Unequal Childhoods - Annette Lareau [128]
I would just try to get Wendy to get an interest in reading. Go to the library, find out the types of things she’s interested in, read to her, just get her—find out her interests and try to capitalize on them. And just see how far you could get. Because I think Wendy could learn how to read.
The school’s reading resource teacher, Mr. Johnson, echoes the view that, given the proper encouragement outside of school, Wendy “could learn how to read.” He adds tutoring to the list of parent-sponsored interventions.
The first thing I would do is seek some outside help. And the outside help would be—I might put her in something like a tutorial program. There is something at the Salvation Army. They have the same thing at the YMCA . . . [I’d] try to read a story and see if they can pick out any of the words, to try to develop a sight vocabulary.
Despite their agreement that Wendy could learn to read, and that parental input would be essential in her developing this skill, Mr. Tier and Mr. Johnson do not agree on the underlying cause of Wendy’s problems nor on what the most effective institutional response might be. Mr. Johnson is struck by the fact that Wendy performs at grade level in math. He believes she has a reading “phobia,” possibly compounded by other learning difficulties. In his view, it is emotional issues (a “social emotional overlay”) that are the problem. Mr. Johnson’s plan for intervention for fifth grade is to repeat the basic steps involved in reading readiness (a process normally initiated in kindergarten and continued in first grade) to “try to improve her sight vocabulary and some of her language arts skills.”
Mr. Tier and Ms. Green (Wendy’s third-grade teacher) see Wendy’s reading problems differently. Rather than diagnosing Wendy as suffering from a “phobia,” they think she may have neurological problems. In contrast to Mr. Johnson, Mr. Tier feels Wendy should be placed in special education classes full time. Mr. Tier also believes that she should repeat fourth grade. Each of Wendy’s classroom teachers, beginning in second grade, identified her as a student with learning problems and each feels that he or she tried to get additional help for her. But, as Mr. Tier puts it, somehow Wendy “slipped through the cracks”:
Wendy, I think, slipped through the cracks . . . I firmly believe that if Wendy was a little Black girl that she would already have been in a special education type of situation. A kid in fourth grade who can’t read a first-grade reader, something is dreadfully wrong here . . . And Wendy is so cute and so sweet. She has a smile for everybody, and I think somehow or other, I think they did her a terrible disservice by just letting her go forward.
Ms. Driver is somewhat aware that the school may not have fully met its responsibilities in Wendy’s case. For instance, after the parent-teacher conference in the spring, she realizes that the teachers disagree over whether Wendy should repeat fourth grade.
I went to talk to Mr. Johnson after I saw [Mr. Tier]. He said she’s doing fine and she doesn’t need to stay back. He said the same thing—that she can’t stay back ‘cause she’s in Special Ed. He said that she’s only failing [in] reading and spelling but she’s doing fine in math and social studies, so he can’t fail her. But the other teacher (she does not use Mr. Tier’s name) said she has to stay back. They said the opposite things.
When asked for her own “gut feeling” about whether Wendy should be promoted to fifth grade, Ms. Driver says, “I think she should stay back.” Nevertheless, she seems prepared to accept whatever “the school” decides is best for Wendy. Unlike Ms. Marshall, she does not place numerous calls to educators, follow up to find out what happened at the most recent meeting, or express her opinion about what should happen next. Faced with contradictory information, Wendy’s mother seems both bewildered and intimidated by the possibility that any intervention on her part might