Trego's Mountain Ear

I was a beginning teacher – and I had a student who just couldn’t get it.  He’d done a tour in the army, where he’d been a Gama Goat driver.  A Gama Goat is about the closest the military gets to a rubber tired skidder, so I figured that his problems with math were something Doc Brown could fix.  I referred him to her shop – and then I got a phone call.

Doc and I discussed my student – we agreed he was a pleasant young man, but she agreed that he had problems with math.  She was going to do some further testing – what sort of tests would I like her to run?  That’s a heady question for a first-year teacher specializing in cowboy engineering.

Flattered at being included in the process, I answered.  “Doc, I think we should start with an IQ test.”  I was green.  I didn’t know all of the tests they have for learning disabilities.  I sure didn’t expect the disappointment in her answer: “Mike, you do know that a low IQ isn’t a learning disability?”  My reply confirmed my ignorance: “But what could be more of a learning disability than being stupid?”

So I learned – a low IQ is an intellectual disability.  Learning disabilities affect a student’s abilities to master specific skills.  Forty-five years later, I still haven’t totally accepted that simple explanation. I’ll work with the framework, but somehow it seems like we’re copping out.  I’ll agree with the definition – a low IQ is an intellectual disability – but somehow it seems to also be a learning disability.

Most of the tests that matter are essentially IQ tests.  The military has the ASVAB – Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery.  Its average score is 50, with standard deviations of 10 points.  A friend was talking about his ASVAB score – or perhaps I should say knocking the Air Police.  So I checked the requirements for Air Force security – 33.  Yeah, definitely below the average 50. 

The IQ test is normed to 100, with standard deviations of 15 (16 on the Wechsler test).   Time on the school board has left me unhappy with special ed – they test our kids, and do a pretty good job.  Then the idea of an intervention is to hire a paraprofessional – which translates to a high school graduate who spends time with the kid working on math or reading.  Special Ed is not always a racket – but too often we provide very good testing and then prescribe less than mediocre interventions.  Where we need a great teacher to deal with ‘intellectual disabilities’, we hire a teacher’s aide who might only have a few hours of online training.  We do all of our students a disservice if this intervention makes sure no child is left behind.

And there was no intervention to make my gama goat driver a capable engineering technician. The last time I saw him, he was tending the oven at Shaky’s Pizza.  When I asked about him 3 months later, the owner replied “We had to let him go.  Nice guy, but he couldn’t get a pizza right.  An intellectual disability isn’t the same as a learning disability.