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PrisonerSix
Velociraptor
Joined: Jul 16, 2004
Posts: 456
Location: The Village
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 Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 6:18 pm Post subject: |
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| rottenlittleboys wrote: | | brister22 wrote: | Send him/her to public school and you be the after school tutor and also help build his/her "self confedance"
public schools are good for social skills building as thats is the main part of life. |
I agree that learning social skills is a very important life skill. But public schools are the 'worst' place to build social skills if not monitored.
My younger Aspie is in public school right now. They have him in the corner, at a desk all by himself. He eats lunch in the prinicple's office and is singled out to do other things in PE.
How is he learning social skills? By telling people things like, 'You live in a toilet', he gets laughs. A good, happy response even he can understand. But is that learning social skills? No, he is learning to be the butt of others jokes.
But if I can monitor him in social settings, such as Scouts, music class, family get togethers and homeschool groups, I can help him learn the not so subtle difference between genuine acceptance and being the buffoon. |
Public schools aren't good places to learn social skills, but neither are private schools. I've been in both so I know.
What the school is doing to him is outrageous. Sounds to me like the school administration is joining in the persecution of your son. If you can get him out of there, do it. Even if you can't homeschool, even just getting him into a school not run by those crazies might help.
_________________
PrisonerSix
"I am not a number, I am a free man!" |
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PhR33kY
Phoenix
Joined: Oct 14, 2008
Age: 19
Posts: 736
Location: Philidelphia, PA, USA
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| Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 8:45 pm Post subject: |
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As a former child, allow me to tell you first hand what to expect:
If you homeschool, your child may learn better but at a cost: without peers, the much lacking social skills typical of AS will have an even more difficult time developing. And colleges do not, from my understanding, particularly care for home schooled kids. Mainstream will give children much needed social interaction witch can be a very positive experiance with the parents guidance. They might struggle academically but this is not always the case; I was mainstreamed and I made it into one of the best liberal arts schools in the country. Consider the strengths and weaknesses of your child before making this decision. |
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Rebecca_L
Pileated woodpecker
Joined: May 29, 2008
Age: 45
Posts: 186
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| Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 10:20 pm Post subject: |
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phr33ky, I don't know where you are from, but in my part of the country there is a fair amount of homeschooling and the local colleges are just fine with homeschooled children. They do an assesment test for basic math, reading and writing skills before you start. Usually the homeschooled children do very well. I know my son has had no problems with the college being unhappy with his homeschooling. I'm not trying to be critical or anything, just pointing out my experience with homeschooling and college.
Also, there are plenty of opportunities to allow homeschooled children to interact with their peers. There are sports, music courses (our schools will take homeschooled children for individual classes if the parents want), children's groups like Boy and Girl Scouts or Awana, and most places have homeschooling associations that get together to allow their children social interaction. The options are greater than many people think. And I found school to be social torture, so I have a definite bias against public education being a good place to learn social skills. Pretty much all I learned socially was thaat I didn't fit in and I wasn't every likely to. |
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rachel46
Pileated woodpecker
Joined: May 07, 2007
Posts: 185
Location: Midwest US
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| Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 9:43 am Post subject: |
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| I don't even know where to start in refuting Phr33ky's comments. I can't add to any of the good comments already made by RebeccaL except to say that maybe you just had a bad homeschooling experience? That's too bad because it is a real and beneficial alternative to traditional public or private school to many, many NT and Aspie kids (including my own). |
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PhR33kY
Phoenix
Joined: Oct 14, 2008
Age: 19
Posts: 736
Location: Philidelphia, PA, USA
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| Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 12:12 pm Post subject: |
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I'm an aspie and I did fine in public school. Of course if the local school system has poor accomadations for special needs, this could be a problem. By explaining what my conditions were most of my peers were able to accept my conditions, and my parents guided me on how to successfuly deal with bullies and they worked extensivly with the school system to find a solution that worked for me, which was, during middle school, a full time aide to assist me.
I am not trying to start an argument, I am merely stating my views as someone who went through the system with positive experiances and am reporting my own account. I am not saying that my views are the only ones, I am merely saying that they are my views. I meant not to offend anyone. |
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Rebecca_L
Pileated woodpecker
Joined: May 29, 2008
Age: 45
Posts: 186
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| Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 1:29 pm Post subject: |
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I'm not offended. Of course there is a big difference between your school experience and mine -- when I went to school my only diagnosis was "that's the weird chick". I just recently found out why I'm weird, so I didn't get any accomodations at all. In fact, my parents still deny I have Asperger's. (I'm 45 years old, back when I was in school dyslexia and some ADHD were pretty much the only recognized learning disorders. Classic autism was still being diagnosed as Mental Retardation most of the time.)
Given my grandson's experience so far I completely agree with you. When the school is actively working to help the child succeed it can be a very rewarding experience. If all remains the same for him we will probably keep him in the public school system. However, his experience with the school working so hard to meet his needs isn't typical in my experience. For children who are being failed by the school system homeschooling is a reasonable and generally very effective resource. There are others, however, such as charter schools, contract based education and things like that. |
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kualakuddlebear
Hummingbird
Joined: Oct 18, 2008
Posts: 21
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| Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 4:21 am Post subject: Curious about homeschooling vs mainstreaming |
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I am a homeschool mom and my two daughters have Asperger's & ADD . And I would love to share a different point of view than I have been reading on this thread.
Both of our girls were in public school and if anyone would have said anything about me homeschooling I would have thought they were crazy .But then we brought them home to school when one was in the 3rd grade and the other in 7th and I have to tell you this has been the BEST thing we've ever done. Both academically & socially ... I hear so many people saying that public school is a must for socalization and I can honestly tell you that my girls are far more social now being homeschool. I think people have the image of homeschool being some kid sitting along in a room with a computer and that is completely false if you take an active roll. We go on more field trips and learning is hands on 80% of the time. Learning should be fun and engaging. And kids with Apserger's & ADD learn far better in a setting that they are not fearful of. They gain real world experience and communication skills. We don't just read about something. We read it.. talk about it... explore it and live it. An example... We were learning about the forest ( tree identification, plants, animals, forest fires and so on ... then we went into the forest with a ranger and a guided tour and then another day to a fire and rescue department and spent some time with the men that fight forest fires. This really brought the lessons into real understanding.
As for socialization ... We belong to a wonderful group of home school families. We do projects together, hold holiday parties, field trips, BBQ's, Camping trips, ( you name it we do it )
And they socialize with children and adults of all ages ( this is real world experience ) There is nothing real world about spenting your entire day behind a desk and with a group of kids that are all of the same age. I mean where else in life does this happen besides public school.
If anyone has any questions about homeschooling I would be very happy to talk with you 
Traci |
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