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School.... should our kids be perfect in everything?

My problem with schools and education these days is the belief that kids have to be perfect in everything.  Parents come to me with worries about their child who is behind in reading, math, coordination, or some aspect of their progress.  We are not perfect but we are going to raise a perfect child.  We spend a huge amount of time and money trying to advance the child’s weaknesses and very little in improving their strengths. For example, if the great artist like Michael Angelo were in our schools at this time, they would not let him go to art class because he was slow in reading and must have hours of special classes.  Or a great singer like Jennifer Lopez can’t go to voice lessons since she can’t do algebra.  That is why I am not for “no pass no play”.   I understand what it is trying to accomplish but keeping a young person from learning a sport that will earn them more money than I earn just because they are failing in a certain area does not seem right.  It is not worth banging away all day on their weaknesses and harming their self-esteem when their weak areas just get better with maturing, time, and development of their brains control over their body.  There is not an effective way to speed up maturity.  There is no physical therapy that will make an infant walk at 10 months old who is not developed and will not walk until 15 months old.  They will improve with some therapy and the parents working with the infant.  But stressing them all day long will not make them walk any sooner.  Same with slow readers or clumsy second graders.  We need to work on their weak areas some but we need to work more on their strengths in order to let them really blossom in the areas in which they are talented.   

I believe in speech therapy.  Kids who are late speaking clearly are common.  The tongue is the most delicate muscle of the whole body.  The child walks well long before he speaks clearly so the coordination of the tongue is late developing. For example, when adults get inebriated, slurred speech starts before staggering.  Certain neurological disorders will start with speech defects before other symptoms.  So just as some infants walk early and some walk late, there are also some infants who will talk clearly early and some not until 6-10 years old.  It is a neurological development in the brain's control over the tongue muscle, and even though speech therapy is important, it will not make them talk clear next month.  The therapy is great extra practice but going to a big city and spending a fortune of money for a "better therapy" will not get them there any sooner.  Many kids do not speak clearly until 4 years old and if people cannot understand what they are saying, then get speech therapy then.  Some special kids need speech therapy at a much younger age. If everyone understands what they are saying at 4 but there are just some sounds not clear, then start speech therapy in the schools at kindergarten.