The classroom fit

At New York City’s prestigious Dalton School, 36 percent of kindergartners are considered to have learning problems. In affluent Greenwich, Conn., 19.8 percent of students are learning disabled. Between 1980 and 1998, the number of students enrolled in special education in New York City more than doubled. In a recent commentary in the New York Times, Arthur Levine, the president of Teachers College at Columbia University, notes that these numbers are not part of an over-applied fad of labeling students but of a fundamental shift from the industrial model of teaching to an information-age-based one in which education is tailored to meet the demands of individual students.

It is a fascinating thought, and one that might be seen in Maine’s percentage of learning disabled students, which rose from 13 percent in 1992 to 16 percent today. More to the point, Maine has been discussing various versions of its Learning Results for nearly a decade, which emphasize portfolios that show what a student has learned individually rather than a transcript simply indicating classes passed.

“We are heading to an era in which schooling will change profoundly,” according to Mr. Levine. “The teacher will not be the talking head at the front of the classroom, but the expert on students’ learning styles, the educational equivalent of a medical doctor. Children will no longer be grouped by age. Each student will advance at his or her own pace in each subject area through individualized tutorials, student-centered group learning and a cornucopia of new technology and software.”

The public, however, is being misled by the term “learning disabled,” because it suggests that these students have overt mental deficiencies. The growing number – and expense – of programs for the learning disabled makes taxpayers suspicious. Many ask, reasonably, why school districts are now finding all these students who need tutoring, one-on-one teaching, learning labs and the ubiquitous IEP (Individual Education Program) when such students apparently did not exist just a generation ago.

The answer is broad and includes everything from mainstreaming students once sent to private or state schools to the expectation that everyone will earn at least a high-school diploma if not a college degree. (In 1940, less than 5 percent of Maine high-school graduates went to college; now, more than half do.)

But it also includes a recognition of different types of intelligence and a better understanding, through brain research, of how people learn. Mr. Levine suggests that learning disabilities would more accurately be called learning differences. A good idea.

Shoppers can design their own computers before buying them, they can have hundreds of body measurements scanned for a perfect fit for clothing, design telephone services to fit their needs and choose among a dozen varieties of peanut butter or orange juice at the grocery store. That kind of individualized service is now moving into the classroom, where personal fit may soon become the standard measure.