As I've written in previous blogs, Jonathan doesn't like to write. This has been an on-going battle since he was in pre-school. So, what can I say when his school work starts coming home with these kinds of notes from his teachers?
And how should I respond? No, really, I'm asking you for your ideas. When I see things like this come home I have a number of different thoughts fly through my head:
- "Yes, I can believe it. Jonathan found another way to try and get around having to write."
- "Isn't he clever? What a problem solver he is!"
"Marli, (my good friend) would say, "How efficient! He's just like his mom." It is definitely more efficient for him to assign symbols to the words. He's saved himself...lets see 44 letters minus 12 numbers equals...he saved himself 32 strokes of the pencil. Cut his processing time down by 75%. Of course, he probably double his teacher's amount of time in grading that one problem. So if all 25 students do this times 10 assignments a day times 50 assignments a week, not including tests and projects..., then it definitely slows the teacher down. Okay, I can see the teacher's point... However, if the teacher would just get with the program, he could save himself and student time buy just using Jonathan's system....""Jonathan does need to play by the rules. He should write like everyone else.""Jonathan does need to read directions and follow them, it's part of the game. Play the game and succeed, that's what school is really about, it's it?""School is preparing Jonathan for the real world. So he should play by the rules. However, in the real world effective communication, problem-solving and creativity are necessary for success...He did effectively communicate his answers. I was able to know what he was communicating. He had a problem with writing the answers, so he solved it effectively for himself. He was creative. How many other kids are trying to get away with this?"This is another one of those internal battles I've yet to resolve for myself. Do I accept that Jonathan will probably be correct in his answers but get bad grades because he's not playing by the rules? Or do I make him play by the rules? Are grades really that important? Yet, I don't want to stifle his creativity or force him into a box.
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Comments (12)
He has to play by the rules. There are just certain conventions that have to be followed and giving the teacher the ansers in the way she wantes them is one. When he is older and an adult the same will be said for his boss. Now if he wants to do it both ways that would probaby be fine. But as he gets older too, it becomes a matter of showing how they reasoned out a problem and applied the thought processes being taught. Also without the proper grades, no matter how smart, he can kiss college goodbye. You don't have to stifle his intellect or his creativity, he just needs to abide by the mundane as he adds his own little twist.
I tried something similar as a 6th grader- I photocopied the page in my textbook, instead of rewriting each sentence. My teacher praised my creativity and gave me credit for answering the questions correctly- for that assignment- but added that by not writing out each sentence I was missing an opportunity to embed the proper word usage deeper in my brain (kinesthetic learning), so she expected me to do my assignments the "normal way" for future assignments.
It may work for him, but not for others. That's where the problem lies. The world doesn't revolve around him; he must adapt.
I have to say my son did the same exact thing when he was in grade school (he is now in college) and many of his teachers were flexible enough to accept the answers. Isn't school about LEARNING and if the student understands the material and can show this in a way that's unique shouldn't we be accepting of this?
I think that sometimes it is a good thing to just go along and play by the rules... you kinda HAVE to do it in some cases, but in others... eh.. PLPLPLPLFT
How often does a college student actually WRITE anything? I can tell you, being one myself right now... ALMOST NEVER. Everything is done on the computer... even ten years ago, if I hand wrote an assignment, I would lose points. (I know, I tried it when my printer broke.)
It is important to be able to write, but probably more important to be able to TYPE. I wish I had been able to do something like that when I was in grade school... BUT, the only reason I can write legibly now is because I was pretty much forced to learn. I got tired of losing recess in second grade because I couldn't copy the work off of the board fast enough and still have it be legible. So I made myself learn. Now I can copy just about anyone's handwriting.
I am fairly good at forging just about any signature I want to... and that is why I developed my own to be virtually unforgeable.
Creativity doesn't need to be stifled... I think he could be praised for thinking outside the box, but like QuantumStorm said, he will have to adapt. It's just a fact of life. It doesn't have to be a bad thing, but it is necessary in most cases.
The sad truth is that what it really all comes down to is being on the same "wavelength" as typical people. I have to admit that it's quite clever and I would cut corners like this when I was a kid (such as when it came to copying a musical score down in music class since back then I was too lazy to actually draw the staff and each note) but yeah...
It's just my opinion though. I dunno if I'm seeing this right.
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I agree, in the long run he must learn the rules and know how to play by them until he's older. Once he's older he will be able to do his own thing and know when it is appropriate and when it is not. I just hope we don't stifle his "out-of-the-box" thinking. This is one thing each teacher is quick to tell us every year. In fact last week his teacher said she often uses the explanations she over hears him using to tell another student. She'll announce this to the entire class so others might benefit from different perspective.
keystspf@xanga wrote: "How often does a college student actually WRITE anything? I can tell you, being one myself right now... ALMOST NEVER."
I am currently a doctoral candidate and my lifelong dysgraphia is really kicking my butt these days. Yes, I could gather up all the paperwork and get an accomodation, but I'm a stubborn aspie and trying to just stumble my way through with little tricks like using twice as many bluebooks so I can write on every other line so that my crazy, wandering, crooked, barely decipherable handwriting has a vague chance of being interpreted. And I've been fortunate in that I've had professors who have been good at interpreting cuneiform-like squiggles.
But, yes, I've had to do a TON of handwriting in university (and my hands are killing me! It, quite literally, physically HURTS to write by hand.) Sometimes we have in-class assignments where we have to analyze something in a group (another stumbling block for me and my pet autism! Working in groups! Argh!), make notes of our thoughts, and present them to the rest of the class. Nearly all our exams are essay exams, handwritten in bluebooks (or the new environmental alternative, the greenbook.) The comprehensive exams I will have to take before I am permitted to begin work on my dissertation are three-hour long hand-written exams.
I do notice that I write much, much fewer words than my fellow students because it takes me so much longer to get the words out in a form that can be read. And I feel like I'm at a real disadvantage because the words just "flow" when I type but when I am hand-writing, my thoughts go so much faster than my hand that I have to be very careful not to write a word from three sentences in the future into the sentence I'm currently working on. (Sometimes it helps me to make a sort of skeleton outline with one word to represent entire huge concepts so that I can refer to it when I'm struggling through the molasses of anti-flow to see where I intended to take the ideas to next.)
But, yeah. Speaking as a dysgraphic kid who grew up and went to college and is machete-hacking her way through the jungle of doctoral work: if a kid can't conquer their dysgraphia (or other opposition or barrier to hand writing) they'd better get their documentation together and organized because they will be making a friendly trip to their local ADA office to get accomodations to allow them to type all those endless essay exams and in-class projects that will come up - if not in their underclassman years, definitely in upperclassman undergraduate work and beyond.
@sparrowrose - dysgraphia... new word... think I get it... like it. This is why I am taking classes ONLINE. :) I had a terrible time with pretty much everything you're talking about. But... that's graduate work. I'm working on undergrad stuff and thankfully online stuff I don't have to write it, so telling this mom that the kid can kiss college goodbye is just ridiculous. I went to traditional college. I survived the insidious note-taking ritual that ruined my GPA because in order for my notes to be legible I had to think about writing them rather than listening to what the teacher was saying. Unfortunately in this particular class we were graded on our notes, so I did terribly all the way around even though I never missed a class. I passed the class with a C, but only because I did well on my final paper... which was typed.
By the time this boy is in college, for all we know they may have done away with the blue/green books completely in favor of something more like the PADD from Star Trek... which pretty much already exisits. When I write anything more than a few sentences, people think that different people wrote different parts of what I wrote because I switch haphazardly between print, cursive, and something somewhere in between.
There are ways to get around a lot of things. Though I must admit, I am trying to figure out how to help my own son use legible handwriting. He can draw, but his writing is terrible. It takes an incredible amount of practice to get "good" at it... and yep... I had the blisters to prove it. I forced myself to learn. I wanted to write. I can't imagine forcing someone who doesn't have the drive to produce written material to write. Especially if this particular kid is already working with an IEP and has all the arrangements in place. I would say that his strengths should be encouraged... once he finds out how much he needs the skill... he'll WANT to develop it. That's the key... You WANT to do what you're doing. I WANT to do what I'm doing. THAT is not something that can be taught.
I know that in the walking world, following the rules is oftentimes more important than seeking the shortcuts - no matter how the shortcuts curb time. In Algebra I Honors in high school I had fought the battle against showing all the steps to complete a problem; I glanced at the problem, and, mentally, wrote the solution to the problem down. I was accused of somehow cheating, so I managed to tell the teacher I could re-perform these exercises at any point in time, under any conditions - and managed a deal that if I could do this on the blackboard, I'd pass.
I performed it in front of the class, tap-counting with my fingertips before writing the answer. I was asked to do it again, but to speak aloud to explain what I was doing - and did it again.
I passed, but by the time I was in college, every shortcut solution I had was entirely useless, and I had to go back to re-learn the simple problems to re-formulate the equation to achieve the actual solution.
I now have a son with autism, who had, at one point in time, growled against putting effort into writing anything, and still does. I already know I would do him no favors by allowing him shortcuts, no matter how creative.
Writing the full word ensures spelling accuracy to a large degree; spellchecker can not tell the difference between your, you're, and yore. Spellchecker can not tell the difference between pest and past, pen and pin.
Multiple choice questions test if a student knows how to take a test. Writing the answers in full ensures that the numbers and words, associated with the facts, remain long after the test has been recorded.
My handwriting is atrocious, due to lack of use. When I have had to submit a memo to my team, or scribble a simple grocery list, it is oftentimes indecipherable. I was not given any favors, in the long run, being allowed not only to battle for my shortcuts, but winning these battles.
Substituting symbols for the actual answers is not such a big deal, until viewed in this perspective...
We've had the same trouble. The blanks are difficult (and small) to try and write the answer in (extremely difficult if you have a kid who already has trouble with handwriting). Can he write the answers on a separate piece of paper? From our experience, the teachers have all been okay with writing the answers on a separate paper. Accommodations can always be made.