Brainworks® - Do Whatever It Takes to Get Kicked Out
Success Stories
Do Whatever It Takes to Get Kicked Out
Kathi Shuford had been concerned about her daughter's learning difficulties since Mary was in preschool. Mary was diagnosed with ADHD early on, but at 14 she was diagnosed with dyslexia which had Kathi stressed. She was concerned how Mary could make it in her very competitive, high achieving school. None of the private tutoring she'd received had corrected her learning problems. Kathi was considering putting her daughter in a private school with smaller class sizes, and therefore had her tested for enrollment purposes.
"Her father and I were shocked to find out that Mary was very bright, in fact, so bright that she had covered for her dyslexia all of these years! The test showed that there was a wide range between her aptitude and her performance skills," reports Kathi.
"I had one of those rare 'moments of truth' one day riding down the highway with her in the car. Mary said she was frustrated with how dumb she felt at school. I knew right there that I had to do something to turn her world around before it was too late."
About this time there was an article in the school paper about Carla Crutsinger coming to Mary's school to talk about struggling children with high potential. Kathi told Scott, Mary's father, that both of them needed to attend because it sounded exactly like what they were living through.
"My stars, Carla started talking, and I realized that she wasn't just describing Mary... she was talking about me! Mary is hyperactive. I'm the inattentive daydreamer. With the two of us trying to get out the door on time with all that ADHD, it is amazing that we managed to survive this long without killing each other. Mary's strong-willed nature and my easy-going nature made discipline difficult. I'd put my foot down and then forget what the consequences were. I wasn't consistent with the rules. Mary liked to argue and has always been manipulative which has been emotionally draining for the whole family. I didn't realize that was ADHD related."
The family decided to take Mary to Brainworks to learn how they could use Mary's strengths to bring up her weaknesses. At the interpretation of her initial testing, Carla graphed out Mary's skills showing exactly where her weaknesses were. Most of them could be attributed to the fact that Mary's ADHD kept her from being able to focus in the classroom. It was like she was trying to listen to a radio station that was filled with static, but there were other "issues" that clearly needed to be addressed just to get through the initial evaluation.
According to Carla, "As soon as Mary walked into the room for the interpretation, she was making a 'statement.' She was in control. Earlier, I'd spent four hours testing her and she was a normal, well behaved kid, but now her parents were there. She wanted everybody to know she was not going to attend Brainworks. She was going sit there, sending text messages to her friends the whole time. Since the meeting was about her and for her benefit, I needed Mary's undivided attention. Our students need to be involved in the plan for their curriculum at Brainworks. When I realized that her parents weren't going to take her phone from her, I reached over and took it. I put it on my side of the table and said "You can have this back when we're done."
The look in her eyes made it perfectly clear-this means war. She wanted out, she wanted Carla gone, and if her parents enrolled her Brainworks she would make everybody's lives a living hell until they kicked her out.
Mary spent the first eight hours of Brainworks instruction sneering, giving everybody the evil eye, and text messaging under the table every chance she got. Carla told her to stop or she would take up her phone and keep it until she came back the next time. That very afternoon she did take the phone and called Mary's father. She talked about the fact that Mary was a cell phone junkie, addicted to text messaging. She said he needed to check the phone statement and see how many minutes she was using and, more to the point, how many of those minutes were during school. You guess it. He almost had a heart attack when he saw the numbers. She was on the phone all during the day and into the night. No wonder her grades were dropping!
Mary's parents had to take a stand about the phone issue. Carla wrote out a contract that said that Mary could not have her phone turned on while she was at Brainworks. If she broke the contract, Carla would keep the phone for one week. Mary and her parents had to sign the contract. Mary balked hoping she could just be kicked out instead, but her parents stood firm and said she had to sign it, and that she would continue coming to Brainworks until she was making 85 or better in all her classes without any late or missing work for 12 consecutive weeks. These were the goals for graduation.
Eventually (slowly) Mary came around. She began to like the math teacher's enthusiastic teaching style and activities she originally called "stupid" began to pay off. Learning her math facts lead to fewer careless errors on math tests. The work she did improving her reading speed lead to her finish her homework in less time. The games and puzzles she thought were pointless were building up her problem solving skills in new ways. Mary became the Grand Champion of a game called "SET." She even started to appreciate Carla pushing her to "raise the bar." She wasn't looking to get kicked out of Brainworks any more. She was determined to graduate. And graduate she did.
Mary's improved performance at school made her feel so much better about herself. That day in the car she said she felt stupid, but by the time she reached all her "graduation goals," she was making mostly "A's!" The year after she came to Brainworks she had an "A" average in all of her classes except one 89 including AP English, Geometry, and Biology. She plans to take two AP courses this year including AP English, Human Geography, and Psychology.
PS: Mary actually likes Carla now. That wasn't one of her graduation goals. She threw that one in for free.