The Rockaway College Concept Paper: Stand Alone Service for this Student Population

III. RATIONALE FOR STAND ALONE SERVICE TO THE BRIGHT NEURO-DIVERSE:

Neither general education populations nor inclusive or pull-out mainstream classes nor variants of the mainstream such as multi-age classrooms provide the models of learning or of social behavior or the affective conditions necessary for schooling success for the bright neuro-diverse.

A general education student population surrounding the bright neuro-diverse with youngsters different than themselves could provide competency behavior models which might benefit those in need of identification with learning and social behaviors beyond that borne from natural inclinations.  But, under the contemporary conventional schooling pressure of standardized curriculum, whole group learning, standardized classroom and social behaviors, nearly standardized instruction, universal assessment and roughly equal outcomes, modeling offered to the bright neuro-diverse grossly favors an incredibly narrow range of learning and of social behavior discouraging and disadvantaging those outside the band of standardization, especially those wanting to learn at their own speed, not someone else's, in their own way, not in lock step, to skip over work already known and understood, to study things of interest beyond basic school work, to work with abstract concepts that require more than simple thinking and to approach social-emotional demands according to a compensated biology rather than a straight-jacket of unrealistic behavioral expectations.

The standardization of leaning and of social behavior of the contemporary conventional mainstream school completely denies difference and in the end forces youngsters who are neurologically atypical to work against their biological constructions.  Indeed, remediation and accommodations undertaken in the mainstream setting are placed in service of common behaviors and of common learning, thus, demanding youngsters to repress those elements of personality driving need for different knowledge seeking, acquisition and use and for distinctive expressions of their psycho-social dynamic resulting in the denial of those needs and in the development of negative psychological impacts. 

One of the great tragedies of the Twice-Exceptional in conventional schooling is that they are demanded to standardize their knowledge needs and behaviors to the rest of their cohorts, thereby going against their neurological imperatives creating great psychic damage as they repress their innate powers in order to comply. 

Even if a multi-age mainstream classroom allows for more individualized learning and social behavior, the marked differences among the grouping are sublimated to the standard range demanded by contemporary conventional measures severely distressing identification.  In fact, the propensity of those falling on either side of the standardized student to feel and to behave the same as the standardized student tends to draw the different to those who the different want to be like; and since these “models” tend not to be who the different actually are, the different are discomforted and disadvantaged as their expectations of their own behavior can never be realized. 

Whether inclusive or pull-out programmed the arrangements for remediation and accommodation bringing those on either side of that narrow band of standardized learning and social behavior to within that band are a daily exercise in being considered by the system and everyone in it as much less than normal; putting that kind of difference squarely in children’s faces, especially of the bright neuro-diverse, results in severe emotional disturbance for those so programmed.

However, it must be said that there is an increased possibility of competency modeling in a multi-age classroom but, in effect, the culture of a mainstream general education classroom far more assures notice of difference disturbing the different instead of providing a positive influence as the different are subject to the spot-lights of remediation and accommodation. 

It must be admitted here that a Democratic Education environment which by definition allows children to be in their own way can provide competency modeling benefiting the bright neuro-diverse in need of identification with learning and social behaviors beyond that borne from natural inclinations, although there remains the possibility of negative emotional effects of unrealistic self-expectations coming from mismatched identification.  But, the child culture inherent within a general education population even within a Democratic Education environment segregates children into “normal” and “other”, creating continued emotional disturbance for those, such as the bright neuro-diverse, who in every general education population tend to be considered “other”.

Indeed, there is unacceptable tension between the possible benefits of the modeling available through a general education population in an inclusive mainstream classroom and variants thereof, and in a Democratic Education environment and the need of those perceived as different within that population, as are the bright neuro-diverse, to feel comfortable in their own skins, which, after all, is most critical for schooling success in what ever way one wishes to define it.

So, yes, there needs to be a range of difference enough to provide a number of possible ways of learning and of being open to experimentation to one and to all and thus a variety of competency models from which to be like; at the same time there needs to be a population similar enough for the neuro-diverse youngster to have positive identification with other youngsters, to feel accepted, confirming the legitimacy of personal identity, developing positive self-concepts, preventing the development of maladaptive coping mechanisms and forming solid foundations for the prevention of possible future social and emotional problems.  A general education population in a contemporary mainstream setting is too standardized to provide realistic expectations of modeled behavior; and a mainstream and Democratic Education general education population is too susceptible to hurtful affinity grouping bullying, disrespecting and excluding the bright neuro-diverse.

The broadest range of “other” children providing a number of possible ways of learning and of being while lowering the possibility of perceived difference by the schooling system and everyone in it, and, thus, to as much as possible prevent the different from being targets for bullying, disrespect and exclusion is represented by the full spectrum of gifted and talented, from the conventional who are comfortable in complying with customary schooling demands, to the unconventional who are just made crazy because they are truly other in their knowledge needs and, of course the Twice-Exceptional themselves. 

Therefore, an affinity environment composed solely from the spectrum of gifted and talented is required for bright neuro-diverse youngsters to fully affectively accept their being on the spectrum of normal, to fully understand and affectively accept the nature of what that normal is and work through those characteristics in the individual expression of normal rather than to fight behaviors into those presumed normal, and thus, to have the best opportunity for schooling success.