We are grateful for the two parents who shared their experiences in this episode. Their stories reflect how Noble has uniquely addressed and catered to their children's educational needs in ways other schools could not. They wear their #ProudToBeNoble badge with honor. If there's someone in your circle contemplating Noble or how to help their child with learning differences (like ADHD, dyslexia, or processing issues), consider sending them this episode - it might be just what their family needs. https://nobleknights.org/
This episode is dedicated to all the Noble parents out there, and especially to Michelle and Adelle.
Gayle:
My husband and I raised two kids, who are now 18 and 20. One learned in the most typical of ways, and one had learning differences. Although we did get evaluations and assessments, we didn’t need a specialist to tell us what we could see with our own eyes: mainstream classrooms could meet the needs for one of our children, but not the other. We, as parents, needed to find something better, something more specialized, if we didn’t want our son to be left behind.
Noble parents have been experiencing the same thing for many years.
Michelle:
Hi. I'm Michelle Malloy. My son attended Noble Academy starting in the 6th grade, and then he graduated from Noble in 2018.
Zachary started in the public school system in kindergarten. And at that point, we had no idea that he had ADHD or any type of learning differences. And quickly, even from kindergarten, as soon as he started, we noticed that there were some challenges.
And so he actually moved to a charter school where we felt that there would be even more structure and more opportunity to address some of those challenges. And he actually did elementary school. He actually did fairly well in the charter school, and I think it was again because the teachers were flexible, willing to accommodate, and just be super helpful. However, as soon as he started middle school in 6th grade, that's where it became apparent that their help was no longer gonna be enough.
And I think, you know, some of his other challenges around learning and social interactions were becoming quite evident too. And in middle school, that can be a tough time, I think, for kids in making that adjustment, and some kids can be pretty mean too. So in addition to worrying about some of the academic challenges, we were also worried about some of the social interactions and the challenges. I was worried we were worried about Zachary starting to notice that he was a bit different and starting to feel isolated and not feeling like he had his people and his community around him.
So it was fairly early into the 6th grade where we started to think about, is this gonna work? Do we need to look at and explore other options? And that's when we heard about Noble.
I live here in the area, so I had driven by the school multiple times, not fully understanding exactly what it was or the services that were provided. But that combined with when I started to have some conversations with both the administration and the teaching staff at the school where he was, where he was in 6th grade, they actually mentioned Noble as well. And so, I said, oh, I've seen that place. Let me do a little bit of research.
ADELLE
Hi, my name is Adele. My son Nicolas has been attending Noble's since fifth grade and he's now a senior.
So prior to coming to noble? Nicolas was struggling in pretty much every aspect other than the social aspect at school. He loved going to school and being with his friends. At the time we were living in Australia and we were struggling living in an educational system that did not cater to individual differences. So his individual differences in terms of ADHD weren't respected or considered his individual differences in terms of his significant difficulty with reading his significant difficulties with phonics, was just a repeated concern over and over again. And we get to the point in fifth grade where we have this completely stressed out little fella who at home was bright, articulate, curious about the world, and was just getting more and more debilitated at school and blaming himself for a bunch of problems that weren't his alone to solve,
The things that really struck me in our first tour of noble were was the fact that the things that I've been reading about. So all of what the research told me should be in a school environment was there. So I was watching small groups of students interact very closely with a teacher who was making differences in how they were approaching the material to suit individual students in that class. And I was seeing that happen. I was seeing teachers hit the pause button because the class needed a bit of a movement break, and seeing the kids kind of go down the hallway and run out the back door into the field to have a run around -- so all the things that I knew from my, you know, as a parent trying to understand ADHD in particular, I was seeing that in place somewhere that it wasn't rocket science. You could actually design curriculum, you could teach teachers how to do this, and I think I was also seeing teachers who really did care about. How they were modifying curriculum. I also saw kids that were happy, that were engaged, that were engaged with each other, that were relating well to a teacher, so there were smiles.
And so yeah, one thing kind of led to the other, but certainly after I did my tour at Noble, I remember calling my husband back in Australia, um, in tears, saying, you know, I have found it. It was like going to Disneyland. I remember saying that to him, "This is it. This is where we need to be."
And then we were super excited when we got here to see that the classes, even though smaller, I mean, there were still 6 to 8 to even 10 children, so there were our students. So there was plenty of opportunity for interactions to meet, to have friends. That combined with the social activities that the school was hosting, along with the various athletics. I mean, Zachary played golf, he played frisbee football. He played, I think, flag football. You know, he was involved in a number of sports as well, so we felt like he had his people. He had his community.
As I mentioned, when he was in middle school and starting to make that transition, like moving to different classes and having to keep up with materials, assignments, different teachers, again, that was a big struggle for him. So, knowing that Noble wasn't just gonna teach curriculum and content in a different way, but they were trying to prepare him to learn how to deal with some of those shifts and changes that are part of that, you know, a typical kind of educational experience, I think it was incredibly important. So, learning that he had an opportunity at the very start of the day to come to an advising group to kind of reflect on the day, what do you need to do to be prepared, How do you take notes in your planner so that you can go back and reference this? Okay. We're also gonna regroup at the end of the day. I can't tell you when he was, you know, in elementary school, at his previous school, how many times he'd come home and there'd be homework and he wouldn't have a book or he wouldn't have the worksheet that he was supposed to complete. So even the check-ins at the close of the day to make sure you have everything that you need, you're clear about what you need to accomplish for homework that night, It made our evenings much more enjoyable. I mean, so obviously still had homework, which I think is part of that, you know, excellence in curriculum and still pushing the kids to achieve as much as they can. But we had far fewer, you know, arguments, if you will, in the evening about not having your book, not being clear about what your homework is supposed to be. And I think any parent, with a child that has ADHD or some, you know, struggles with organization, they've all I think we've all probably had some of those nights, and they're they can be rough.
So not to have to do that every evening was a huge relief.
ADELLE:
I can't say enough about the benefits of the Wilson program, and about being at a school where the Wilson program has been, um, consistently delivered with highly competent teachers. Um, and we have seen firsthand the benefits of that approach. And I was amazed at how quickly we saw the benefits of it. So the fact that every day there's repetition around. Learning to read the fact that it's done first thing in the morning, or if not, the first class, the second class. So while he's fresh, he's tackling the hardest thing for him alongside other people that are also kind of freaked out by this reading thing and, and kind of had lost, he lost the sense of why reading was even fun in the first place. And so to be able to see that transition, and if I look back in terms of timing, I would say about five months, six months in, um, he was starting to read more independently. He was able to decode words easier. He was just starting to get more confident. And then it seemed like before we knew it, I think it was during the initial period of Covid in particular, where you'd walk by a zoom meeting and you would hear him reading something and stop and, and look, what is he doing? And, the first couple of times I could hear him read aloud from a book. It just you just end up in tears. Everyone around, everyone in our family, like, I was doing a little videos and sending it to his grandparents.
I think one of the moments that stands out for me is when he was inducted into the National Honor Society. Knowing that he had ADHD and he had some learning differences and challenges, I don't know that I ever expected that that was a possibility. In some ways, you know, and this is horrible for me to say or at least admit, I think I had made some inaccurate assumptions that in terms of academic excellence that was something that wasn't necessarily going to be in his future. And so when I saw him get inducted, I was like, it is possible. If you're in the right environment, getting the right instruction and putting in the hard work, I don't wanna take away anything from him either. And putting in the hard work that everything is possible, that he had the same possibilities and options and potential here that any other student could have anywhere else. So that was, like, a big deal for us, and it was a really proud moment.
Gayle:
With my parent hat on, I can relate so much to Adelle and Michelle, only my family was not lucky enough to find a school like Noble in the K-12 years. I really wish we had. So I want to encourage anyone listening to this right now to think for a moment: Do you know someone you think would benefit from the Noble experience? Someone whose son or daughter is not getting the necessary support to be successful in school because of a learning difference like ADHD, dyslexia, or a processing or math disorder?
If so, tell them about Noble. Encourage them to check it out. We offer personalized, individual tours. And we offer programs that can change the lives of whole families for the better.
You heard from just two in this episode, but in the few short months since I started as Head of School at Noble, I’ve had at least 8-10 parents seek me out to share similar stories. Thanks, Michelle, Adelle, and all the Noble parents out there.