It is not they are any less able or proficient. Over the past decade, the schools have become even more driven in this respect. Children at younger and younger ages are expected to read. In the U.S., there are children who go to summer school between kindergarten and first grade because they are unable to read at the necessary level. The fact that these same children show other wonderful traits does not matter.

What Potter is calling for, therefore, is nothing new. It is just a new twist (ethnocentrism) on an old theme -- looking at each child separately in a public school system that functions by group rather than individual. Imagine what happens to a child who comes to school all enthused and then within one year sees him/herself not being able to meet an adult's (teacher's) expectations? What happens to that child? Of course these children begin to act out; they are frustrated, they have low self-image. They are floundering.

This is why the suggestions of such educators as Howard Gardner and Mel Levine are more important than ever in culturally diverse school populations. It does not take long for a teacher to recognize that students in a class learn in different ways and have varying areas of interest and expertise. One child does well in math and music, but struggles with language and writing one descriptive sentence. Another student greatly enjoys reading and writing poetry and cannot "get" science. There is a boy who requires a very quiet environment when studying and a girl who learns best when listening to music. It was once incorrectly believed by psychologists that intelligence was a single unit that was inherited: Human beings had a blank slate and could learn anything, as long as it is taught in the right manner....

Instead, says Gardner, there are multiple intelligences.
Similarly, Levine believes that children utilize several different constructs at one time in the classroom. They may have no difficulty in one system, but be very challenged by another. For instance, why does a child have difficulty in comprehension? First, says Levine, are various weaknesses of language processing. For example, many students have a superficial handle on word meanings and a vague connection of one word and how it applies to another. Some learners are challenged instead by nonverbal comprehension gaps. They have difficulties visualizing phenomena. It can be hard for these students to see the distinction between a triangle and a parallelogram, because they are weak at discerning such spatial differences. Teachers who recognize the value of educators such as Gardner and Levine incorporate different types of learning in their educational setting. They allow students to express themselves with words, art, music, math. This gives all students power, equal footing. This makes children proud of their abilities and of their differences from one another. This is not to say that schools have to entirely change their expectations -- reading and writing is part of the Western culture -- but teachers have to be able to recognize that children will learn that reading and writing in different ways and at different speeds and times. No two children learn exactly the same way, nor should they have to.

References

Gardner, H. (1999) Intelligence Reframed. New York: Basic Books, 1999.

Levine, M. (2001) a Mind at a Time. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Purcell-Gates, V. (1995). Other people's words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.