LD and Elite Colleges

AnonyMom
Thu, 07 May 2009 19:51:36 +0000

Shawbridge - Amherst, bravo! What wonderful news for your son! I’m so happy for him!

Aspiemom - I am concerned that a public school is withdrawing accommodations from your son as he enters honors classes. I think this may cross the line of legality. How can they possibly justify the notion that his LD calls for accommodation in, for example, a regular English class versus an honors English class? Our battle against the notion that intellectually talented LD students should be denied the same accommodations as comparably LD but intellectually below average students was fought primarily with the ETS. It is extremely wearing, time-consuming and frustrating, but ultimately more than worth it in terms of providing an educational setting in which your LD kid can thrive. Look at the success of some of the older students on this board, such as the kid who is transferring to Berkeley after the accommodations he received at UCSC allowed him to turn himself around academically, Shawbridge’s kid, who is doing so beautifully, or my kid, who is more than thriving in college.

The Toadstood question – I found Toadstool’s most recent post on this thread offensive and (assuming she wasn’t adversely affected by having the complete works of Ayn Rand dropped on her head from the top of a tall building in her youth) reprehensible. Her comment was in response to an LD kid who shared how his lack of accommodation in hs had affected his performance, but that with the needed accommodation granted in college, he was able to transfer to Berkeley. Champagne all around!

Or not. Toadstood came on to tell the student that he was very likely taking advantage of his SES (like students who use expensive programs to prep for SAT’s) to game the system; that he was weak; and that not only was he weak, but that because society was rewarding the weak (with accommodations) and penalizing the strong (presumably more worthy students who don’t have to cope with LD’s), he was, by extension, along with others of his ilk, weakening and undermining society. This is not the same as suggesting that ADD is overdiagnosed or that there are unscrupulous neuropsychologists up and down the Eastern Seaboard faking test results; it was mean-spirited name-calling and over the top condemnation of an LD 19 year old who deserved a celebration.