Does anyone else homeschool their child with ASD?
We've been in two different states and school systems. The first grade teacher didn't believe in AS, my son was just "pokey". I discovered he was made to stand against the fence every day at recess because he couldn't follow her instructions. By the fourth week of first grade, my first-grader was suicidal. He did better in a small, private school for a few years, then returned to a pilot program in public school. A school that handcuffed small, autistic children because there was no quiet corner in the classroom or trained staff to deal with the anxieties or meltdowns. I protested, I harassed the school district, I saw an attorney, I looked for other schools. In the end, I decided I wasn't going to spend my time and energy trying to change an entire school district. We homeschooled.
When we relocated, the small school sytem tried very hard, but they didn't have the resources. In fact they looked at me and said "Why did you end up in our district?" There were too many bigger kids; one of them body slammed my son right in front of me and the principal. One of them brought a gun to school. At the IEP meetings the teachers were hostile; they just want to teach their classes, they don't have time for special needs kids. Yes, it's one thing to say that parents need to force school systems to provide the education that the child is entitled to. Sounds great on paper and on Lifetime Television, but it isn't always that simple. The truth is that many districts don't have the money, the resources, the training.
We homeschool again. While I regret that my son won't experience many of the things I did in a regular school setting, I recognize that today's public education is probably not providing anything but stress over body image, the competition for material objects and a ridiculous system of testing that hardly illustrates true achievement.
Well said!
Tracytoon, very well said. They also thought my son was pokey in school. PE was the worst. He could not jump rope or throw and catch a ball well. The jock teacher had no sympathy for him and punished him often with push-ups that he could barely do. I found much of this out later along with bullying on the bus. I spied on him alot on the playground from the parking lot just to see how things were going. He had to sit out often and did not really know why. The final straw came one day when he was made to sit out. He was fidgeting and they wanted him to be perfectly still. I saw 5 teachers taking turns to see who could make him mind and seeming to find his reactions comical. I walked onto the playground and told him to come home with me. I talked to the principal and was basically told that they really did not understand AS and were trying to become more educated. I did not want him in remedial classes because he is very smart, but his delayed responses and distractablilty made regular classes very difficult. Since he had kind homeroom teachers that sent his work home or overlooked some things, his grades did not suffer so he did not qualify for an aide in the classroom. I already felt it was a losing battle and much about funding and politics. I know that I sound bitter but I sincerely believe that teachers are overburdened and can barely deal with the behavior problems of the NT kids. The homeschooling was my only answer. It has turned out to be a blessing to our entire family.