I have often said, as a teacher and as a parent, that I want my students to do well despite having *insert hidden disability here*. Please, don’t misunderstand me, I want them to work to the best of their abilities and fulfil their potential. I want them all to be successful, but recent events have made me question the word ‘despite’.  It is used too many times in education as a subconscious excuse to limit differentiation, to make all students have to fit the round hole. I don’t think this is a conscious thing – it certainly hasn’t been when I have done it. But it needs to stop.

We expect a child to sit still and not fiddle despite having ADHD, when actually they have an amazing brain that is wired for movement and doing rather than sitting and listening. We tell the gifted student they need retake their test and learn the spellings and do well despite having dyslexia, when actually they have a brain that could find a cure for cancer, or discover a lost world but their brain can’t process how to spell Pythagoras.

Hidden disabilities are easy to overlook, to think that we can mould these amazing square pegs into the preferred round holes. However, would we expect a child in a wheelchair to keep trying to run 100m depsite their disability? Of course not. What about the child who is visually impaired – do they need to try harder to see? No, absolutely not. So why make our SEND children do this?

It is the 21st Century. It is time for change. It is time to embrace what our children are good at, to boost their mental health, to stop trying to make them into round pegs, and let them shine like the amazing dodecahedrons they are!