Reply to Preparing your kid for adulthood when they're not "college material"

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[quote=Anonymous]FWIW. I have an LD family member who was unable to complete college.  In some ways, he is more successful than his non-LD siblings because he learned perseverance and better social skills (to compensate) than his siblings.  He may earn less than his sibs do, but he has a more stable career path and a more well-rounded social life.

Thru him I know about a number of other LD friends who never completed college.  A few have become fire fighters or police officers.  These jobs don't require college, although you do have to go thru boot camp and figure out a way to "memorize" some stuff and pass some written tests, which required them to work much harder at that aspect than their peers.  I know one guy with serious LD's who was able to force the fire department (via the Americans with Disabilities Act) to provide reasonable accommodations for him during fire fighter boot camp.  This included texts and reading materials available in more accessible formats, and probably extra time on tests.

The good thing about police/fire fighter jobs is that they are a stable career path with good pay.  There's not a lot of reading and writing on the job.  Reports on the job are minimal and often include filling in forms or using a report guide. They involve a lot of "practice it" type training, which is often easier to learn than learning from written, abstract texts.  Also, the daily work is highly routinized.  Most things have forms or processes that are written down and done the same way repeatedly.  Surprising to me, because fires aren't exactly predictable, but it turns out that being able to perform well in an emergency depends largely on a kind of internalized process that one performs without really thinking about it.  Often LD persons need different methods or more time to learn the routines, but once internalized, they can be highly effective.

Kids who are interested in fire fighting as a career can volunteer with a local fire department, I think beginning at age 16.  Volunteering typically includes some training, which enables the student to assess whether they can learn on the job, even though they may have had trouble with learning at school.  There are also classes/training to explore in community college or local colleges.  [/quote]

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