Accommodations

We often think of accommodations in education for the strugglers, those who are “behind”, those who need something more to keep up.

But what about those who excel?

They too need accommodations.

Just like the “strugglers”, they will disengage and disconnect from an activity if it isn’t meeting their needs. Their boredom could echo those behaviors we often associate with the strugglers: inattention, distractability, day dreaming, speaking out of turn, silly behaviour etc

So how do we accommodate those who excel?

It isn’t always as easy as giving them more, especially if more isn’t developmentally appropriate.

It’s something I’ve been really pondering in all aspects of life, beyond education, even for myself and the adults around me, and especially my children!

The pondering is a direct result of my work in the Waldorf Handwork Teacher Training and how as students we are always challenged to meet needs, and not follow a dogmatic list of projects.

My wooly sheep, pictured here, is an attempt at an accommodation for a quick knitter who finished their knitted lamb and needs something more, but not necessarily another lamb. It involves precision, new skills, patience and a whole lot of fluffing. Might work for someone!

I had intended to trim and shape the wool, but when asked for his opinion, my husband jokingly said sheep rarely have scissors to trim their fly-aways 🤣 So Sherman the Disheveled Sheep it is!

Until next time,
Marina