50 years on and still we disadvantage children with learn differences

[silverridgerider]

50 years ago I started school, the thick kid. I struggled reading and wtiting and was put in the bottom set for everything and left to fail. 40 years later with a diagnosis of dyslexia I gained a PhD. Yesterday my son who is on the spectrum was treated as a criminal because his parents gave him help with his GCSE PE essay assesment. "Malpractice" is the term the school used. His essay was deleted and he was given 4 days to rewrite an assignment that took 4 months to research and write, all his diagrams, pictures deleted. Oh and he was given a detention just to reinforce his wrong doung! 50 years! and we still put these children at a a disadvantage. It is not enough that they have learning difficulties....the education system is not interested in what they know. They subject them to questions written for neurotypicals and give them no help so that they can understand what is being asked. As parents you help them with different words and sentence structures in the name of educating and learning and your child is sanctioned.
What sort of society lines its neurodiverse child up to fail? We give them extra time and scribes, but what use is that if the child does not understand the questions. My son knows masses, but our education system wants him to fail!
We know how to ask questions using alternative, wording, videos, prompting, but the system is determined that they are disadvantaged at birth and they will remain that way through their education. Am I cross....I am incandescent. 50 years and we are still the thick kids!

I don't disagree with those @TeenDivided , but going back to the op, it seems she wouldn't be interested in anything that doesn't put her child in the top echelons and is incandescent she wasn't allowed to cheat to get him there.

Agree, the OP needed to help within the rules.

As someone who works with autistic students in secondary school ( all doing GCSE's) I find some of the attitudes on here are so sad. Arrogant, utterly lacking in understanding of how weighted toward NT students the whole system is ( unnecessarily so to boot), completely belittling the intelligence and contribution - of equal validity to all sections of the work force - that these students can make despite the fact that their brains work slightly differently. GCSE level understanding does not hinge on a student's ability knock out a formulaic essay. It's just that the GCSE assessment is hugely biased toward NT students. Completely unfairly. It's not about 'dumbing it down' so the ND community can get a certificate for turning up. It's about righting the wrong that stands in the methods of assessment, correcting the woefully unfair bias toward NT students.
Rant over.

The majority will always have bias towards them! It’s what a majority is going to achieve. Thousands of dc get extra time in exams. Thousands get huge amounts of help. It’s just that when it’s too much, it is not acceptable.

Perhaps doing different assessments on different pathways would be best? Separate out those ND DC who need a different pathway? Or accept what the majority can do is what will happen and no DC is segregated. There’s no ideal solution.

I agree.
You have to choose something, a way of doing things , and this choice will only ever be ideal for certain amount of children, hopefully fine for the majority, and inevitably there will be those who find the system chosen difficult.
I am bringing my children up in a country with a completely different system to the Uk. This system allows you to repeat years, all assessments are done by their own teachers and at least half are oral assessments. Some secondary schools are more academic , others practical and used to enter the work place. However, even in this vastly different system there are plenty of children who just can't manage, for one reason or another and abandon school altogether.

But both NT and ND students all vary.

I don’t see how GCSEs can be weighted unfairly towards every single NT student and away from every single ND student.

And to be honest, does it matter WHY someone can’t pass? If the exams are measuring an objective standard, and you need to meet a standard for sixth form/work/apprenticeship/whatever else, does it matter if you can’t meet that because you’re ND or because you’re just not very clever? You still can’t do what you need to be able to do.