change the way of her teaching to help me seeing the patterns in numbers. Until now, I could count quite well thanks to that teacher! 

From my own experience as a slow learner student and my observation on my students, I found out as long as the students have motivation to learn, then the students can achieve higher result. Every kid is unique and precious. Each kid has his/her own strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, as teachers and parents we should stop labeling our slow learners as stupid when they cannot do the complex Math problems or conduct a complicated science experiment. Not all kids were born with high intelligence in Math or Science, but for sure each kid has at least one strength in him/her that make him/her unique. Our duty as adult is to supervise and direct each kid in his/her own path according to his/her own strengths.

source: https://mnosal49.wordpress.com/tag/special-needs-children/

For further study on Multiple Intelligences: https://howardgardner.com/multiple-intelligences/

#schoollife #parents #teachers #intelligence