Rant... it was back in 1998 that I began trying to promote real support for dyslexic students, ADHD students, and neurodiverse students, including the extensive adoption of contemporary technologies under an umbrella of what came to be called Universal Design for Learning. As the century turned - strongly supported by (most of) Grand Valley State University - we did professional learning for University faculty and K-12 teachers and made GVSU the first US university with accessible computers everywhere we had computers - accessibility without the need for diagnosis. Back then I imagined that most in education would care and would want to do the right thing... and that may well be true... but progress stalls when people don't quite care enough to actually do something. So teacher education still refuses to make this a priority. Educational Administration training remains - in terms of learning science and learner experience - worthless. School systems and whole states continue to refuse to observe and listen to learners and instead use systems salespeople bribe them to buy. We let a few rich people - who have no actual learning science experience (hello Jonathan Haidt and fellow rich-from-birth eugenicists) - control the conversation about schools and technologies. All that without even mentioning the horrors of No Child Left Behind. I know my work over more than a quarter century of work has made real differences for real kids - and yet it feels like such a deep failure. Some schools are great places, but so many are, in fact, much worse... filled with educators who feel they are "at war" with our children. it is viciously depressing. That's all.
I've been in DC this week and I keep seeing ads on busses for charter schools. What's the marketing budget for your kid's school? It's a really dispiriting display of an attitude.
OERtist
3moAccessibilty without a diagnosis - I like that idea.