Newgrange continues to look at abilities of people with disabilities
By:Christian Kirkpatrick
With the appointment of Dr. Gordon Sherman as executive director and plans to expand its mission and facilities, the Newgrange School and Outreach Center begins an important chapter this fall in its remarkable history.
This school for children with learning disabilities was founded by two Princeton residents, Lois Young and Francesca Benson, nearly 25 years ago. Because they believed that mainstreaming such children in regular classrooms did not provide them an optimal education, they created a school that would.
"Newgrange tries to look at the abilities of people with disabilities," says Mrs. Young. Ordinary schools struggle just to teach learning-disabled children; they cannot also help them find and use their gifts.
"Some of our children are very able in different strands of life," she continued, "but they lose confidence when they fall behind in school." Usually, the problems start in reading class. It is therefore critical to help these children learn to read as quickly and as painlessly as possible.
Newgrange School in Trenton accepts students with average or above-average intelligence who show signs of wanting to learn. Children with learning disabilities often find it easiest to be passive in school, to wait to be spoon fed.
"We cut through this learned helplessness," maintains Mrs. Young, by demanding that the school’s children participate – in camping trips, art projects, science experiments, in their own education. Children at the school work according to an individualized educational plan that gives them clear responsibility for their education and allows them to chart their progress.
Newgrange is a state-approved private school.
In August, Dr. Sherman took over from the retiring Mrs. Young. He is a past president of the International Dyslexia Association and assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. He spent more than 20 years as a researcher at the Dyslexia Research Laboratory in Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital, has written more than 60 scientific articles, and has organized workshops and symposia on dyslexia and the brain.
His international contacts and background in research should serve Newgrange well. "This is a school with a rich history," says Dr. Sherman. "I want to build on that." He plans to provide additional research-based training for the school’s teachers. Drawing on his contacts from the International Dyslexia Association, he will invite experts from around the world to come to share their knowledge with the school’s staff and with teachers throughout the Princeton area.
"We need to reach more teachers, schools, parents," says the new Princeton resident. He wants to teach them how to diagnose learning problems and deal with the self-esteem issues that usually accompany them. He also wants to help adults with learning disabilities.
Recent research is already prompting some changes at Newgrange. According to Mrs. Young, studies indicate that 90 to 95 percent of children can learn to read by the end of second grade if they are taught according to federal research guidelines. And children who learn to read by this age go on to succeed in school. The school’s administration plans to put this theory into practice. "We want to move to a more preventative mode," says Mrs. Young.
Doing so will involve expanding the school to included kindergarten through second grade. Enrollment will grow from 88 to more than 120 children.
Current facilities, however, will not accommodate the influx.
Newgrange’s classroom building is in Trenton. The Newgrange Educational Outreach Center has recently moved from Chambers Street in Princeton to 600 College Road East, Suite 3000,College Road East, Plainsboro.
Soon, plans will be announced to consolidate operations in one, new location. It will provide room for some 40 additional children, as well as increased outreach operations. In upcoming years, Newgrange will expand its training program in adult literacy, attempting to reach some of the 50 percent of New Jersey adults who, Mrs. Young says, read below the fourth grade level. It will also provide continuing education for teachers of mainstream classes, to help them better teach children with learning disabilities.
Plans for the new facility will soon be unveiled. After scouring the tri-county area for a suitable location, the president of Newgrange’s board of trustees, Chris Tarr, seems to have found the place. "We’re in active discussions," says the Princeton resident, "and hard at work preparing a pitch for a capital campaign."