MISSION STORY
"Why is everything so hard for me?"
This was the anguished cry, one child's response to the pressure of trying incredibly hard to learn while still not meeting expectations. It was also a heartfelt, and heartbreaking, invitation to somehow ease the pain.
With no firm answers then to my 11-year-old's plea, his question triggered a long, still-unfolding quest to find them. As a college professor, teaching was something I understood, but little of that understanding covered how students learned differently. Fortunately, as the quest began there were people along the way who were willing to engage with and encourage him, instructing me in the process. Gathering information, and, over time, grasping the complexity of my child's dilemma, with its roots in neurological differences that made his interaction with the world so unlike my own, left me better equipped to help guide him. And, for the most part, he always knew that I had his back--even if my expectations for him were high, so that a four-year college degree would remain within reach.
There were peaks and valleys on the way we traveled, of course, but it didn't take long to learn that we were not alone in our journey. Not by any stretch of the imagination. All kinds of others were traveling and searching too, many like us seeking a route to a destination with only fragments of a map--if indeed they had any map at all. Some of these kids and families shared our way for quite a while, but others were alongside for little more than a few brief, intense encounters. Some were searching purposefully, some seemed all but lost. Sometimes we were able to help each other, but even if we weren't, each experience brought with it added learning.
For a great number of young learners and their families still making this trek, still in search of a way to that place where the echoes of anguished cries can be subdued by a more joyous and mindful noise of self-discovery, it remains a difficult journey. Not only in Vermont, but everywhere humans exist in all of their diversity. Fortunately, there are tested and true methods to encourage those who experience their learning and attention issues daily.
It is the mission of Vermont Learning-Support Initiative to assist every diverse learner who comes to us with college in mind to attain that goal.
This was the anguished cry, one child's response to the pressure of trying incredibly hard to learn while still not meeting expectations. It was also a heartfelt, and heartbreaking, invitation to somehow ease the pain.
With no firm answers then to my 11-year-old's plea, his question triggered a long, still-unfolding quest to find them. As a college professor, teaching was something I understood, but little of that understanding covered how students learned differently. Fortunately, as the quest began there were people along the way who were willing to engage with and encourage him, instructing me in the process. Gathering information, and, over time, grasping the complexity of my child's dilemma, with its roots in neurological differences that made his interaction with the world so unlike my own, left me better equipped to help guide him. And, for the most part, he always knew that I had his back--even if my expectations for him were high, so that a four-year college degree would remain within reach.
There were peaks and valleys on the way we traveled, of course, but it didn't take long to learn that we were not alone in our journey. Not by any stretch of the imagination. All kinds of others were traveling and searching too, many like us seeking a route to a destination with only fragments of a map--if indeed they had any map at all. Some of these kids and families shared our way for quite a while, but others were alongside for little more than a few brief, intense encounters. Some were searching purposefully, some seemed all but lost. Sometimes we were able to help each other, but even if we weren't, each experience brought with it added learning.
For a great number of young learners and their families still making this trek, still in search of a way to that place where the echoes of anguished cries can be subdued by a more joyous and mindful noise of self-discovery, it remains a difficult journey. Not only in Vermont, but everywhere humans exist in all of their diversity. Fortunately, there are tested and true methods to encourage those who experience their learning and attention issues daily.
- Create a sense of belonging, through friends and community.
- Provide positive support at home.
- And most of all, the strength that derives from believing in oneself--the power of the heart--makes all else possible: nurture it.
It is the mission of Vermont Learning-Support Initiative to assist every diverse learner who comes to us with college in mind to attain that goal.