Lexi Lemoire-Drouillard has struggled with reading and
writing since before she ever set foot in a school. Lexi has dyslexia as does
her older brother Liam, her mother Michelle and her father Aaron but her
brother Bailey and sister Hannah show none of the telltale signs and are
excelling in school.
Michelle now works as an EA so she sees first-hand how
children with learning disabilities struggle in mainstream classrooms. Liam
overcame his struggles with reading by attending the Sagonaska Demonstration School
in Belleville, a residential school that specializes in learning disabilities.
One of four demonstration schools in the province that came under review in
2016 by the Provincial School Board and the Ministry of Education. The Ministry
has opened registration for the fall of 2016 with no guarantees after that.
During his two years at Sagonaska Liam’s reading skills
jumped from first grade level to eighth grade level which got him ‘caught up’
to his age level. Michelle credits the Sagonaska school for changing her son’s
life. Her fear was that his learning disability would prevent Liam from ever
being able to get a job and collecting Ontario Disability Support. Instead Liam
is a college educated hard worker who intends to return to college to further
his employability.
Lexi has always written her letters and words back words
that is just how her brain works. Each letter and the word itself from right to
left. Her brain functions a little differently but today, educators know how to
deal with these types of Learning Disabilities and the Ontario Demonstration
schools are research based programs that exemplify this sentiment.
The question that naturally arises is why can’t local boards
provide the same programming? No one can blame the province for wanting to get
out of the residential school game. Michelle sees it as a funding issue.
Schools simply do not have the funding to separate out students into smaller
groups.
Class sizes were a major stumbling block during the last
round of contract negotiations with teachers’ unions in Ontario. The rule is an average elementary class size of 26 across each school board the reality
is classes often exceed this for any number of reasons. The teachers’ union argued
that when students with learning disabilities are identified in a class then the class should be decreased. But if the research
based demonstration schools are having success in classes of 8 students is
going from 26 students to 22 enough to support students with severe dyslexia?
Lexi wants to go to Sagonska school to get the extra
attention she needs to get her reading levels and math skills up to her age
level. She attended meetings and protests even a press conference at Queens
Park with her local MPP to explain why she thinks demonstration schools are an
important service that should not be cut. Speaking with Lexi you can tell she
is a very smart child who has the power to overcome her learning disability
with the right attention.