Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Learning Styles, Modern Boxes & Christian Responsibility

I mentioned in a recent post my process of motherhood and learning to understand and appreciate the way my middle child does life.

Nate has been diagnosed with learning disabilities, mostly in the area of motor development, but we're also monitoring him for what is called "motor planning." Motor planning is the process of organizing items or ideas sequentially or in logical order. For instance, if you ask Nate, "Why do you use an umbrella?", his answer will likely be, "So you don't get wet." Well, according to the system, the appropriate answer is "Because it's raining." There was a step in the process that was missed...the rain needs to be mentioned before the getting wet part.

So, this brings me to a book I've been reading, Intuitive Leadership by Tim Keel. In this book, Keel tells a bit of his own story and that of his church, Jacob's Well, in Kansas City. He talks about the process of moving within a traditional church model and having an ongoing sense of discomfort. This discomfort urged him, forced him, to do church differently than how he had previously experienced it. Keel has some great thoughts in his book and I consider it a excellent synopsis of several ideas and practices in the emerging church movement. There is one area, though, that stopped me.

On page 126, Keen, drawing on the writings of Neil Postman and Marshall McLuhan, summarized three crises in Western educational systems. The first of these occurred in the 5th century BC, when Athens moved from an oral to written tradition. Moving from a culture of iconic images and stories to writing eventually, combined with the printing press, developed in the 16th century (the 2nd crisis) strongly contributed to a very left brain approach to learning. Getting to the point, on page 130, Keel states "It turns out that linear, sequential, analytic ways of knowing are processed in one part of our brain, or more accurately one hemisphere of our brain; the left hemisphere. Over the last several hundred years that make up modern history, the right brain was left to atrophy. In the emerging culture of the postmodern world we occupy, the use of the right hemisphere of the human brain is making a comeback."

Now, back to Nate. About November of last year, he started begging us to let him play piano. So, I finally signed him up for a "Little Mozart's Music Class" through our local recreation center. In the period of 5 weeks I have seen things click for Nate in a way I have never seen this happen. He loves music, he begs to practice and do his music homework, he never complains about it. Amazingly to me, the stuff that is clicking in music is immediately transferring over to other areas. His writing and coloring skills and his attention span have both improved significantly. Besides that, I see confidence and insight that I knew existed in him, but hadn't really seen manifest itself. For instance, our keyboard has several pre-programmed songs in it. One of them is "What Child is This?". The song is in a minor key. One day Nate was playing around on the keyboard and when this song came on, he looked at me and said, "Mom, this is a sad song, isn't it?" He also now makes up stories to go with the music we're listening to.

It was my turn to have something click. Nate's "disabilities" have been labeled such because he does not fit into the educational/learning boxes currently available through public schools. The goals set up in most of today's school environments are driven by left brain processing. In this way, by labeling Nate with a disability, he is given the help he needs to exist in an environment that is not his natural home. In reality, Nate does not so much have a disability as a different approach to learning and doing life. Nate's answer to why you need an umbrella is the right answer. Just because he didn't get to it through the same process as I might, doesn't negate it's truth.

It makes me realize anew how easy it is to make a category and label anything outside that category as unusual, odd, or simply wrong. It's a pretty natural thing to create those boxes. It might be, as in Nate's case, education. It could be a myriad of other things. My job as Nate's mom is to be his advocate, the person who understands him and balances some odd line of encouraging him and also working with the system on his behalf. It's certainly not a fine science, but it's ongoing goal.

I wonder if that's part of what we are called to as Christians. Understanding that boxes don't always work and that their are people who don't fit and need our help. They might be outside our churches, I'm pretty sure they're sitting in our churches. I know that I often fall into that category.

11 comments:

Tim Keel said...

Hi Amy,

I enjoyed reading your reflections very much and it sounds like your son is an amazing kid. I think you are onto something very important in terms of negotiating what "terms" will be used to proscribe reality for Nate.

I read a pretty amazing article in this month's issue of Wired magazine (16.03 - obnoxious neon cover with the word "Free" scripted across it). You'll notice above the "Wired" masthead the headline for a report in the issue: The Truth About Autism: Everything You Know is Wrong. I am not going to summarize it here but in a similar vein, having a different kind of intelligence (or having one's brain work in a alternate way) does not necessarily equal disability. I hope you'll check it out.

Best wishes.

Amy said...

Tim, thanks so much for taking the time to stop by. Nate is an amazing kid! I feel like I get more glimpses of this daily.

I'll be looking up that article today. I appreciate the reference!

Amy said...

For anyone interested, here's a link to the Wired aricle.

Brad said...

Being the person that I am, and understanding completely that Nate's answer to the umbrella question was ABSOLUTELY the right one (because hey, there could be a water fight outside too), I have to say hooray Sis.

On the face of the issue I agree with Keen on the fact that in the PM church, the right brain is being used. One of the key components of Postmodernism is the [fact] that [facts] aren't quite [factual] all the time.

Nate is classified with a learning disability, as I was at a young age, and yet, I see the same capabilities, in him that are in me.

Whatever you call it, thinking differently IS a good thing.

And thats a [FACT]!

Jemila Kwon said...

Beautiful post, Amy. It sounds like you are walking the art parenting (not the science of parenting) in a wonderful way. I like how you connect that walk to faith. It was the odd ones whom Jesus especially sought out, wasn't it? :)

Amy said...

Brad, thinking and understanding differently is important!

Jemila, thanks for your kind words. Jesus did pick out the odd ones. He also challenged human measuring sticks for understanding greatness.

Anonymous said...

Amy,

Thanks for sharing your story. I have a son who sounds a lot like yours, very much has a different way of seeing the world. In school, it seemed has though everyone was quick to point out what he couldn't do, the deficits he has. He has taught me like it sounds like Nate is teaching you about the expanse of God and the beauty that we each possess. Sometimes we just have to look a bit harder and dig a bit deeper to find it.
Jodi

Amy said...

Jodi, thanks for visiting.

There are so many things Nate has taught us; our understanding of God and appreciation of differences are right at the forefront.

The image of digging deeper is so fitting.


Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Five Children--three diagnosed as dyslexic. The oldest missed being labled probably because we home schooled him up to high school and his reading is only mildly impacted. Still he shows some other signs. The bottom line they all learn differently from the traditional norm. Because we knew in the beginning that they were not virbal-lingustic learners--a Multiple Intelligence (MI) term--we chose to home school. IN THEIR OWN WAY by Thomas Armstrong is a great book about learning differences. It uses the theory of Multiple Intelligence as its base. It's been out for a while. Your library might have a copy.

Anonymous said...

Amy ... I loved this post. As an educator by training and now a homeschooler, I think your son's answer to the umbrella question was right on target. We absolutely use umbrellas to stay dry. He landed in the bull's eye and just didn't bother with all the other rigamarole. I think there is much we miss in our modern paradigm for education. But learning can happen anytime anywhere. So can our understanding of faith.

This is beautiful ...

Amy said...

Minnow, thanks for sharing your experiences and for the book recommendation. I'll be sure to check that out. I have homeschooling in the back of my mind depending on how Nate fares at school.

Sonja, thanks for your affirmation of Nate and our process. I kept wondering what was wrong with his answer and why it was such a problem that he didn't answer it in one particular way.