Friday at my service learning I worked one on one with one of the boys who has yet to be placed into special education because as the teacher told me his parents don't want him to be placed into special ed. It was so sad working with him because it was so clear that he needed the extra help. We worked on reading and it was evident that he also has a speech impendement. He struggled so much to read basic books. I ended up reading the story and had him read the words that he knew. After reading we worked on math which was such a struggle. He just simply couldn't understand it, we ended up doing basic kindergarten math and he barely understood that. When we finished the math we went to art class and he was so happy. Art class was his favorite he told me and I understood why. He drew some great pictures. I found it so sad though that this little kid has to struggle so much because of the selfishness of his parents. When I went to leave he came up to me and handed me a picture that he drew for me and thanked me for helping him.
I found it interesting reading Mollie's blog about how she felt she would have to understand all the students in her classrooms background to help reach them and teach them. I think that sometimes in the younger grades that teachers don't feel that it matters as much with little kids but it certainly does and she made a great point to bring it up.
