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PURPOSE: An Overview
Dr. Jeannette Vos believes that every single human being
is potentially gifted in some way, and rejects the term learning
disabilities in favor of a more positive descriptor - learning
differences.
"You don't have to put a butterfly into
its cocoon," she tells audiences. "It's already in there! The question
is, will
the environment of the cocoon nourish the butterfly's development and eventual emergence
into the garden?"
When individuals are labeled average, slow or
learning disabled, they often respond by suppressing hidden talents, becoming what we
expect and no more. Latent abilities never emerge, or if they do we fail to recognize and
reinforce them.
The key is to create environments that
nurture all of the senses and encourage the emergence and experience all the multiple
intelligences and the many different learning and thinking styles. Environments that give
learners the nourishment and confidence to grow, strengthen, and test their incomparable
wings - and, eventually, to soar. |