Thank You to Reading Rockets for Recommending this Story
[Source: NPR.org]
We all knew the “wild child” in school, the one who couldn’t sit still during story time, or raise her hand to speak in class. Elizabeth Weil has written a piece for the New Republic, asking if it’s the child’s fault, or the education system’s. She talks with host Michel Martin.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
And now we turn to another story about education, specifically, about educating that kid. You know, the one we all remember from our school days? Maybe we were that kid, the one who was always cracking jokes, who couldn’t sit cross-legged for very long, who just didn’t or couldn’t follow the sit down, stay still, keep quiet program. More and more these students are being given clinical diagnoses, whether it’s attention deficit disorder or something else. Sometimes they’re even sent to therapy to address their behavior but author Elizabeth Weil is asking teachers and parents to think twice about labeling school children this way. She wrote the cover story for this month’s issue of the New Republic. It’s called “American Schools are Failing Nonconformist Kids. Here’s How.” And she’s with us now to tell us more about it. Welcome. Thanks so much for joining us.
Listen to this Story on NPR.org