Learning Disabilities Are Not For Life | Debbie Gilmore, Arrowsmith

In this episode of The LearnIt Podcast with Dhiraj Hariramani, we sit down with Debbie Gilmore, Executive Director of the Arrowsmith Program in Toronto.

Debbie built her career in Sydney as a teacher, a literacy advisor, an assistant principal, and finally as head of diverse learning needs across a system of more than 150 schools. Then someone handed her Norman Doidge's book and told her to read Chapter 2. It took her two years to learn about neuroplasticity, and another two years to work out how to get her son Robert to Canada to do the work.

In this conversation, Debbie shares:

• What she was taught in teachers college: that the brains students have in front of you are the brains they are going to die with
• Why Robert came to Canada: he was 16, there was no program in Australia at the time, and she told him he had to take ownership of the decision himself
• What a cognitive classroom actually looks like: students working independently on computer, pen and paper, and auditory exercises, repeating the same exercise for a whole period
• Why the adult in the room is called a facilitator and not a teacher: they are not delivering content, they are a guide on the side
• The hoodie: children who pull the hood over their face on the way in, and what she sees three months, six months, and a year later

• The misconception she most wants gone: that learning disabilities are for life

This episode is for every special education teacher, every system leader, and every parent who has moved from program to program to program looking for what works.

#TheLearnItPodcast #LearnIt #OntarioEducation #ArrowsmithProgram #Neuroplasticity #SpecialEducation #LearningDisabilities #CognitiveScience #EducationalLeadership #InclusiveEducation #StudentWellbeing #K12Education #TeacherPD #ParentsInEducation #FutureOfLearning