Many talk about the jump from learning support to other classes being a rewarding experience: a tough but exciting educational battle. As someone who has gone from the MiniLit English program and the maths learning support program, I can say this isn’t true.
Yes, doing these classes that are of higher expectation are rewarding, but do you know what’s more rewarding? getting merits for answering questions right. I miss being able to do something and be rewarded and given appreciation. Sometimes I think we all need that.
What was more fun than merits? Scented stickers and lollies! In Year 4, I was in a small learning support class with 4 people in it. We all were given the task every lesson of completing a sheet full of times tables. The majority of these days we were given scented stickers and lollies to make us more excited for this class.
In some ways, this class asked a lot of us. Finding somewhere to put all the stickers we were given was a challenge. I’m being completely serious; my mum would ask where I got all my stickers from and thought I was stealing them from my siblings and friends. (in all seriousness, I was struggling with maths and it was a hard class for a nine-year-old me.)
When the four of us who were in this class see each other now, we often bring up how much fun this class was. We had our little group for maths and stickers. We enjoyed the class so much that we would brag to everyone around us that we were having more fun than they were.
In reality, I think that learning support classes shouldn’t be the only classes where we get high amounts of praise, I think that I should still be encouraged to put in an effort and be told we did a good job a lot more. A week ago my English teacher told me I did great work that day and I immediately told my friends at lunch and my mum when I got home. I think almost everyone despite not showing this would appreciate more encouragement when it comes to their work.
If you missed out on the fun that is learning support classes, you have no idea of the type of enjoyment and happiness you get out of those classes. Some people look down on those who were in learning support classes those people are also the type to have no apple-scented stickers on their diaries.
