Previously, in my post Autism and Punishment, I reflected on how I believe some of these special needs programs may be too hard on the autistic child.
Last night, my son was up and crying about a school assignment that he said he would be in trouble if he didn’t finish. Essentially, my son is very focused on what he is interested in and it is very hard for him to change his focus to what you want him to be interested in. The teachers have found how much he can do when they are learning about a topic that he enjoys … and they seem to believe that he should be capable of operating at this level all of the time.
I believe all of us have experienced a time where we would much rather be thinking about something other than the school assignment that was handed to us. Yet, direction by the teacher to focus on it, or the hopes of a good grade, is enough for us to redirect our thoughts away from that beach we would like to be lying on. For my son, it is not so easy … and this concept seems to be hard for the teachers to understand. They keep going back to the fact that he is capable of doing the work, capable of learning, seemingly to forget that he has trouble directing his thoughts.
It seems as if the whole set up of the school is contrary to how he learns. The school system itself is like a massive organism trying to control every moment of my sons learning experience, rather than simply trying to enhance his own natural curiosity. In other words, if he successfully writes about topics that interest him, why on earth don’t they simply ask him to write about topics that interest him?
I find it so hard to be a working single mom, when the more I look at everything that has happened with my boy, I feel that I should have home schooled him. How about you, are you happy with school that you are sending your child to? If you had to change one thing that they do, what would that be? Please leave a comment.
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