- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Babies: 6 - 9 Months
redhotchili83
member
FFFC - might get flamed
redhotchili83
member
I do not understand why anyone would homeschool their child, ESPECIALLY if thye have a disability. I have two students coming to me next year who have been homeschooled (2 different families), one going into 5th grade and one going into 8th. The 5th grader has autism and the 8th grader has a coginitive impairment. Both of these children have been held at such an academic and social disadvantage by being kept at home and not exposed to the resources, interventions, and opportunities that we have at school.
The boy with autism is going to be especially challenging, as he is used to his home routine and the home enviornment. He is now going to have to adapt to a much busier, noisier, and differently-structured enviornment, which is extremely difficult for children with autism. However, his mom says she "can't handle him anymore". I can't help but feel that we as a school are having to clean up her mess.
DH and I have discussed these situations and can't think of a single reason that would drive us to homeschool.
Any thoughts?
Warning
No formatter is installed for the format bbhtml
This discussion has been closed.
Re: FFFC - might get flamed
She obviously thought it was best at the time and is now realizing her mistake. I can't say I'd ever homeschool a disabled child but I've known quite a few people who were homeschooled by their parents and they turned out just fine.
I know a lot of people think that the public school system is horrible, and I can't say that I dissagree too much. If I could afford it, DS would go to private school but that ain't happening
Me: 37
DH: 36
Married: 08-25-07
DS: 11-20-09
Name change alert: Formerly Lisswastaken
Its statements like thse that make me sad. There are a lot of us working in the public school system that bust our butts every day to make sure kids achieve their highest level possible. Im not sure how Canadian schools are, but I would LOVE for my son to go to the school I work at, even if I didnt work there. Our staff is hard working, bright, and extremely compotent.
Is there dead weight in our profession? Absolutely, just like any job. I just don't like it when people throw out everything becuase of a few bad apples.
it wasn't a shot at the teachers. I have the utmost respect for you and the profession you've chosen. I was referring more to the constant cutbacks and the large class sizes that force teachers to work with a handicap among other things (here in canada anyway). You do the best you can and I don't fault you guys for that.
Me: 37
DH: 36
Married: 08-25-07
DS: 11-20-09
Name change alert: Formerly Lisswastaken
Aww, thanks! I wish everyone was so appreciative! All too often I hear "Must be nice to work 6 hours a day and have 3 months off in the summer".... as I sit here surrounded by velcro and picture strips to make a communication system for a kid I know nothing about because hes NEVER BEEN TO SCHOOL BEFORE!!!! **breathe in, breathe out**
yeah but not every public school is great like yours! We specifically did not buy a house in the Dallas school district b/c the Dallas school system is horrible! It's not the teachers per say but the system as a whole!!!!
No flames here... I agree for the most part but on the other hand.... My youngest brother had / has severe depression. Going into his junior year there were events that lead my Dad to make the decision to have him homeschooled to ensure he would not drop out.
I don't see a problem with a person being homeschooled in situations such as these.
Chili--I'm going to weigh in and I'm not flaming you. FWIW, my DH and father are both teachers in public school. I have nothing but the utmost respect for public school teachers and I get really upset when people criticize them. I've actually done quite a bit of research on homeschooling, but I have one reason I'm considering it--Samuel is gifted. My DH and I were both identified as gifted students when we were younger and we both attended public school. Quite frankly, neither of us was pushed to our potential because most public institutions are designed to teach to the middle. Should Samuel continue down his gifted path, I want the best possible education FOR HIM, TAILORED TO HIS NEEDS. We may put him in private school if that's possible, but I'm not sure his education will be much different there. Our local school system does not have the kind of gifted and talented programs I'm hoping to have Samuel attend. I've thought about homeschooling--but that's just a thought. There are many homeschool networks in our area that would fulfill his socialization needs.
Again, it's just a thought--and a decision DH and I won't have to make for another 3 years. Deciding to homeschool Samuel would be a huge sacrifice on all of our parts because it would mean my not going back to work when the kids hit school-age. We're fine on one income for now, but I'm not sure I want to spend the next 18 years doing this.
I am a strong believer in the public school systems. I applaud you for what you do. I went to public schools, and so will my children.
On the other hand, I could never home school. Plus, we both need to work, so even if I wanted to I couldn't. However, I believe that homeschooling works well for some people. I think it's key though that if children are home schooled, that they be highly involved in sports or some other activity.
I don't know about in IN but here in AZ we have a few public schools that have a special center for gifted kids. There are only 10 to 15 kids in the center and it is done at a more work at your pace then a regular class. The education is much more personal. One of the kids went on to take AP classes with me in high school. And is now playing football for Harvard. YOu may want to look into something like that.
No flames here- i agree with you! IMO, school isn't all about book smarts, its learning socialization as well.
DD will only attend public schools. Both my husband and I are the product of public schools. I also want her around a diverse group of kids and the private schools around here are about 95% white children.
Owen- April 2011
Olivia- Due December 24th
I haven't found anything like that here, but I'm still looking! Hopefully we can find something like that because that's exactly what I want. I don't need him to go to Harvard, but I don't want him to be bored. Thanks for the info.
My personal view on it, and it doesn't necessarily fit for every situation but generally is an umbrella view:
You can't control what your child is exposed to for the rest of their lives, and so I think the best way to prepare them for the various type of people and situations they will come into contact with in adult life is to let them exoperience it as children and ber allowed to learn how to properly handle it. Otherwise you end up with very maladjusted adults.
BTW - I have a friend who is a special education teacher at our middle school and she would agree whole heartedly with you.
Someone somewhere around here has a great quote in their siggy re: home schooling. Something to the degree of : No one can teach you that some people are douch bags and not everyone likes you unless you go to school,......
I know I butchered that but I agree with it. I loved public school and intentionally moved to an area that has a great system. I applaud all teachers (I was one before I had kids) and think they are the most underpaid, underappreciated bunch of people. LOVE you, teachers!!!
Maybe this just rubs me the wrong way, but I can't criticize a parent's decision for their child! I don't want to be judged for my decisions because they are for my family and my child. A bunch of people here wear the "proud baby feeder" badges because it's not cool to judge people based on the feeding decisions they make for their child.
There are a large number of people at my church that homeschool and a great homeschool network in our area that stomps any argument for lack of socialization.
DH and I both went to Christian schools and hopefully DD will too. It has nothing to do with the wonderful public school teachers out there, but more to do with the system as a while, the battle over content in public school textbooks, and the lack of a Christian base in the teachings. Those things are really important to us.
I don't think that I personally would home school a disabled child, but that parent is probably feeling an enormous amount of guilt right now and doesn't need additional judgement.
JMO
It's from RoxyLynn's siggy:
TTC#2 October 2011. June 2012 diagnosed with mild PCOS and both tubes blocked.
10/1/12 miracle BFP 11/12/12 missed m/c (9w2d), baby stopped growing at 7 weeks
1/16/13 BFP, EDD 9/27/13, m/c 1/19/13
2/12/13 BFP, EDD 10/25/13 Please stick little one
A stowaway on board!
I would never homeschool personally, I think it does a diservice to the child just based on the diversity of socialization a kid gets in school. Even if a homeschool child gets lots of socialization with other homeschooled kids, I'm willing to bet that the kids are pretty much the same as them in terms of race, religion, etc. That's not how the world is.
I think it's kind of selfish to homeschool. As a parent, that is making an absolutely huge decision that's going to affect your child in many ways for the rest of their lives. There's a big difference, IMO, between how you feed your child as an infant and how you educate them. Huge difference.
I teach in a really urban school - the kids were out of control this year and our scores on standardized tests sucked. No support from the admin, etc. I would never send LO to the school where I work and that saddens me greatly, because my closest friends are teachers with me and I'm amazed at the jobs that they do. However, the kids are so out of control that teachers can't teach without discipline problems.
I teach gifted education and it's hard to individualize curriculum for every kid on my roster. I used to teach music but I love the change. Best decision Ever.
Honestly, most of the time when I find people so anti-homeschooling, it's because they have never had a POSITIVE encounter with it.I know the stereotype....a lot of homeschoolers are "weird", not socialized at all, are homeschooled in order to shelter their children. I make no excuses for these people--it's not how it should be, imo.
I'm not sure if I'm homeschooling Piper yet, but it's definitely a strong consideration right now. My husband and his siblings were homeschooled and it was wonderful for all of them. They had more social activities than I did (public school). Homeschool group, 4H, church activities, karate, etc etc etc. They received a much better, more individualized education. I really hope I can provide that for Piper some day.
DH & I both taught in the Bronx so we know how hard-working and amazing teachers are. Similarly, we do consider homeschooling because if we had enough money to tailor our child's education so that he could succeed and excel and specialize, he might go further than we ever did in public school. We also may move back to Philadelphia, and we would only use private or homeschooling in Philly. I absolutely think social growth comes mostly from school so if we did homeschool, we would make sure to provide significant social development opportunities.