"NZ Schools Put Children On Path To Crime"

From Infonews.co.nz

"Traditional ways of dealing with dyslexia in the classroom are a formula for failure – creating low self-esteem and pushing kids towards a life of crime, according to a visiting international dyslexia expert.

Neil Mackay is in New Zealand to host a sold-out nationwide series of workshops for teachers and parents during Dyslexia Action Week (15-21 June). "

"How to Create a Criminal"

"A consultant to government and educational organisations in UK, Hong Kong and Malta, Mr Mackay has put together an ironic nine-step guide to ‘How to Create a Criminal’, outlining what the education system does wrong for dyslexic students. He says that right now, many New Zealand schools are unwittingly following that guide – starting with schools putting too much emphasis on reading at the expense of thinking and other core skills."

Route to offending begins with undiagnosed learning issues

"Mr MacKay’s controversial but powerful views on the links between dyslexia and youth offending are in line with those of New Zealand’s Principal Youth Court Judge Andrew Becroft, who has identified a “route to offending” which begins with classroom difficulties caused by undiagnosed learning issues.

"I am seriously concerned as to the number of young offenders who have slipped through the ‘educational net’ because of undiagnosed learning disabilities, especially dyslexia. Overseas a pathway to eventual offending, originating from undiagnosed and unaddressed dyslexia is well-known,” Judge Becroft says.

Research is currently being planned to ascertain how many young offenders in the three youth justice custodial residences in New Zealand suffer from dyslexia or other learning disabilities. “There is a real need in New Zealand to analyse this important issue more closely,” Judge Becroft says....."

Read on : NZ Schools Path to crime