Just a Matter of Time.

Abstract

Students are often labeled failures because they are not given the time they need to complete their work or their learning, and the consequences to the students and their families can be catastrophic. Mr. Smith examines the background of this situation and the ways in which improvements could be made. LIKE MANY people, I know a child who is having trouble in school. I'll call him John. As far as I can tell, there's nothing wrong with John, though the authorities at his school are subjecting him to all kinds of diagnostic tests. The results of these tests and the conclusions drawn from them will go into John's school record. A label is also being attached to John that could affect his future as well as his perception of himself. The label simply says that John can't keep up. That's the polite version. Other versions identify him as a slow learner, a disabled learner, a probable malingerer, insufficiently motivated, and attentionally disordered. John gets upset by all the derogatory things said about him, by his continual frustration in class, and by the combination of cajoling and threatening that his beleaguered parents use on him at home when his friends are out playing. Because gets upset in this way, John is also categorized as being emotionally and behaviorally dysfunctional. Things aren't getting better for John. He is falling further behind and is expected to work even harder to keep up. He has to do more work than other students, the work is harder for him than for other students, and gets less of the teacher's attention (and less of the teacher's praise) than other students. He sees a tutor every week. Students like John exasperate teachers, who can also fall behind in their own work. John's latest report card is full of D's and negative remarks, with imperatives like he must, he needs to, and he should and disparagements like major difficulties, many problems, and limited strategies. There are frequent references to how hard it is for John to understand the work is required to do. But there is no suggestion that the school might do anything to make the work more comprehensible to him. If John finds the work hard, that's his problem. His parents are required to acknowledge receipt of the report and may comment on it, and a note at the bottom reminds them that the original will be retained in John's official records until five years after leaves school - which means that every teacher encounters in the future will first read the list of his perceived inadequacies. John's parents have two other children who make calls on their time with homework and family activities, even as they are trying to be substitute teachers for John. (And parents need their down time, too.) I don't like to contemplate what will happen if John grows angry about what is being done to him or begins to think in as negative a way about school as his school thinks about him. Like the gap between the rich and the poor and between rich countries and poor countries, the gap in school achievement between the students who can keep up and those who can't gets wider. Over time, catching up gets harder, not easier. Yet John has only one problem, as far as I can see. He sometimes needs more time. Give him more time, and could do everything the other students can do. I don't think that, because John sometimes needs more time, there must be something wrong with him. All human beings operate at different speeds for different tasks. We all differ in the amount of time we need to sleep at night, to get up in the morning, to eat a meal, to contribute to a discussion, to read a book, to write a letter, to walk a mile, or to learn a skill. Some people are faster than other people at some things, which means that the other people are slower. So it goes. But even if there were something wrong with John, the remedy would be the same: needs more time. The need for more time is universal. …