A Russell Sprout, a Tale of Four Schools part II.

Roll on Junior High School. As parents we did all the usual stuff: talking to teachers; talking to school counsellors; talking to special needs teachers (I don’t know about overseas but here they usually are responsible for planning for kids at both ends of the spectrum). Same stuff different school.

Then we moved interstate (for Deb’s career) and tried it all again. The school Lu went to in Canberra had one of the best reputations in the Territory. For a moment things looked like they might be better, the school seemed to be listening. They put Lu in the advanced maths class and agreed to support her with an IEP.

The problems started again almost immediately. The school took the attitude that Lu needed to ‘prove’ herself in class before they instituted much of the IEP. Lu, already disenchanted, went back to resisting anything they suggested (as I said above she can be her own worst enemy). She also raised a legitimate point: ‘I have proved myself already. I have played an intellectual sport for my State and Country. I always do well in any test. I am not going to play “the good girl” for them in class.’

The school threatened to drop her from the advanced maths class for not completing all her work. Lu responded by pulling her finger out for five minutes and scoring 100% in the next few assessment tasks, then she went back to her usual tricks.
In that second year of Junior High a couple of things made school more bearable for Lu. For the first time she began to make some real friends at school (her best friends before had been in the chess community and she related better to adults than kids in general).

I suspect the other kids had grown up enough for Lu to find them more interesting; and she had also matured in outlook and was more prepared to take people as she found them.

The second glimmer was her second semester science teacher Mr Collins. Mr Collins is a geologist who came late to teaching when he felt the need for a change of pace. For the first time ever Lu had a teacher with whom she ‘clicked’. He recognised what he was dealing with and took the most flexible approach so far. First he provided interesting, different extension work (not simply an extension of what the class were doing) and he gave her space to do it in class. He did insist that she completed her part in groups, but for individual tasks he was happy for Lu to demonstrate she had the concept and then move on to the other material he was providing her.

Year 9 and things went back to almost where they had been. Lu lost Mr Collins (just because he wasn’t teaching Year 9), although he did keep in touch. Fortunately, she still had friends so she wasn’t quite as unhappy at school.

Lu rowing her Uncle Ian, Avon River, UK 2005 (Lu age 11)

By now we had pretty much given up on ever getting what Lu needed at school. We still went in to bat for her at every opportunity, but we didn’t really think things were going to change much.

Deb’s career then brought us here to Victoria. So Lu started at another school. Again we went to see the school staff to explain what Lu needed. To be honest we expected more of the same.

At this new school, like the others, Lu was expected to meet with the staff who were responsible for planning an IEP. As usual she and we went through what her experience with school had been to date.
The response from staff was quite relaxed, ‘OK you are going into Year 10, but why don’t we put you into Year 11 maths and physics and see how it goes.’

There were not the usual warnings about having to perform or she would be dropped back. They did say that she needed to be aware that Year 11 subjects counted to the VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education which decides university placements) and that it would be up to her to decide if things were going OK with that.

Their emphasis was subtly different. Firstly there was no ‘you will have to prove yourself’ statements; this was really helpful because they are a red flag to Lu. Secondly, they were putting the responsibility on her. At other schools the line had always been that if she didn’t meet their requirements THEY would move her. Here it would be her decision.

The result of that different approach has been profound. For the first time at a school (other than with Mr Collins) Lu has felt they trusted what she was saying.

Now it may be that as well being intelligent our girl is growing up. But Year 10 was a breeze (in comparison) for Lu. Again she has made friends, while for the first time she has found the academic component bearable. It is not all plain sailing (she still gets bored), but she makes an effort now. Even with the subjects that are not her favourites she aims to not only complete them but to do well.

Then perhaps the biggest surprise our Lu has ever given us. At the end of term last year Lu said, ‘I think I’ll take a break from chess for a while. I want to be Dux of the school in year 12 so I will have to take it seriously.’

Lu age 2, it was this face that peered over the edge of a chessboard and asked "Can I play too?"

I was gob smacked. I briefly wondered if our daughter had been abducted by aliens. Lu putting school before chess! Inconceivable a few months ago.

I am not being so naïve as to believe Lu’s problems with school are over. She has nearly two years of school to before she completes her VCE at the end of Year 12 (the Oz school year is from February to November).

Finally, Tasha of Heidenkind's Hideaway commented "Just get her into a good uni and she'll do fine. :)" For me these are words of wisdom and I have hung on to an idea like this for some years now.
Fortunately, even if Lu has a meltdown again and gives up on school the her VCE result is by no means the end of the line. One thing the OZ education system does really well is providing alternative paths into Higher Education. Open University and Adult Entry are just two of the options for her down the track (hopefully they won't be needed), in the end it will be up to Lu.

But for the moment at least, things are going well.
The reason for the change? In Lu’s words, ‘They have shown me respect and trust, so I can show them some.’

A Russell Sprout and Tale of Four Schools: Part I.

Thank you all for your supportive comments following my last post. I really appreciate this aspect of the blogosphere there just seem to be so many great people out there.

This post was prompted by DJ Kirkby's comment to my previous post. It is a rather long post so I have elected to break it into two parts.

Meet Lu, the baby of our family.
We have three girls: E who is 23; Io who is just about to turn 20;
Lu at 16 is a full seven and a half years younger than E.

Lu is simultaneously a delight and a total handful. All our girls are very intelligent, each of our three has a very different worldview and vastly different strengths.

E is a social being, her first word wasn’t ‘mum’ or ‘dad’, rather it was ‘hello’. E can walk into a room full of strangers and in ten minutes all of them will be her friends.

Language is Io’s skill, I would never dream of trying to debate anything with her she would simply tie me in knots. She also has an amazing gift when it comes to drawing and painting.

Lu prefers much more structured things. She loves Maths and Science and until recently, her driving passion was competition chess. Amazingly, Lu has played chess since she was two years old. I was teaching a ten year old E to play when this tiny face peered over the edge of the table and said, ‘Can I play too?’
Of course being an indulgent dad I gave her a go. To my surprise Lu nut only understood but actually learnt to play.

By the time she was 3, Lu was beating her then 11 year old sister. Not surprisingly E quickly lost interest in the sport. Lu joined her first chess club when she went to primary (elementary) school, not the school club but the local adult chess club. Soon after she had us travelling all around the country for tournament play. She represented Oz as under 12 female in the World Youth Championships and she held the State Women’s Title at 12.

Now I don’t want to give the impression she is only good at very structured things like maths and chess. Like many bright kids Lu has an interest in all sorts of other pursuits: singing, music, sport, reading, animals, etc. etc.

Our two older girls found school easy. A piece of pie really, achieving everything they wanted and more. They did what they had to do in class and then cruised.

In theory, Lu should have found school easy, as easy as her sisters found it.

No such luck. To be fair to the schools Lu’s first year of school was ok. She was occupied with things like learning to read (which we had deliberately not taught her, E went to school already reading and was a bit bored in Year 1).

Once Lu had managed the basics like reading she rapidly became bored. After that things went down hill – quickly.
Oz has a good public education system, but we have always wanted a bit more for our girls and have elected to pay (usually more than we could really afford) for private schools. The girls usually got scholarships because they were clever and at one we paid half fees because I worked for a church organization (there are some perks working for charities).

So, because we had our kids at good schools, with good resources and (in theory) the capacity for structuring individual programs for kids, we went to the teachers. We repeatedly explained what the problem was. Repeatedly asked for an individual education plan (IEP). This had mixed results, in primary school they ranged from really disastrous; to just bad.

At the disastrous end of the spectrum, Lu’s grade three teacher was positively threatened by the concept that there might be a kid in his class who was smarter than him; it just got a whole lot worse when she beat him at the school chess club. Five times. In a row.

At the simply bad end we had teachers who meant well, and who coped well with bright kids; but who just didn’t get that they were dealing with a kid outside the box. They’d try giving Lu ‘extension’ work which simply meant more of the same. Another tack they tried was to get Lu to help the slower kids in class with their work. This simply frustrated Lu to tears, she couldn’t understand that anyone could struggle with something like maths.

By the time Lu finished primary school she was totally disengaged from education. In some ways she was her own worst enemy, when she was bored (which was always) she simply turned off: she refused to complete assignments; she wouldn’t finish class work. Her attitude was something along the lines of, ‘I showed you the first time that I understood the concept. Surely it is a waste of my time and yours to do it over and over.’

Lu’s school tried stick, detentions and loss of privileges, but for a strong minded person who already hated the system they became something to fight against. They tried carrot, prizes for first in the class etc. Lu’s response was usually something like: ‘but I would have to do all that boring stuff’; or ‘I get paid cash for beating adults at chess tournaments, why would I bother?’