The video is a collection of testimonials from students, parents, teachers, and administrators at The Fletcher School, a K‑12 college‑preparatory institution that specializes in serving learners with dyslexia, dysgraphia, and other learning differences. Speakers describe how Fletcher’s experiential, kinesthetic teaching approach—using visual, auditory, and tactile methods—helps students overcome reading and writing challenges, rebuild self‑esteem, and achieve academic success. Parents recount emotional journeys of seeing their children transform from struggling learners to confident, college‑bound graduates. Staff explain the school’s selective admissions criteria designed to match students who will benefit most from the program, and highlight the Rankin Institute’s outreach workshops that extend Fletcher’s methods to students and teachers beyond the campus. Overall, the video positions Fletcher as a nurturing environment that unlocks the potential of “outside thinkers,” preparing them for higher education and future contributions.
Chapters
12 minus 4 equals—
I've watched children come in here that have— their self-esteem's just been kicked to the ground. And after just even being in a classroom for a day, walking away going, oh please, can I go here? They can teach me.
Sometimes it takes a few weeks, sometimes it's a few months, but we can pretty much guarantee there's going to be that moment where the student feels empowered and successful and proud of himself.
I wasn't getting terrible grades, but it wasn't the best that I could get. I got here in the middle of 2nd grade. By the end of the year, it was just perfect.
You sometimes need to see the learning differences as a way of seeing the world in a different view. The outside thinkers, they're the ones that are changing Look at the list of people with learning disabilities. That's all you have to do to know that these kids have the potential to make the world a better place.
We believe that when children are actually tracing that sentence frame, it's kinesthetic and the message is going— I'd like to believe— up through their arm into their memory vault. And it absolutely works for them.
Fletcher is all about experiential learning. She was watching him from the other end of the table. It gave her great pleasure to watch him eating worms. You know, we want to get the visual, it's auditory, they're listening to me as I'm telling the story, and then the kinesthetic tactile, they're touching the materials.
I'm at Fletcher because I have a reading disorder and dysgraphia. So I can't spell or read to save my life, and my handwriting looks like hieroglyphics. The teachers helped me a lot, and I went from hating reading and writing to now loving it, and it's one of my better subjects.
We are a K-12 school, so we have a college preparatory curriculum in our high school, and we have had phenomenal success with our high school students graduating and going on to colleges and universities.
Some more. Some more marbles.
They know how to explain things better and how to talk to people one-on-one, which helps a lot.
After my first year at Fletcher with him, there has never been a doubt in my mind that this child is going to college and he's going to be successful.
We have a very specific set of admissions criteria. That allows us to pick the students that best fit our program and can benefit the most from being here at Fletcher.
I can remember exactly where I was standing in the kitchen when she called and said, we have a first-grade spot. And, you know, we were beyond blessed at that point, even in that moment, to know that he would have a chance, a chance to go to school, a chance to be a really normal kid, because that's what he is.
It's been an emotional roller coaster at times. Just the sense of joy that you get out of seeing your child develop in that way and evolve in that way. Not only to know that they've been put in an environment that's enabled it, but then also to see your child step up and kinda take advantage of that opportunity and, and to develop and grow in that way. It's almost indescribable because it's so powerful.
We realized early on that there was no way we could possibly serve every student in our area who could use a Fletcher education. And so we decided we needed to have an outreach and education component, and thus we started the Rankin Institute. We offer about 75 workshops in a calendar year, and that's huge. We know that there are students who can certainly come to the Fletcher School and benefit from our education, but there are those who will never be able to come here. And we want to help those kids. We also know that there can be some frustrations as a teacher when you don't know, how do I teach this child? And we know that we can unlock with that key. We have the key to unlock that secret and show them how to get through to that child and make a difference in their life.
We talk about learning differences being an obstacle, but we go over, we go around, we go under. We don't stop and turn around. We're going forward. I think Fletcher gives you the tools to accommodate for your weaknesses. We remediate. We, we do it all, and kids can go out into the world honestly and know they can do it. We are in such a unique position at Fletcher to be able to do that for children, and we do it for families too. And kids feel like they're who they need to be and they're wonderful.
