MADISON — The Learning Atrium, a Catholic organization dedicated to serving kids with dyslexia, has been growing recently in order to continue to serve those who need it.
Dave Chodorowski, executive director at the Learning Atrium, commented, “We recently expanded our Board of Directors to several business and sciences professionals, and parents and grandparents of children with dyslexia, along with retired priest Fr. Mick Moon. Additionally, we have hired five new staff members since I came on in August to meet the overwhelming need. Families have really come to realize that the one-on-one work we do with kids is making a big difference in both their reading and their confidence.”
Serving a need
The Learning Atrium was founded to serve a need that had gone largely unmet in the Madison area — helping those with dyslexia in the Catholic school system.
Debra Krebs, the founder, commented: “I had heard about dyslexia. I didn’t know much about it. He [her son] was in the public schools at the time . . . He got a neuro-psych eval and yes, he’s dyslexic, but there weren’t a lot of people that could really help us navigate that.”
She added, “It wasn’t until he was at the end of fourth grade that a friend of mine told me about [the] Orton Gillingham-based program . . . I started working with that, with him on that, and then realized and learned that dyslexia affects about 20 percent of the population.”
Commenting on its progress, she said, “We started this program and it started to make a difference. I started tutoring another student . . . and then started the conversation with St. Ambrose [Academy in Madison]. Fortunately, they had an understanding that there are other kids like him because they had seen them coming through the school, but they weren’t able to help them and didn’t know how to help them. So then we start thinking that we should really do something to help these kids, and that’s kind of how this all started . . . God had put everything in the right place at the right time to make this happen.”
The need is great, but the response has also been great.
Krebs continued that she’s “wanting to make our Catholic education accessible to everybody. And especially in this day and age, we are going to need to better educate in the faith as many kids as we possibly can and to give those schools the resources that a lot of these schools don’t have.”
She added, “We have big parishes, small parishes. Some people can afford to have reading guides or learning services in their schools, and a lot of schools can’t, so we just want to be able to provide those services. Let the schools do what they do really well. And let us come in and help serve these other kiddos and teach the teachers how to better serve these kids in the classroom.
“Because, they’re as able to learn as any other kid. They just need to have it delivered in a little bit different way . . . It is our duty and responsibility to educate every Catholic student that wants a Catholic education. It’s not just for the kids that fit into the box of a normal education.”
“We need to broaden that out, so every kid, every family that wants a Catholic education can get it,” said Krebs.
The children thus served have been more than successful — they contribute to incredible success for the schools they are in as well.
As Krebs put it, “The giftedness that these kids bring to the classroom and to the world is immeasurable. Forty percent of CEOs and entrepreneurs claim to be dyslexic. They’re problem solvers. We have some big problems ahead of us. And I want to live in a world where we have people that understand God’s plan and want to do things to honor God’s plan, leading the charge. And so we have to educate them.”
Supporting the ministry
The Learning Atrium is made possible not only by the fidelity of those in the ministry but by the grace of God as well.
As Krebs said, “When you really put Him at the center, He does the work. I’m dyslexic myself, and I’ve never done anything like this. ‘I’m not equipped.’ One of our past board members said, ‘Well, God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called.’ And that’s just been so true.
“It’s pretty crazy that somebody who struggled through school and avoided reading, writing, and I’m still not a great speller, to be doing this, but I totally get it. I get what these kids need. When things got really hard, I thought I’m not the person to do this. But then I thought, well, if I don’t, who’s going to? It has to be done. These kids deserve it. Our families deserve it.”
Chodorowski added, “If you read 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, you come to understand how God created us for one another . . . we are called to recognize the diversity of the body of Christ and the giftedness within each and every child.
“God made us different. Often those of us who are different and learn differently are misunderstood. What may appear as weakness in the dyslexic child, we see as strength. Most learning challenges — and dyslexia in particular — are a gift and not a curse. We help children with this gift of dyslexia to discover it, embrace it, and bring it to the world.”
The Learning Atrium currently serves students in four Catholic schools in the Diocese of Madison, namely St. Maria Goretti School in Madison, St. Victor School in Monroe, St. Ambrose Academy in Madison, and St. Peter School in Ashton, and it plans to expand to more in the 2023-2024 school year.
It will continue to grow as needed in order to reach every child that deserves a Catholic education.
For more information, visit learningatrium.org