Difficulties in education

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I thought this would be better in this forum as I fear that if it were put in the School and College Life forum, it would miss a lot of people able to help me out.

I want to have the option of studying further education but I feel that as I am right now, I would not know how tot get the best out of it I possible could do. At school, I was very hit and miss with work. My level of work fluctuated up and down relative to others my age as I progressed through the years and often not at the same times as with each of my other subjects. I was speaking to my friend today, who I think may have Asperger's and who is studying at university now. I told him what I thought about my time at school, so I will put that in here.

Maths was a very good example of this. I was relatively good at maths through Primary school, but when I had my first year at Secondary School, I detached myself from it and ended up dropping down a level. The year after, I was in a class full of misbehaving children. It was a mess, the teacher could not control the class at all. After she retired, a new teacher came in and he had a fair time with this class as well. However, by the end of that year, after a few people had been expelled and the teacher had build up an immense amount of respect from the class, I remember being amazed at how far we had come. From a class running around throwing rubbers across the room, to a completely silent, hard working class. He was the best. And for me, I remember being so keen to work hard and concentrate. Concentration, for me, was always a severe problem. Ever single years school report I got from age 5 to 16 said I had problems concentrating and was often "day dreaming". This teacher I mentioned understood my position and always gave me respect for that. Rather than what all the other teachers did which was discipline me and nag me, he just gently encouraged me and reminded me when required that I wasn't concentrating. I got to the highest class and with a new teacher, started to fall again.

Anyway, the class I was in always severely affected how well I could concentrate and also the help given from teachers. If ever in school I could not concentrate and fell behind in a class and did not understand something right away, I would go into shutdown.

Staying with maths, the last year I did at school which I did for 6 weeks, I got another teacher again. In this one, the class was almost silent, the teacher would have a wonderful routine for us all to take some A4 blank paper, copy the explanations of the certain subject area from her, be talked through the examples in the workbook and questioned as a class, work through some questions yourself, more questions for class before doing as much more as can fit in. End of class would be hole punch work and slide into ring binder. The best learning experience I've had. I loved the routine and quiet class and it meant I could use my brain and concentration on the actual work and soon realised I was studying below my level.

My questions are, what exactly are my problems in your opinion, is any of it something people with Asperger's struggle with and can a college or university do anything to help me?

I'm always being told I am too stupid for college becuase of learning disabilites.

I have problems too. Although I have a high GPA, I find it difficult to learn in a class if the teacher isn't fast paced or exceedingly interesting. My mind shuts off in those circumstances, making it significantly more difficult for me to learn in class. I find myself better off reading the book for 15 minutes than going to class for 3 hours.

Lots of kids, even ones who don't have learning disabilities, do more poorly in math as they go through school. Sometimes it's because the quality of the teaching is poor. Math is often approached with little creativity. Older kids are expected to just slog through and learn it. Look around on the internet for Math websites and try some of the fun stuff out there. See if you can find some Math that excites you and is presented in an interesting way. It may be that your ability isn't the problem but the teaching you are recieving is.

Don't worry too much about what you can't do, find the things you CAN do and make the most of them. Even if going to college is a stretch for you, if you study the right topic you may do very well, or even passably well. You know what the guy who graduates medical school at the bottom of his class is called? He's called Doctor, just the same as the guy at the top of the class.

Good Luck

I learned the most at home with books. I had a hard time learning in the style school taught.

Like Kileys said learning disabilities or not some people will be good with math some won't. But for someone to have Aspergers and some kind of learning disablilitie well that may make things a bit harder. But that does not mean we have to let it be a problem. Sure I'm not good at math.

But I was able to get really good at reading and I can still understand things better then most. That's when I don't rush over the reading.

I was horrible at math. I was always one of the worse in my grade.

Have you tried Distance Learning? If you have a diagnoses you will still be elidigible for DSA.

I am on a Distance learning course which means I can work at home which cuts down visual and auditory distraction. Exams are done by assignement so there is no going in for exams which incur anxiety.

Good luck.

I'm planning to finally go on to college soon and dreading the experience itself with ferocity. Making it out of high school was one of my life's greater joys.

When I first began elementary schooling, I had skipped kindergarten and went directly to first grade when of age. Not long after the school wanted to actually place me in special education classes. Mostly citing that I had great trouble grasping reading a clock, counting money, etc. Thankfully pride took a rare turn as a virtue when my father made several howling phone calls to the school administration to keep me out of special ed.

Not even a quarter into the school year I had been placed in advanced reading groups. At the age of 6 (or whatever I was) I was already a better reader than many adults. I excelled through elementary and grades didn't slump beginning with middle school as homework responsibilities increased *Video games!* and social abilities couldn't catch up.

My education is largely self educated. I often wonder just how many of us that apply that moniker are indeed actually better educated than many a college graduate? Of course, we need that paper on the wall to back it up.