Why Neurodiversity Matters—And Why It Should Matter to Your School

Every individual is neurodiverse. We all have strengths we leverage effortlessly, challenges that require concentrated effort, and abilities that fall somewhere in the middle. The way we think, learn, and process information is always a little different from everyone around us. That uniqueness is what makes us human. It's also what makes education genuinely challenging, because one size has never fit all.

The Finnish education system understands this profoundly. Their philosophy? Every student is a special education student, because at some point, every student will need targeted support in their learning journey. This isn't a deficit model, it's reality.

Understanding the Learning Continuum

Consider reading. Most children begin with informal exposure, a parent reading aloud at bedtime. Formal instruction starts in kindergarten, and by third grade, we expect most students to be decoding fairly fluently and have begun to develop sophisticated comprehension strategies. Some students leap ahead, seemingly teaching themselves to read, tackling books that challenge even some adults. Others, despite excellent instruction and tireless effort, make frustratingly little progress. They may excel in mathematics, creativity, or spatial reasoning, but reading remains an insurmountable barrier.

Every new skill or challenge requires us to employ a complex range of cognitive abilities and strategies. Sometimes we figure things out independently; other times we need help. For most skills, most people cluster somewhere in the middle of the continuum, mastering abilities at roughly similar rates. But some individuals sit at the extremes, either grasping concepts with remarkable ease or struggling intensely despite strong effort and excellent instruction.

These students, the ones at both edges of the continuum, are exactly who we focus on at Magister Placement.
 We partner with teachers, administrators, and schools equally committed to serving these learners, recognizing something crucial: every student will find themselves at the extremes of some continuum at some point. It just depends on the skill being demanded that day.

Neurodiversity Extends Far Beyond Academics

When we think about learning in schools, we focus instinctively on reading, writing, and mathematics, the foundational skills that enable content mastery, analytical thinking, and intellectual growth. When we think about neurodiversity, we commonly consider students who struggle with, or excel at, these core academic skills.

But academic content is only part of what schools demand from students. Success in school requires a staggering array of skills that, at first glance, have little to do with reading comprehension or algebraic thinking:

The list is genuinely endless. There are countless things that have little to do with academic content but absolutely determine whether a student experiences success or failure in school.

Students who struggle with these "invisible" skills often face consequences far beyond their actual academic abilities. The brilliant mathematician who can't organize her backpack. The creative writer who struggles to initiate tasks without extensive support. The scientifically gifted student whose impulsivity is misread as defiance. These students aren't failing because they lack intellectual capacity, they're failing because schools aren't equipped to support the full range of their neurodiversity.

  • time management, organization, task initiation, prioritization, shifting focus flexibly among competing demands

  • sustaining focus during a lecture, filtering out distractions, knowing when and how to shift attention appropriately

  • managing frustration when a concept doesn't click immediately, handling disappointment over a grade, staying calm during high-stakes testing

  • reading social cues, understanding unspoken classroom norms, collaborating effectively with peers, knowing when humor is appropriate

  • raising your hand before speaking, lining up appropriately for lunch, refraining from interrupting, sitting still during assembly, managing impulses

We recruit and place teachers and administrators who possess specialized expertise in addressing both academic and non-academic challenges that neurodiverse students face. This might be:

  • with deep domain expertise: reading teachers, executive functioning coaches, speech and language pathologists, occupational therapists, behavior analysts, psychologists, counselors

  • with training and genuine commitment to differentiation and neurodiverse learners

  • who understand that learning support isn't an add-on but must be woven into every aspect of school life, from admissions to athletics to residential programming

Whether you're a specialized school serving a particular population of neurodiverse students or a mainstream school recognizing you need specific expertise to better serve all your learners, we're here to help you find educators who don't just tolerate differences, they understand them, celebrate them, and know how to teach through them.


Because every student deserves teachers who see their unique constellation of strengths and challenges, and know exactly how to help them thrive.