A Silent Struggle

by Kapilthev kanapathipillai
kapilthevofficial@gmail.com

“If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.” Ignacio Estrada. This is a quote that is lost on the Sri Lankan education system but bamboo rods and beatings still remain as the number one tool to teach. Contrary to our cultural beliefs, this method is the least effective way to teach and it’s particularly detrimental when it comes to children with learning disorders.

Take Dyslexia, for example, a disorder identified 130 years ago by ophthalmologist Rudolf Berlin. People with Dyslexia have difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and their relation to words and letters (University of Oxford , n.d.). Simply put, these are the children who struggle to read and write and saying “Idiot, open your eyes and read what’s on the page. For every spelling mistake, I will give you a beating with a ruler,” will not cure their dyslexia.

It just adds fear, stress and instills unhelpful beliefs. There is also another disorder called Dyscalculia. People with this disorder have difficulty learning or understanding arithmetic or numbers in general. Children with this difficulty do very poorly in math and it’s not due to “laziness or lack of practice or being stupid” and yet children who hear these insults on a daily basis may find themselves believing in such statements.

There is also ADHD Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. This can affect a student’s ability to focus, pay attention, listen, or put effort into schoolwork. ADHD also can make a student fidgety, restless, talk too much, or disrupt the class. Kids with ADHD might also have learning disabilities that cause them to have problems in school (Nemours Kids Health , n.d.). These are often the troublemakers in school who are often punished and since Sri Lanka still practices corporal punishment even though it is illegal to do so, these kids suffer the worst.

While there are numerous disorders we could consider my focus on ADHD, Dyslexia, and Dyscalculia stems from the fact that these disorders can be present in children and remain undiagnosed as these children remain functional and neurotypical otherwise. Children who talk, play, and socialize are fine but only have issues in learning.

It is much easier for people to spot Down syndrome or a speech impediment, or any disorder that is broadly recognized and they have a slightly higher chance of getting the special care they deserve.

I’m not saying every kid that has trouble reading or has trouble doing mathematics suffers from learning disorders but it’s important that children do get tested when they start showing symptoms. Because if they have dyslexia or dyscalculia no amount of practice or insults or beatings will help them.

Early intervention is a must because if they do suffer from dyslexia or dyscalculia etc it will affect them throughout their lives. They require specialized learning strategies that are suited to their unique learning styles.

These children require patience, empathy, and an understanding environment rather than being punished for something they cannot control. With updated and adaptive teaching methods these children can thrive academically and personally.

It’s important to note that these conditions should not to be treated as illnesses, but rather as manifestations of brains that function differently and hold great potential. It means they might be creative thinkers and entrepreneurial individuals. The great Albert Einstein was dyslexic. He was incredible in mathematics but he did not like grammar and always had problems with spelling. Steve Jobs is also another example of dyslexic and gifted. Thomas Edison dealt with dyscalculia, along with Cher the world-renowned singer. There are many successful people with ADHD ranging from decorated Olympians like Michael Phelps to world-famous comics like Trevor Noah.

What is baffling is that learning disabilities and behavioral issues are part of teacher’s training, or at least it is included in their textbooks. However, when I spoke to a teacher who has recently graduated from Teacher’s College in Sri Lanka, he said “Learning Disorders are a part of the studies and training but our lecturers didn’t teach us about it. I went through the text on my own but it was not included in my training.

” The other issue is that no one outside of the psychology and medical field knows about this, which makes it even harder because how can you address the problem that affects the youth if we don’t know or acknowledge that it exists? The sad part is that some private schools and maybe some developed schools like in Colombo do tests for learning disabilities.

Also, kids born to educated and well-off parents would have the resources to provide alternative teaching methods to help these children; while the children studying in public rural schools and even schools in small cities like Batticaloa will continue to suffer due to a lack of knowledge.

In my 12 years of studying in a Sri Lankan public school, I saw everything that hindered our country’s development and its destruction. I started school in 2003 and I was still studying in an old system. I witnessed child abuse carried out in the name of discipline and as an effective way of teaching.

All of this is destroying generations of creative, talented, and entrepreneurial youths. This in turn is impacting our country’s growth and, it will continue to do so if we do not update our way of thinking when it comes to children who perform poorly in academia.

The rest of the world has moved on in this issue long ago and it is time we did so too. I announce a call to action specifically in the media because I firmly believe much of our social thinking is influenced by media. Unfortunately, learning disorders are not widely spoken about in articles, TV talk shows, or Radio programmes and if it has, it has not been talked about widely enough.

Copyright © 5/4/2024 – Kapilthev Kanapathipillai
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