By the end of kindergarten, a child who struggles with reading has experienced failure for about 180 days.
By the end of the first grade, a child who struggles with reading has experienced failure for about 360 days.
By the end of the 2nd grade, a child who struggles with reading has experienced failure for about 540 days.
By the end of the 3rd grade, a child who struggles with reading has experienced failure for about 720 days.
By the end of the 4th grade, a child who struggles with reading has experienced failure for about 900 days.
By the end of the 5th grade, a child who struggles with reading has experienced failure for about 1080 days.
By the end of the 6th grade, a child who struggles with reading has experienced failure for about 1260 days.
By the end of the 7th grade, a child who struggles with reading has experienced failure for about 1440 days.
By the end of the 8th grade, a child who struggles with reading has experienced failure for about 1620 days.
By the end of the 12th grade, a child who struggles with reading has experienced failure for about 2340 days.
Can you imagine the anxiety, depression, the self-esteem issues that come from this repeated, constant, daily agonizing message that they don't measure up? That would be hard for any adult to manage and cope with and here we are talking about kids. Our kids.
Let's never forget that they don't struggle with reading or lose hope because they want to, but because more often than not the system has failed them over and over. It is up to us, to maintain the learning standard and rigor, while we help them rise to it.