SPED Intro (Continued)

Unlike our education leaders in Massachusetts, educators who have devoted their lives to promoting academic success in students with different learning styles abhor this test misuse and abuse. Dr. Mel Levine, a professor of pediatrics at University of North Carolina Medical School and director of the university's Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning speaks out in his book, A Mind at a Time:

"On countless evenings, I have driven home from work feeling emotionally depleted, dejected after listening to the sad tales of children who have come to equate education with humiliation. Many of them have been forced to accept labels for themselves, labels that mark them as somehow permanently deviant or dysfunctional, labels like ADD (attention deficit disorder) or LD (learning disability). Others have been placed willy-nilly on several drugs to somehow settle or sedate or soothe their kinds of minds. Adding to the tortuous trails they navigate, many struggling students have been seriously wounded by the current testing mania in our society. Their intellectual identity has been shrunken down to a list of examination scores that will determine their destinies while shedding little light on their true strengths, weaknesses and educational needs."

If you recognize yourself or your child in this description, join MassCARE as we work to expose this misguided policy and make schools safe for those who learn differently.