Thanks for the call-outs Malkin.  I hope parents take advantage of our free offerings.

A friend is preparing for the verbal part of the MCAT, the standardized exam that decides whether she gets into Medical school.  I looked at the study guide and sample questions, and it it HARD.  I would struggle with it, and I teach reading. 

So even if your child is brilliant, he (or she) isn’t going to be a doctor without top-of-class reading ability.  He needs the foundation skills to become a strong and motivated reader, as early as possible.  Don’t let our schools convince you to wait until he fails.

There has been several stories and in fact hundreds of stories of dyslexics becoming medical doctors. Here are two such stories. The first story also includes the MCAR exam. “In college, I tackled the sciences only with great trepidation, but after a lot of fretting and a lot of hard work, things turned out all right. For the first time, it seemed possible that I could attend medical school. I signed up to take the MCAT. And yet…the old doubts persisted. Retards did not become doctors; some part of me believed that profoundly. I measured myself against the other premeds and felt that I was too slow, too unaccomplished, too far behind. So I canceled my test date.”  https://www.aamc.org/students/aspiring/inspiring-stories/280712/blake_charlton.html

My 18 year old, threatens to drop out of university on a monthly basis, and I have to give her a pep talk each time. She too, is constantly comparing herself to the other students, as not being accomplished, too far behind, too dumb to be in school and kids like her don’t belong in university.

The next story - “. She also knew that she couldn’t pass standardized tests, and so she applied to Barnard College early decision, without taking the SAT. She only took it after she was already admitted. In college, she continued to camouflage her disability. “I took science and math, placed out of foreign languages, and didn’t have to take history. I started to dictate everything and paid other students to type it up,” she says. Phone calls from her father, a Nobel Prize-winning physician, helped get her into medical school.”  http://dyslexia.yale.edu/benacerraf.html

So yes, top reading skills is of great benefit. All successful dyslexics that have good reading skills are the ones’ who are also very slow readers. Ergo, the accommodations and the old fears of not finishing the exams and tests because of their slower reading pace is the reality for this set of students. In Canada, our post-secondary institutions give dyslexics few breaks when it comes to extra time for writing of exams. In fact, the dyslexics are spending more time in proving that they have dyslexia, that most won’t bother to go through the complicated process of asking for more time. Found this out the hard way, with my 18 year old, and it is a good thing she has a mother to guide her through the process. One needs excellent reading skills, and a background in bureaucratic red tape, to understand the post-secondary institutes are only willing to do the minimum when it comes to the students with LD and students that fall within the Autism spectrum. They are force to do all the heavy lifting in seeking accommodations, and than hear the comments of the officials -“Why bother, statistically speaking you will fail your first year of university.”  That day, spent a whole hour talking to my 18 year old, she was crying her heart out, I’m just too stupid. She prove them all wrong, she passed her first semester by beating the barriers that have been erected by the university officials. 

Now just imagine the non-LD students who do not processed good to excellent skills in reading?  There is absolutely no reason in the world, why 95 to 97 % of the grade 12 graduates have good to excellent reading skills in the K to 12 public education system. My 18 year old has met quite a few of them, where she has the superior skills in math and writing. She ends up tutoring them, and is realizing that the K to 12 education system is doing a poor job all around for all students, and not just the LD kids.

Canada #6 of real countries OECD in science.  Zero problem.

Doug, the PISA results like any other data results must be looked at the whole picture. Since 2006, Canada has been declining in reading, science and math.  One is only fooling themselves by eliminating the city states of China because the PISA mean scores would also drop well below the OECD averages of 494 in math,  496 in reading, and 501 in science. For Canada - mean scores are 518, 523, 525 for math, reading and science respectively.

The China city states are setting the standards, and as well helping in keeping the OECD averages higher. Without them, the OECD average would dropped accordingly.  http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-overview.pd

Next thing one will expect from the K to 12 Canadian establishment in certain quarters, is to downplay the results by removing the top and bottom countries, to highlight Canada’s standings on the PISA rankings. No doubt in my mind, when education services and policies are formulated by removing the bottom achievers and then expect to see different results and improvements for the bottom achievers. It is also done in SE, but it is reverse where education services and policies are formulated based on the bottom SE achievers and expect to see overall improvements for the top SE achievers. For the SE students, there is no improvements whatsoever for the 80 % of SE students, who would be considered top achievers to the 20 % of SE low achievers.

The OECD in their reports has stressed over and over again, that places like Canada are not looking after their bottom achievers. The scores could be as high as the China city states, if the educationalists actually decided to craft policies and services that focuses on the low achievers - the bottom 50 %. But no, can’t have that, low achievers must adapt themselves according to the beliefs of the educationalists who think the bottom 50 % are not worth the time, effort and expense to bring them up to grade level and above. Just like in a typical classroom, where parents have to fight tooth and nail to bring their children up to grade level, or up from a 65 % to their true potential of a 85 %.

Doug, the PISA results like any other data results must be looked at the whole picture. Since 2006, Canada has been declining in reading, science and math.  One is only fooling themselves by eliminating the city states of China because the PISA mean scores would also drop well below the OECD averages of 494 in math,  496 in reading, and 501 in science. For Canada - mean scores are 518, 523, 525 for math, reading and science respectively.

The China city states are setting the standards, and as well helping in keeping the OECD averages higher. Without them, the OECD average would dropped accordingly.  http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-overview.pdf

Next thing one will expect from the K to 12 Canadian establishment in certain quarters, is to downplay the results by removing the top and bottom countries, to highlight Canada’s standings on the PISA rankings. No doubt in my mind, when education services and policies are formulated by removing the bottom achievers and then expect to see different results and improvements for the bottom achievers. It is also done in SE, but it is reverse where education services and policies are formulated based on the bottom SE achievers and expect to see overall improvements for the top SE achievers. For the SE students, there is no improvements whatsoever for the 80 % of SE students, who would be considered top achievers to the 20 % of SE low achievers.

The OECD in their reports has stressed over and over again, that places like Canada are not looking after their bottom achievers. The scores could be as high as the China city states, if the educationalists actually decided to craft policies and services that focuses on the low achievers - the bottom 50 %. But no, can’t have that, low achievers must adapt themselves according to the beliefs of the educationalists who think the bottom 50 % are not worth the time, effort and expense to bring them up to grade level and above. Just like in a typical classroom, where parents have to fight tooth and nail to bring their children up to grade level, or up from a 65 % to their true potential of a 85 %.

Hi Malkin,thank you for your support.

Just like to say that Remediation Plus is committed to vulnerable students who struggle to learn
to read,spell and write by empowering their teachers with the necessary training and tools!
As much as we have 10 reading clinics in Ontario,only one in Toronto,we help the kids through their teachers.

The ‘progressives’ have neglected to train our teachers;between that and the methodology reading war we`re in rough shape everywhere on this issue.
As we well know.