“Differentiation Happens in the Classroom”
An unfunny joke being played on students, parents, and teachers by public education
Our son recently had a re-assessment by our division’s school psychologist in preparation for junior high. The school psychologist reached out to me beforehand to ensure we were all on the same page.
Our son had been identified as ADHD and gifted back in 2019. The general recommendation is that psychoeducational assessments be reviewed approximately every five years, since children change so much, especially in the younger years.
Given the constant funding cuts to our education system — especially student services such as psychology, guidance, counselling, and educational assistants (EAs) — the school psychologist wanted me to know she was only going to follow-up on areas indicated by the previous psychologist that warranted further exploration.
She was not going to be able to re-do the entire psychoeducational assessment, including IQ testing. I said that was fine with me, I am not concerned with his IQ, and it doesn’t make any difference in Manitoba’s education system anyway.
Manitoba Education doesn’t recognize gifted learners as needing differentiated programming and I didn’t mince my words when expressing my disappointment with this systemic failure.
“Well, the differentiation happens in the classroom,” she said.
HA.
That’s it. That’s the joke.
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