Susan Senator

I have never thought of Benji as a Left Brainer, but that’s because I didn’t know much about it. This blog, “Out in Left Field,” by my friend Katie Beals, who has a book coming out on the subject within the year, is a new one in the blogosphere. I have already learned so much from it. I am struggling with this very issue, as Ben goes through school, because I see how much of a different thinker he is. I see the staff in his school jumping to label him as something, to get him whatever help they can offer, or to get me to do more for him. But it is currently a big swamp I feel stuck in. Once again, there is the Ben I know, with all this incredible academic and artistic ability, and humor, and the Ben the school sees, truculent, challenging, sometimes blank, sometimes brilliant.

So much of his success depends on the subject and also the teaching technique. And in an era where we are so standards-driven, so one-size-fits-all, from our body types to our classroom performance, I worry so much about how to get Ben through middle school unscathed and fully blossomed.