Honoring Neurodiversity

When Dr. Edmund Cervone established the Center for Learning at The Pennington School in 1975, he created a mission for the program that still stands today. This mission includes the tenet that students who learn differently than their more typical peers (students who have been labeled as learning disabled) should have full access to a college preparatory program. Dr. Cervone envisioned an academic environment that honored the individuality of all learners, both neurotypical and neurodiverse, and he approached teaching in such a way that all students had the opportunity not only to achieve their academic goals but also to attain individual excellence. At the time that it was first articulated, this vision may have seemed somewhat radical. Even today, there are still those who may think that addressing the needs of students labeled with learning disabilities within a college preparatory setting might compromise the rigor of the academic program. Almost fifty years of experience serving neurodiverse students at The Pennington School has demonstrated otherwise. In articulating his philosophy of learning, Dr. Cervone asserted, “that understanding transcends memorization, verbalization, and coverage, … that processes bear equal value to content, that there are multiple intelligences, … and that the best principles of learning for students with differences or disabilities are the best principles for all students.”

Working to continually develop and refine a curriculum that will help students meet the changing demands of college and life in the 21st century provides exciting opportunities for educators. From the perspective of the Edmund V. Cervone Center for Learning, these opportunities go beyond reasserting our founding beliefs about learning. For neurodiverse students, this reframing of educational goals represents a move from focusing only on some of the basic skills that may have represented stumbling blocks in the past. For example, because of the wide availability of simple technology tools such as spell check, there is no longer a need to spend tremendous amounts of instructional time addressing spelling problems (a common difficulty for students with dyslexia). — — Instead, we see a move to curricular goals that are accessible by their very nature. A curriculum that also focuses on higher-order thinking skills, cross-curricular understandings, collaboration, creativity, and real-world problem-solving abilities appropriately challenges all students. And for those who learn differently, that difference can be a strength that they can bring to bear to meet these curricular goals.

The concurrent development and further refinement of educational and assistive technologies add to the excitement. While not a panacea, we can make available assistive technologies that can provide ways to get over, under, and around a host of potential obstacles. Voice recognition software allows students to use their strong verbal abilities without being hampered by problems with written expression. Text-to-speech software programs make the world of electronic text, including the internet, accessible to all students, even those with reading difficulties. Technologies designed to support learning for all students, such as online note-taking platforms, online collaboration tools, e-books, and AI-powered tools, can make abstract concepts tangible and further enhance the student experience. These tools are not only transforming the way that all students interact with the curriculum, but also these tools are further breaking down potential obstacles for students with learning differences. Dr. Cervone believed that “learning should be a nurturing of success rather than a cataloging of errors.” In every way, we should focus on what students can do well, not on what they cannot do well. We are continually finding ways to help students work to their strengths, and technology innovations and a focus on 21st-century skills are working hand-in-hand in ways that allow us to serve all of our students--neurotypical and neurodiverse--better and better all the time. Now more than ever we can see “that the best principles of learning for students with differences or disabilities are the best principles for all students.”

—Jo Prockop, Director of the Edmund V. Cervone Center for Learning
Edmund V. Cervone Endowed Chair