Picture this… the father of a student who has struggled in school since kindergarten states that his son reads motorcycle manuals. What a statement! What was he thinking??? This boy would not/could not read a thing! This boy answered all questions with a grunt that sounded like, “I dunno.” Humph! I didn’t believe that father, not for a minute!
I look back at that moment in time and cringe. If only I knew then what I know now! I know that students will read about what they love. They apply their schema, their background knowledge, to the reading. This young man’s neurodevelopmental profile must have included strengths in spatial and temporal sequential ordering. He was the kind of kid who could fix anything. His struggles in language and memory made school a place of fear and failure. How could I, as his teacher, have supported him in order to make school a less fearful, awful place?
Dr. Levine believes that we must begin to recognize students’ strengths and work on these strengths and affinities. Dr. Levine says, "Success is a vitamin that every kid must take in order to thrive during his or her school years." All Kinds of Minds is dedicated to helping students who struggle in school and in life. Dr. Levine’s summary of his beliefs can be found on the All Kinds of Minds website at this site. Stories of success can be read at this site. If you have found success by recognizing student’s strengths and working to strengthen these strengths please take the opportunity to share your story. If you get a chance, check out the rest of the site
