I never wanted to home school my kids. Let me take a moment to honor all the parents who did not want to home school their child but had no choice. Whether your child has special needs or not, you deserve recognition and applause for the severity of the task you chose to take on. For all the moments you are overwhelmed, feel disrespected and misunderstood. You are not alone. You are a phenomenal parent, and your child will be all the better for it.
I never wanted to home school my kids, but the public school system left me no choice. My son and daughter have a combined 15 years as public school students and in that time there where highs and lows. The problem with the lows included, severe emotional scarring, withdrawal from family, declining grades, an absence of the basics such as 1+1 or the ability to spell simple words like “dog.” Despite being told at bogus IEP meetings that they were making progress they could barely answer these questions. This is after 5 or 6 years of education. It was alarming and it made me angry.
So, what the hell where they doing with my kids for all this time? Well, I think a better question would be what where they NOT doing for them. That list is miles and miles long.
While one school my son attended was a little more cutting edge, my son did not have the option of moving up to a different class each year, he had the same teacher for three years. He got comfortable and started to lose information, specifically in math.
My experience with the other schools was that they were non innovators, who lacked creativity and where swimming in their ignorance.
I learned that while they made room for self-contained classrooms, they did not make enough space for each disability to have their own classroom. In other words, they lump multiple disabilities together.
Instead of catering to one particular disability or at the most two, a teacher is responsible for supporting multiple special needs.
This means that my daughter who is severely sensitive to noise including shouting, is in a class with a kid who does nothing but yell. The teacher yells to gain back control. In return my daughter’s grades suffer because she is only focused on the noise and covering her ears. She has also become excessively nervous at home which prompts us to try different medications with the help of her pediatrician. This coupled with the “shouting student” makes her irritable at school and defiant with her teachers.
I learned that my kid’s teachers where not provided a curriculum. They were using books dated back to the 1970’s and relying on each other to come up with lesson plans. The teachers who vetted and proposed a curriculum that would meet their student’s needs were put on pause.
I learned that not every teacher has to have completed their higher education. They can be in the process of getting a degree and still be hired.
The public school system is not interested in creating an environment conducive to the ones who are different from the others. The powers that be are not open to funding for special equipment or programs that are centered around the spectrum mind.
They were very interested in doing the bare minimum. They were highly interested in pushing for compliance from these students. In other words: “learn how to be like your neuro typical peers. You are not special. You may be a genius in one specific area but that is of no value to us…. Read Full Article at Today Parenting Team
