The Kildonan School | |
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Address | |
425 Morse Hill Road , 12501 | |
Coordinates | 41°53′35″N73°33′17″W / 41.89304°N 73.55460°W |
Information | |
Former name | The Kildonan School for Dyslexic Boys |
School type | Private boarding and day school |
Motto | In Quietness and In Confidence |
Opened | May 17th 1969 |
Founder | Diana Hanbury King, Kurt Goldman |
Status | Closed |
Closed | August 30th, 2019 |
School number | 843-373-8111 |
Grades | 2–12, post-graduate |
Average class size | 10 |
Student to teacher ratio | 1:3 |
The Kildonan School was a private coeducational boarding and day school in Amenia, New York for students with dyslexia and language-based learning disabilities. It offered daily one-to-one Orton-Gillingham language remediation and a college preparatory curriculum for students in grades 2-12 and PG (post-graduate).
On July 3, 2019, the Kildonan School announced that it would not reopen for the 2019–2020 school year due to low enrollment and insufficient funding. [1] Its parent organization, the Kildonan Organization, partnered with Marvelwood School in 2020, where it operates Orton-Gillingham teaching, the Kildonan Teacher Training Institute, and Camp Dunnabeck, its summer camp program. [2]
The Kildonan School was opened on May 17, 1969 by Diana Hanbury King and Kurt Goldman. King had extensive experience teaching dyslexic students: at the time of the Kildonan School's founding, she had been operating Camp Dunnabeck, a summer program for dyslexic students, for 14 years. [3] Goldman, whose son had attended Camp Dunnabeck, was pleased with his son's progress and encouraged King to operate a school for dyslexic students, who often did not get the educational support they needed. [4] Goldman provided the funding, and the school opened in 1969. King named the Kildonan School for a farm owned by her uncle in Southern Rhodesia, Africa; her uncle was also dyslexic. [5]
For its first 11 years, The Kildonan School operated as an all-boys boarding school in Solebury, Pennsylvania. In 1980, the school purchased a 550-acre property in Amenia, New York, that had belonged to the former Barlow School. [6] The relocation allowed the school to begin operating a coeducational day school program. [4] The school began admitting elementary students to its day program in 1988, and its boarding school program became coeducational in 1991. [7]
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From 1969 to 1980, The Kildonan School rented a property in Solebury, Pennsylvania.
By 1975, the Solebury campus was too small for its enrollment. In 1980 5 years and half a decade later, The Kildonan School purchased the property of the Barlow School, a private boarding and day school that closed due to insufficient funding, and relocated to Amenia (town), New York. [8]
The Amenia (town) New York (state) campus initially had dormitories for all boarders, grades 7-12. From 1995 [7] to its closure on August 30, 2019, The Kildonan School had two dormitories for boarding students between 7th and 12th grade, and one "home-style" dormitory for 12th-grade boys (witch was reverted back into faculty apartments in 2013). [9]
Since second- to sixth-grade students could only enroll in the day program, there were no housing facilities for younger students. [9]
The Kildonan School viewed itself as a temporary program that students would attend for one year or two (depending on how long it took to devlop their skills) before being reintegrated back to their previous school. [10] King believed that the students needed to learn not only the foundational skills of reading and writing, but that they were intelligent and capable: many students at Kildonan had internalized or been told they were stupid, lazy, or not trying hard enough, and subsequently became disinterested in learning. Kildonan's strategy, King said, would restore these students' self-esteem and interest in learning. [4]
The Kildonan School educated its students using the Orton-Gillingham method, a structured, flexible, [11] multisensory [12] way of teaching reading and writing. When implemented at integral times and in appropriate ways, [13] it has been shown to remediate dyslexia to the point of "normal" counterparts. [14] It remediates dyslexia by attending to the neural language-processing system of individuals with high IQs with a seemingly inexplicable deficit in reading or spelling, and departs from older methodologies that focused on the visual system. [15]
All students received daily one-to-one tutoring sessions. [4]
Dyslexic students learn language differently from other students – specifically, it has been posited that dyslexics compensate for lack of activity while reading in the angular gyrus (responsible for signifiers in language and residing in the back of the brain) with much activity in the inferior frontal gyrus (responsible for speech and residing in the front of the brain). [16] Research shows, therefore, that dyslexic students tend to also have trouble with balance and coordination. [17] In keeping with brain research that shows that language remediation relies on stimulating connections between brain networks, and specifically between the two hemispheres of the brain, [18] [19] The Kildonan School required all lower school students to train in horseback riding and all upper school students to learn to ski. These are balance sports, and so require students to make neural connections between both hemispheres of the brain.
The Kildonan School was accredited in 2003 by the Academy of Orton-Gillingham Practitioners and Educators and re-accredited by NYSAIS (the New York State Association of Independent Schools) in 2013. As of the school's closure in 2019, the Kildonan School had two AOGPE Fellows on staff who mentor each tutor the school employs through 70 hours of pre-tutoring training and the AOGPE associate/certification process.
The Kildonan School's mission of empowering students with dyslexia is in keeping with research by Brock and Fernette Eide and Ben Foss, which shows that a way to open up future opportunities for dyslexics is to play on their strengths. [20] [21] [22] To this end, Kildonan encourages its staff to include The Dyslexic Advantage and The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan in their professional development plans.
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In its later years, The Kildonan School faced financial struggles and decreasing enrollment. Initially, on Wednesday June 12, 2019, Kevin Pendergast the head of school and board treasurer, respectively, said the school would remain open. [23] However, on Tuesday June 18, the board of trustees announced that The Kildonan School would not reopen for the 2019–2020 school year, and that tuition deposits would be returned. [1] Though a committee of parents formed an action plan to improve enrollment and funding, the board rejected it. [24] Camp Dunnabeck, which was hosted on The Kildonan School's campus during summer 2019, was not affected. [1]
The Kildonan Organization reported in 2020 that it was partnering with the Marvelwood School in Kent, Connecticut to implement Orton-Gillingham instruction. [2]
The school's former campus is now home to Olivet Academy, a K-12 private Christian boarding school, linked to Olivet University, a private Christian college in Anza, California . [2]
Landmark School in Beverly, Massachusetts is a coed American boarding and day school offering a college preparatory program for students in grades 2–12 with language-based learning disabilities such as dyslexia and executive function disorder. Landmark School offers a day and boarding program, as well as a summer program.
The Marvelwood School is a college preparatory private boarding school located in Kent, Connecticut, United States.
The Forman School is a co-educational boarding and day school in Litchfield, Connecticut, United States offering a college preparatory program in grades 9 to 12 and a postgraduate program (PG) exclusively for students with learning differences such as ADD/ADHD and dyslexia. Forman School offers a 4-week summer program in July for students with learning differences.
The Orton-Gillingham approach is a multisensory phonics technique for remedial reading instruction developed in the early-20th century. It is practiced as a direct, explicit, cognitive, cumulative, and multi-sensory approach. While it is most commonly associated with teaching individuals with dyslexia, it is highly effective for all individuals learning to read, spell, and write. In the US, it is promoted by more than 15 commercial programs as well as several private schools for students with dyslexia and related learning disabilities.
Samuel Torrey Orton was an American physician who pioneered the study of learning disabilities. He examined the causes and treatment of dyslexia.
Fraser Academy, located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, is a private, non-profit, co-educational, non-faith, non-residential school that serves children from grades 1 to 12 with language-based learning disabilities such as dyslexia. Its teaching methods are based on those found at the Kildonan School in New York, using the Orton-Gillingham approach. Besides daily individual tutoring for language, students take the same courses as other students in the province, in which courses a multisensory approach is also used.
Greengate School for Dyslexia is a private, non-profit school located in Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama. Established in 2002, Greengate School provides a full-time elementary program for children with dyslexia in Huntsville. Starting with three students in a church, Greengate had 32 students in 2006 and 19 teachers. The school has a 4:1 student teacher ratio and is a member of the International Dyslexia Association.
Management of dyslexia depends on a multitude of variables; there is no one specific strategy or set of strategies that will work for all who have dyslexia.
Anna Gillingham (1878–1963) was an educator and psychologist, known for her contributions to the Orton-Gillingham method for teaching children with dyslexia how to read.
Oakland School is a coeducational day school in Troy, Virginia, specializing in the education of children with dyslexia, ADHD, difficulties with organization and study skills, or other learning disabilities. The school is ungraded, offering instruction from the early elementary school level through the ninth grade.
Eagle Hill School is an independently operated, private boarding school serving students in grades 8-12 with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, and other learning disabilities in Hardwick, Massachusetts, which was founded in 1967. Two other schools with the same name are located in Greenwich and Southport, Connecticut.
Trident Academy is a school for children with diagnosed learning differences in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
The history of dyslexia research spans from the late 1800s to the present.
Dislecksia: The Movie is a documentary film. It was released in 2012 by Captured Time Productions, LLC, a production company based in Litchfield, Connecticut. Dislecksia is the company's seventh film. It is directed by Emmy Award-winning director Harvey Hubbell V, who is a dyslexic himself.
Sally Burwell Childs was a language training specialist, with an emphasis on furthering the research on dyslexia and educating dyslexic students. Childs, along with several colleagues, opened an organization to help create dyslexia awareness called The Orton Society, in 1949, and she held the position as vice-president from 1959 to 1965. She published several educational books for dyslexia and was recognized for her accomplishments in 1973 with the Samuel T. Orton Award.
The Windward School is a coeducational, independent day school focused on teaching students in grades 1-9 with language-based learning disabilities with campuses in Westchester and Manhattan. Windward is recognized across the country and around the world as a leader in providing instruction to children with dyslexia and is listed among the best schools in the New York City area.
Beth Slingerland was an educator who developed a classroom adaptation of the Orton-Gillingham system for teaching dyslexic children.
The Stephen Gaynor School is an independent private, special education school in Manhattan, New York, United States, associated with New York Interschool. The school was started with five students in 1962. Today, approximately 380 students ages three to fourteen with a range of language-based learning differences attend the school. Stephen Gaynor School is a member of the New York State Association of Independent Schools NYSAIS.
Margaret Byrd Rawson was an American educator, researcher and writer. She was an early leader in the field of dyslexia, conducting one of the longest-running studies of language disorders ever undertaken and publishing nine books on dyslexia.
Bessie Whitmore Stillman (1871-1947) was an educator and contributor to the Orton-Gillingham teaching method for students with disabilities in reading.