In my 25 years in education, I have always been acutely aware that it is common for people to leave the school system at 18 much worse off than when they entered. Maybe they picked up some skills along the way -- but for students with learning differences, particularly commonly unrecognized ones like dyslexia, school is often trauma-inducing. The student experiences a lack of support, consciously or unconsciously blames their own "stupidity", endures school failure after failure, acts out, receives punishment. Over and over the cycle goes. It doesn't have to be this way.
Teachers, I am sure, certainly don't intend for this to be the case. But here we are in 2024 and every day I hear from families who describe needing to recover from the psychological damage that school may be doing/have already done. Students who do not have affirming experiences at school are commonly people who learn in diverse ways -- dyslexics and other neurodiverse people very much included. I wonder what it will take for the educational complex (teacher prep programs, departments of education, school districts, building administrators, teachers) to begin to recognize their responsibility to educate dyslexic students. How long will we continue to shrug off and graduate huge numbers of borderline literate seniors - -blaming them for their own learning and behavioral issues in school? Here in Oregon, the number of home schooled children keeps going up and up as more families opt out of the non-affirming system that is causing psychological harm and actual harm by not teaching their children to read.
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