A recent quote from my 5 year-old son: "Water only runs, it doesn't walk!"
Indeed, little man.
Indeed, little man.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
No Subject Left Behind
No Child Left Behind. It sounds great when you just hear the words, doesn't it? But what does it really mean and how does it translate into real education? Simply put, it may mean a whole lot of subjects left behind instead.
Math and language arts (reading/writing) are the core areas where schools are evaluated based on student performance. This is great if you consider how much these areas mean to effective learning and functioning in this world. However, it's not so great once you realize that schools are losing sight of equally important areas such as history, science, and the arts. While some would argue that these areas are not on level with math and language arts, I completely disagree.
First of all, there is a saying that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. I was appalled not long ago at how many people my age and younger don't even know who Adolph Hitler was, or much of anything about World War II and the mass genocide of the Jewish people in concentration camps. Far fewer are aware of our own country's post-Pearl Harbor internment camps which the Japanese-American citizens of our country were forced into, many after agreeing to renounce their American citizenship because they were bullied into doing so. If we do not know our history, and world history, we are doomed to repeat it. That is a frightening thought. But beyond simply repeating past atrocities and costly mistakes, there is also the insight that comes from comparing similar past events to current situations and making more informed decisions based on what happened previously; this insight is lost when we do not know our history!
It is not just political leaders and big decision-makers who need to know history, but the people voting for their leaders, laws, and government. People rely much too heavily already on others to make decisions for them, and a frightening number of people are just plain apathetic about politics. As a country, we do not appreciate the power we have to vote and make a change; and considering how far we have come to have such right and privileges, this is truly a shame. If our forefathers could have seen the ambivalent mess we have become, they would likely have either thrown their hands in the air and said, "Why bother!?" or done everything they could to instill within each new generation the importance of knowing history and being a part of their own instead of passively sitting by and consenting to whatever others chose for them. I choose the latter for my own children; in some ways I believe history is even more important than mastery of math or language arts. Our country was founded on the hope of having a choice and the freedom to govern ourselves. We have become a country that largely lets others govern us. It may not be kinds and queens anymore, but it's more corrupt than ever.
Science is important as well, for reasons too numerable to list. Science helps us understand how our world works and how we interact within it, in addition to providing us with an understanding of the most fundamental facts about ourselves and our bodies, from nutrition to exercise to our overall health picture. But it goes much deeper. Without science, history, and all of the subjects we used to learn in school, we become sheep. Plain and simple.
The cursive writing debate is one that seems to be drawing attention from just about everyone. Because the focus of education is the "core" math and language arts courses, cursive is being dropped from many curricula around the country because it is not something the schools are evaluated by. This is not in the interest of our children at all, but rather the interest of the ratings of the schools and their respective districts. Good penmanship may not be as critical as it was 20 years ago since technology has become paramount in producing finished academic works, but there are benefits (as this ABC article points out) which are being overlooked for the sake of schools looking better on paper. I don't know about anyone else, but I couldn't care less what schools look like on paper; I have always wanted my children to have a full and excellent education which will prepare them for the future - whatever that means.
People seem to be completely unaware of the fact that our current way of life is neither natural nor sustainable. We have achieved great things in this world, things which are incredible to even consider. Most people, however, stick a plug into an outlet or place a call from their cell phone and take it completely for granted. I'm not saying we should all return to the times before electricity, computers and cell phones. I rather enjoy these luxuries and I believe most people do. What I am saying is that we should all be prepared to live off the grid like our forefathers did, should the need ever arise. This is not some doomsday prediction, but rather something we should give some consideration to; what kind of mess would our society be if we had to live as they did 100 years ago? 200 years ago? It's fascinating but also sad how far we have come from that. Also, we should value the wealth of knowledge we have to learn from, realize that many of our ideas are not new but tried and tested, and act accordingly. In 200 years, your school's academic performance rating won't mean a thing to this world; your child's knowledge and potential to change the world, however, will mean a great deal.
Learning is important, and not just the subjects someone deems more important than others and evaluates schools by. Knowledge is power.
Math and language arts (reading/writing) are the core areas where schools are evaluated based on student performance. This is great if you consider how much these areas mean to effective learning and functioning in this world. However, it's not so great once you realize that schools are losing sight of equally important areas such as history, science, and the arts. While some would argue that these areas are not on level with math and language arts, I completely disagree.
First of all, there is a saying that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. I was appalled not long ago at how many people my age and younger don't even know who Adolph Hitler was, or much of anything about World War II and the mass genocide of the Jewish people in concentration camps. Far fewer are aware of our own country's post-Pearl Harbor internment camps which the Japanese-American citizens of our country were forced into, many after agreeing to renounce their American citizenship because they were bullied into doing so. If we do not know our history, and world history, we are doomed to repeat it. That is a frightening thought. But beyond simply repeating past atrocities and costly mistakes, there is also the insight that comes from comparing similar past events to current situations and making more informed decisions based on what happened previously; this insight is lost when we do not know our history!
It is not just political leaders and big decision-makers who need to know history, but the people voting for their leaders, laws, and government. People rely much too heavily already on others to make decisions for them, and a frightening number of people are just plain apathetic about politics. As a country, we do not appreciate the power we have to vote and make a change; and considering how far we have come to have such right and privileges, this is truly a shame. If our forefathers could have seen the ambivalent mess we have become, they would likely have either thrown their hands in the air and said, "Why bother!?" or done everything they could to instill within each new generation the importance of knowing history and being a part of their own instead of passively sitting by and consenting to whatever others chose for them. I choose the latter for my own children; in some ways I believe history is even more important than mastery of math or language arts. Our country was founded on the hope of having a choice and the freedom to govern ourselves. We have become a country that largely lets others govern us. It may not be kinds and queens anymore, but it's more corrupt than ever.
Science is important as well, for reasons too numerable to list. Science helps us understand how our world works and how we interact within it, in addition to providing us with an understanding of the most fundamental facts about ourselves and our bodies, from nutrition to exercise to our overall health picture. But it goes much deeper. Without science, history, and all of the subjects we used to learn in school, we become sheep. Plain and simple.
The cursive writing debate is one that seems to be drawing attention from just about everyone. Because the focus of education is the "core" math and language arts courses, cursive is being dropped from many curricula around the country because it is not something the schools are evaluated by. This is not in the interest of our children at all, but rather the interest of the ratings of the schools and their respective districts. Good penmanship may not be as critical as it was 20 years ago since technology has become paramount in producing finished academic works, but there are benefits (as this ABC article points out) which are being overlooked for the sake of schools looking better on paper. I don't know about anyone else, but I couldn't care less what schools look like on paper; I have always wanted my children to have a full and excellent education which will prepare them for the future - whatever that means.
People seem to be completely unaware of the fact that our current way of life is neither natural nor sustainable. We have achieved great things in this world, things which are incredible to even consider. Most people, however, stick a plug into an outlet or place a call from their cell phone and take it completely for granted. I'm not saying we should all return to the times before electricity, computers and cell phones. I rather enjoy these luxuries and I believe most people do. What I am saying is that we should all be prepared to live off the grid like our forefathers did, should the need ever arise. This is not some doomsday prediction, but rather something we should give some consideration to; what kind of mess would our society be if we had to live as they did 100 years ago? 200 years ago? It's fascinating but also sad how far we have come from that. Also, we should value the wealth of knowledge we have to learn from, realize that many of our ideas are not new but tried and tested, and act accordingly. In 200 years, your school's academic performance rating won't mean a thing to this world; your child's knowledge and potential to change the world, however, will mean a great deal.
Learning is important, and not just the subjects someone deems more important than others and evaluates schools by. Knowledge is power.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
The Sensory Post
A few people have asked me how we address Little G's sensory processing needs. The short answer is, "With a sensory diet." Most people respond with, "Cool! Um, what's a sensory diet?"
A lot of Little G's sensory diet is so intertwined with our daily activities that I actually have to put effort into thinking about each thing to make a comprehensive, well-defined list. As his 6th birthday approaches, we have been doing sensory diet activities with G for 2/3 of his life, so it is literally second nature at this point. And he has come so far. Once the little boy who would dissolve into a sobbing, inconsolable heap if I happened to put a shirt with (or without, it depended on the day) sleeves on him, he can now handle just about any type of clothing. I used to have to shop at secondhand clothing stores because he needed the broken-in feel of washed and worn clothing. Not that I'm complaining, I love a good bargain! But selection was an issue sometimes, so I basically had to shop constantly to make sure he had all the soft clothes he needed each season.
Why a Sensory Diet?
Just as children need a good nutritional diet, they also need a rich sensory diet. In preschool and sometimes Kindergarten classrooms, you will often find sensory tubs with dried beans, rice, or sand, painting stations, musical instruments, and lots of other objects and toys designed to provide young children with various sensory experiences. Some children, like my son, need much more than others; he is a sensory seeker. In some areas, he is also a sensory avoider, such as with auditory (noise), visual (excessive movement, bright lights), and oral (food, dentist) input.
What is sensory processing disorder?
The best way I have come up with to explain sensory processing disorder to others is that my son has the volume turned way up on his senses; he lives in a world where the radio is too loud and he cannot turn it down, so he has to find ways to cope with the volume. He doesn't, and probably never really will, experience the world in the way most people do. In a typically-functioning sensory system, the brain sort of has gateways or gatekeepers; it moves relevant, necessary information to the conscious mind so we can focus on what we need to, while filtering out unnecessary environmental stimuli that would otherwise be extremely distracting. For example, while shopping at the grocery store, you may be aware that there is noise. You ignore most of it with little effort and go about shopping like everyone else does. A particularly loud or unrelenting scream from a child may catch your attention, or a loud announcement about a manager's special, but for the most part your focus is not broken and concentration is not difficult.
In the same store, my son is aware of every individual noise. His sensory gatekeeper isn't distinguishing between necessary and unnecessary sensory input, and nothing is held back. He hears every beep of every cash register, the buzzing lights, the voices competing with one another, all of the crying babies and children within ear shot, the squeaking wheel on the cart, the item a customer just dropped as they were reaching for something, the automatic doors opening and closing, a bird that flew in chirping way up in the framework of the ceiling, the oven timer going off in the bakery, the music on the speakers, the televisions and video games in the electronics department, the clicking of a device being used to scan items by a store worker, and so on.
If it seems virtually impossible that someone would be aware of all of these things at once, consider yourself fortunate. If it sounds awful and exhausting, I assure you it is. It is not uncommon for my son, almost 6 years old, to fall asleep in the car after a trip to a store because his brain has just done the equivalent of a marathon processing all of that.
So what do we do to help him cope? Lots of things. The goal is to provide the sensory input he craves, or give him tools to cope with sensory input he feels overwhelmed by, in ways that are the both socially acceptable and functional for him.
Shopping and Other Potential Overload Situations
We have a deal in stores; if Little G stays with me and remains calm while we are walking, he can spin in place while I am browsing in a section. This helps him deal with the overwhelming sensory overload. It works extremely well to keep him calm and able to handle focusing when he needs to. I also encourage him to grab things for me from lower shelves and put them into the cart. Having something to do in the store helps a lot, as it gives him something purposeful to do and something to focus on.
At the mall, I typically use a stroller for him. He is very short for his age, so he still fits easily and comfortably into our stroller. It allows him to deal with the environment by simply closing his eyes, focusing on the patterns in the floor or ceiling decorations, or to get lost in his mp3 player - things he cannot safely do while walking. If it is a shorter trip and we do without the stroller, I might give him a snack like fruit leather to chew on or let him carry a familiar comfort object like his toy cat.
Dining Out: The Mega-Overload
Little G has some rather severe sensory aversions when it comes to anything mouth-related. Except brushing his teeth, which he loves to do. In fact, when I want him to try a new food, I will often have him brush his teeth (without toothpaste, as to not alter flavor) before doing so. But it is not always possible to do this, and dining out can present some serious sensory overload potentials.
As with many other things, Little G likes the idea of dining out. In practice, it can be quite unpleasant. A few months ago, a friend of mine invited me out to a rather busy and loud restaurant with my children. I decided to try it, mostly for the sake of my friend but also to find out how Little G would handle it. Little G tuned out completely, focusing his entire existence on eating his salad, but he was absorbing all of the sensory input. He fell asleep in the car almost immediately, so I knew right away that he had been severely overloaded with sensory input. And sure enough, it was three days before he calmed down, slept at a normal time, and stopped throwing himself against couch cushions and spinning in circles.
This is a situation where we simply make our choice of location carefully. There are plenty of restaurants where the atmosphere is calm, without blaring music and screaming children. Restaurants with "sports bars" are absolutely out. The ones where the customers are typically not children and families work better. We sometimes get a sideways look coming in the door, but that is always followed with comments on what "polite and well-behaved" children we have. What a difference their sensory environment can make!
School, Speech Therapy, and Learning
When Little G was in formal speech therapy, I would always give him lots of proprioceptive input within 30 minutes of going into his session. He was in gymnastics for a while, and that worked well for balancing him out and giving all of his joints and muscles the input they needed to he didn't feel so "bouncy" when he needed to be calm and focus. When he was not in gymnastics prior to speech therapy, I invented a game called Push Mama. We would put our hands together and he would push me backward around the building. This, too, gave him the input he needed to feel "balanced" as I like to call it.
Since we homeschool, it's obviously not a problem to let Little G flap and spin and jump during his lessons, because it does not interfere with his learning. And sometimes I do let him. However, he needs coping skills that will translate well into the world outside, and he sure can't do that in a Cub Scouts meeting or a community art class.
Just as we did to prepare for speech therapy, we have activities which help give Little G's joints and muscles lots of good input before he has to be more calm and focused. There is little preparation needed for the first class of the day, which is almost always Math or G's choice, but his need for sensory input increases throughout the day. At break time, we can go outside and run, kick a ball, ride bikes, play on the swing set, or play hop scotch.
Daily Sensory Input
Little G's need for sensory input is mostly of the proprioceptive variety; he loves spinning, rocking, swinging, jumping, running, bumping into things and people, hugs, eskimo kisses, clapping games, hula hooping, and dancing to music. I make sure these things are very much a part of his daily sensory diet.
While we usually discourage running in the house, the weather here is limiting for outdoor play during the winter - especially when my son hates being cold. With the house cleaned up and the floor cleared of toys, I do allow Little G to run in the house - usually as part of some game or with direction, not just wildly and randomly. We do the Electric Slide, The Hokey Pokey, The Chicken Dance, and other children's activity songs; YouTube is a great resource for these! Their History curriculum includes songs, so I add clapping, dancing, or other movement to those (they have mini flags to wave around to It's A Grand Old Flag, for example).
The two sensory issues I am still trying to work out are tricky. One is emotion/behavior self-regulation and the other is his severe oral defensiveness. These probably deserve dedicated posts of their own, since there are more factors involved than just sensory. Little G's speech disorder and his diagnosis of autism definitely play their own roles in these sensory struggles. I will post about these sometime in the near future.
A lot of Little G's sensory diet is so intertwined with our daily activities that I actually have to put effort into thinking about each thing to make a comprehensive, well-defined list. As his 6th birthday approaches, we have been doing sensory diet activities with G for 2/3 of his life, so it is literally second nature at this point. And he has come so far. Once the little boy who would dissolve into a sobbing, inconsolable heap if I happened to put a shirt with (or without, it depended on the day) sleeves on him, he can now handle just about any type of clothing. I used to have to shop at secondhand clothing stores because he needed the broken-in feel of washed and worn clothing. Not that I'm complaining, I love a good bargain! But selection was an issue sometimes, so I basically had to shop constantly to make sure he had all the soft clothes he needed each season.
Why a Sensory Diet?
Just as children need a good nutritional diet, they also need a rich sensory diet. In preschool and sometimes Kindergarten classrooms, you will often find sensory tubs with dried beans, rice, or sand, painting stations, musical instruments, and lots of other objects and toys designed to provide young children with various sensory experiences. Some children, like my son, need much more than others; he is a sensory seeker. In some areas, he is also a sensory avoider, such as with auditory (noise), visual (excessive movement, bright lights), and oral (food, dentist) input.
What is sensory processing disorder?
The best way I have come up with to explain sensory processing disorder to others is that my son has the volume turned way up on his senses; he lives in a world where the radio is too loud and he cannot turn it down, so he has to find ways to cope with the volume. He doesn't, and probably never really will, experience the world in the way most people do. In a typically-functioning sensory system, the brain sort of has gateways or gatekeepers; it moves relevant, necessary information to the conscious mind so we can focus on what we need to, while filtering out unnecessary environmental stimuli that would otherwise be extremely distracting. For example, while shopping at the grocery store, you may be aware that there is noise. You ignore most of it with little effort and go about shopping like everyone else does. A particularly loud or unrelenting scream from a child may catch your attention, or a loud announcement about a manager's special, but for the most part your focus is not broken and concentration is not difficult.
In the same store, my son is aware of every individual noise. His sensory gatekeeper isn't distinguishing between necessary and unnecessary sensory input, and nothing is held back. He hears every beep of every cash register, the buzzing lights, the voices competing with one another, all of the crying babies and children within ear shot, the squeaking wheel on the cart, the item a customer just dropped as they were reaching for something, the automatic doors opening and closing, a bird that flew in chirping way up in the framework of the ceiling, the oven timer going off in the bakery, the music on the speakers, the televisions and video games in the electronics department, the clicking of a device being used to scan items by a store worker, and so on.
If it seems virtually impossible that someone would be aware of all of these things at once, consider yourself fortunate. If it sounds awful and exhausting, I assure you it is. It is not uncommon for my son, almost 6 years old, to fall asleep in the car after a trip to a store because his brain has just done the equivalent of a marathon processing all of that.
So what do we do to help him cope? Lots of things. The goal is to provide the sensory input he craves, or give him tools to cope with sensory input he feels overwhelmed by, in ways that are the both socially acceptable and functional for him.
Shopping and Other Potential Overload Situations
We have a deal in stores; if Little G stays with me and remains calm while we are walking, he can spin in place while I am browsing in a section. This helps him deal with the overwhelming sensory overload. It works extremely well to keep him calm and able to handle focusing when he needs to. I also encourage him to grab things for me from lower shelves and put them into the cart. Having something to do in the store helps a lot, as it gives him something purposeful to do and something to focus on.
At the mall, I typically use a stroller for him. He is very short for his age, so he still fits easily and comfortably into our stroller. It allows him to deal with the environment by simply closing his eyes, focusing on the patterns in the floor or ceiling decorations, or to get lost in his mp3 player - things he cannot safely do while walking. If it is a shorter trip and we do without the stroller, I might give him a snack like fruit leather to chew on or let him carry a familiar comfort object like his toy cat.
Dining Out: The Mega-Overload
Little G has some rather severe sensory aversions when it comes to anything mouth-related. Except brushing his teeth, which he loves to do. In fact, when I want him to try a new food, I will often have him brush his teeth (without toothpaste, as to not alter flavor) before doing so. But it is not always possible to do this, and dining out can present some serious sensory overload potentials.
As with many other things, Little G likes the idea of dining out. In practice, it can be quite unpleasant. A few months ago, a friend of mine invited me out to a rather busy and loud restaurant with my children. I decided to try it, mostly for the sake of my friend but also to find out how Little G would handle it. Little G tuned out completely, focusing his entire existence on eating his salad, but he was absorbing all of the sensory input. He fell asleep in the car almost immediately, so I knew right away that he had been severely overloaded with sensory input. And sure enough, it was three days before he calmed down, slept at a normal time, and stopped throwing himself against couch cushions and spinning in circles.
This is a situation where we simply make our choice of location carefully. There are plenty of restaurants where the atmosphere is calm, without blaring music and screaming children. Restaurants with "sports bars" are absolutely out. The ones where the customers are typically not children and families work better. We sometimes get a sideways look coming in the door, but that is always followed with comments on what "polite and well-behaved" children we have. What a difference their sensory environment can make!
School, Speech Therapy, and Learning
When Little G was in formal speech therapy, I would always give him lots of proprioceptive input within 30 minutes of going into his session. He was in gymnastics for a while, and that worked well for balancing him out and giving all of his joints and muscles the input they needed to he didn't feel so "bouncy" when he needed to be calm and focus. When he was not in gymnastics prior to speech therapy, I invented a game called Push Mama. We would put our hands together and he would push me backward around the building. This, too, gave him the input he needed to feel "balanced" as I like to call it.
Since we homeschool, it's obviously not a problem to let Little G flap and spin and jump during his lessons, because it does not interfere with his learning. And sometimes I do let him. However, he needs coping skills that will translate well into the world outside, and he sure can't do that in a Cub Scouts meeting or a community art class.
Just as we did to prepare for speech therapy, we have activities which help give Little G's joints and muscles lots of good input before he has to be more calm and focused. There is little preparation needed for the first class of the day, which is almost always Math or G's choice, but his need for sensory input increases throughout the day. At break time, we can go outside and run, kick a ball, ride bikes, play on the swing set, or play hop scotch.
Daily Sensory Input
Little G's need for sensory input is mostly of the proprioceptive variety; he loves spinning, rocking, swinging, jumping, running, bumping into things and people, hugs, eskimo kisses, clapping games, hula hooping, and dancing to music. I make sure these things are very much a part of his daily sensory diet.
While we usually discourage running in the house, the weather here is limiting for outdoor play during the winter - especially when my son hates being cold. With the house cleaned up and the floor cleared of toys, I do allow Little G to run in the house - usually as part of some game or with direction, not just wildly and randomly. We do the Electric Slide, The Hokey Pokey, The Chicken Dance, and other children's activity songs; YouTube is a great resource for these! Their History curriculum includes songs, so I add clapping, dancing, or other movement to those (they have mini flags to wave around to It's A Grand Old Flag, for example).
The two sensory issues I am still trying to work out are tricky. One is emotion/behavior self-regulation and the other is his severe oral defensiveness. These probably deserve dedicated posts of their own, since there are more factors involved than just sensory. Little G's speech disorder and his diagnosis of autism definitely play their own roles in these sensory struggles. I will post about these sometime in the near future.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Math is Everywhere
How much does my son love math? Today I was plotting the kids' height and weight on the CDC growth charts when the little guy walked up behind me and squealed with delight, "I want to do that!" Apparently, he thought it was some sort of math worksheet.
Monday, October 17, 2011
What I Believe (and don't) About Homeschooling
I don't believe that public schools are terrible places, or that the children in them are doomed to lives of misery and bullying. And I don't believe that all or even most homeschooling families are religious freaks, social outcasts, or unsocialized weirdos. Are there some? Well, sure. But it is unfair to judge all homeschooling families based on stereotypes about a few sensationalized situations we hear about in the news or through the grapevine. There are religious freaks, social outcasts, and unsocialized weirdos in schools, too!
I do not believe that public school offers children the socialization they "need". The socialization which children receive at school is largely comprised of things we'd prefer they were not exposed to. And by 'we', I mean most parents, not just homeschoolers. Until the 1840s, compulsory education did not exist in the United States; education was something done in the home and society functioned just fine. In fact, people were quite displeased with the idea of compulsory education! But I don't believe that children should be shielded completely from the outside world; that's just nuts. However, some bits of knowledge can wait.
I do not believe that homeschooling is always the better option. In fact, I think public school is sometimes the better option. Each family needs to assess their individual needs and values and make decisions that are best for their situation.
I do believe that learning about diversity and other cultures is important. I do not believe that public schools, at least where we reside, teach children anything about diversity and other cultures. College will probably be the first place they truly experience this. The most important thing now is to teach tolerance and acceptance of differences. And that will quite likely not be learned in any public school. In fact, I've witnessed quite the opposite.
I do not believe that bullying is some rite of passage that all children must go through, or that children need to go to public school to "learn how to deal with it". Bullying is not a harmless childhood experience, nor is it something that is a critical or healthy part of their development; bullying leads to poor self-esteem, academic failure, drop outs, a lifetime of trust issues, and even suicide. Though a lot of schools talk a good talk about bullying prevention and zero tolerance of such behavior, I've found that lip service is far too frequently as far as it goes. More often than not, schools fail to protect children who are targeted and fail to discipline children who are the perpetrators of bullying. It seems that children are viewed as almost inhuman by schools, with comments such as, "Oh, it's just kid stuff." If adults were subjected to the same treatment by their peers, it would be called stalking, harassment, or abuse, and criminal charges and restraining orders would be ways of dealing with the perpetrators. But when this happens to children, who are far less capable of dealing with these things emotionally and are still developing their sense of who they are in this world, the consequences can be utterly devastating for the victim and schools often dismiss it as child's play.
There are no bullies walking our hallways.
I do believe that all parents are teachers, from the moment their babies come into this world. I also believe that compulsory education and the sheeple mentality it drills into all of us has most parents convinced that they are completely unfit to be teachers. "I couldn't do it," is the most common thing people say to me when I tell them I am homeschooling my children. My response is always, "You absolutely could." It saddens me that parents, who are their children's first and most important teachers, do not see themselves as such. Homeschooling is not a new invention or some wild idea, but a natural continuation of a process already well underway since a child was born. Parents don't have to become teachers to homeschool their children, they already are teachers.
I do not believe that public school offers children the socialization they "need". The socialization which children receive at school is largely comprised of things we'd prefer they were not exposed to. And by 'we', I mean most parents, not just homeschoolers. Until the 1840s, compulsory education did not exist in the United States; education was something done in the home and society functioned just fine. In fact, people were quite displeased with the idea of compulsory education! But I don't believe that children should be shielded completely from the outside world; that's just nuts. However, some bits of knowledge can wait.
I do not believe that homeschooling is always the better option. In fact, I think public school is sometimes the better option. Each family needs to assess their individual needs and values and make decisions that are best for their situation.
I do believe that learning about diversity and other cultures is important. I do not believe that public schools, at least where we reside, teach children anything about diversity and other cultures. College will probably be the first place they truly experience this. The most important thing now is to teach tolerance and acceptance of differences. And that will quite likely not be learned in any public school. In fact, I've witnessed quite the opposite.
I do not believe that bullying is some rite of passage that all children must go through, or that children need to go to public school to "learn how to deal with it". Bullying is not a harmless childhood experience, nor is it something that is a critical or healthy part of their development; bullying leads to poor self-esteem, academic failure, drop outs, a lifetime of trust issues, and even suicide. Though a lot of schools talk a good talk about bullying prevention and zero tolerance of such behavior, I've found that lip service is far too frequently as far as it goes. More often than not, schools fail to protect children who are targeted and fail to discipline children who are the perpetrators of bullying. It seems that children are viewed as almost inhuman by schools, with comments such as, "Oh, it's just kid stuff." If adults were subjected to the same treatment by their peers, it would be called stalking, harassment, or abuse, and criminal charges and restraining orders would be ways of dealing with the perpetrators. But when this happens to children, who are far less capable of dealing with these things emotionally and are still developing their sense of who they are in this world, the consequences can be utterly devastating for the victim and schools often dismiss it as child's play.
There are no bullies walking our hallways.
I do believe that all parents are teachers, from the moment their babies come into this world. I also believe that compulsory education and the sheeple mentality it drills into all of us has most parents convinced that they are completely unfit to be teachers. "I couldn't do it," is the most common thing people say to me when I tell them I am homeschooling my children. My response is always, "You absolutely could." It saddens me that parents, who are their children's first and most important teachers, do not see themselves as such. Homeschooling is not a new invention or some wild idea, but a natural continuation of a process already well underway since a child was born. Parents don't have to become teachers to homeschool their children, they already are teachers.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
I Got This
If you've been reading for a few weeks, you may remember back in September when I mentioned our issues with my son's IEP and those involved (or, um, not) with it here and here. Since nothing really IEP-worthy had come up in our homeschooling needs thus far, I was content to put it on the back burner for the time being. To be honest, aside from securing paid speech therapy, we had little need for an IEP - at least at the preschool level. My son is diagnosed with autism and an expressive-receptive speech disorder, but he is also academically gifted and compensates extremely well for any deficits related to his diagnoses. I have worked with him on speech every day for years. I have thoroughly researched and implemented an ever-changing sensory diet to meet his sensory needs. He has improved steadily, sometimes in leaps.
Our school district did pick up the tab for our speech services once Little G turned 3. That was a nice relief after paying it out of pocket for almost a year after tracking it down myself. But really, I can't think of much else they've done for us. Perhaps it is the now clouded view I have of them after the rather epic failures on their part when my daughter, as a Kindergarten student, was being bullied verbally, emotionally, and physically by other students who were repeat offenders. And when it happened again in 1st grade, if to a lesser degree. Or maybe my opinion is somewhat skewed after being unceremoniously dumped by our district's special education people into the lap of the virtual charter school with no direction whatsoever. Take your pick; I'm not impressed.
I called the special education department for our charter the same week we were dumped. I've yet to talk to a human being, but I've now left three messages on various voice mail services that claimed someone would get back to me soon if I did. No one has. My son's teacher contact wants a copy of his IEP, but for what? So we can needlessly entwine ourselves in miles of red tape and frustration so another group of people can fail to meet my son's needs? No. I'm over it.
IEP stands for Individualized Education Plan, and the purpose of it is to help children (usually with disabilities) succeed in the pursuit of their education. To date, I have seen nothing that an IEP could do for my son that I could not or have not accomplished myself for him. Since I am the one helping him reach his educational goals, and I would say I'm doing good job since he has never been in a public bricks and mortar school and he is doing first grade Math, Language Arts, and Phonics easily at age 5, even just attempting to involve the IEP people at this point is only causing needless frustration. It is clear that doing their jobs is an inconvenience, even for such a low-needs family as ours. So fine. My son certainly isn't missing out on anything by having these people or that piece of paper absent from his life. Believe that I would be The Parent No One Wants to Deal With if the opposite were true, because I wouldn't just quietly accept the fact that 90% of the people I have encountered thus far in special education don't want to do their damn jobs.
I learned early on in life that we're basically on our own; things like IEPs are there to hold people accountable when they don't do their jobs. Unfortunately, it's almost always easier and overall more beneficial to just educate myself and do it myself rather than deal with all of the ridiculous stress and responsibility avoidance of people who seem to work harder to avoid their work than they would need to if they just did what their job titles require of them.
Our school district did pick up the tab for our speech services once Little G turned 3. That was a nice relief after paying it out of pocket for almost a year after tracking it down myself. But really, I can't think of much else they've done for us. Perhaps it is the now clouded view I have of them after the rather epic failures on their part when my daughter, as a Kindergarten student, was being bullied verbally, emotionally, and physically by other students who were repeat offenders. And when it happened again in 1st grade, if to a lesser degree. Or maybe my opinion is somewhat skewed after being unceremoniously dumped by our district's special education people into the lap of the virtual charter school with no direction whatsoever. Take your pick; I'm not impressed.
I called the special education department for our charter the same week we were dumped. I've yet to talk to a human being, but I've now left three messages on various voice mail services that claimed someone would get back to me soon if I did. No one has. My son's teacher contact wants a copy of his IEP, but for what? So we can needlessly entwine ourselves in miles of red tape and frustration so another group of people can fail to meet my son's needs? No. I'm over it.
IEP stands for Individualized Education Plan, and the purpose of it is to help children (usually with disabilities) succeed in the pursuit of their education. To date, I have seen nothing that an IEP could do for my son that I could not or have not accomplished myself for him. Since I am the one helping him reach his educational goals, and I would say I'm doing good job since he has never been in a public bricks and mortar school and he is doing first grade Math, Language Arts, and Phonics easily at age 5, even just attempting to involve the IEP people at this point is only causing needless frustration. It is clear that doing their jobs is an inconvenience, even for such a low-needs family as ours. So fine. My son certainly isn't missing out on anything by having these people or that piece of paper absent from his life. Believe that I would be The Parent No One Wants to Deal With if the opposite were true, because I wouldn't just quietly accept the fact that 90% of the people I have encountered thus far in special education don't want to do their damn jobs.
I learned early on in life that we're basically on our own; things like IEPs are there to hold people accountable when they don't do their jobs. Unfortunately, it's almost always easier and overall more beneficial to just educate myself and do it myself rather than deal with all of the ridiculous stress and responsibility avoidance of people who seem to work harder to avoid their work than they would need to if they just did what their job titles require of them.
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