(no subject)
Mar. 11th, 2015 22:30![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mapsedgeAnd just like that, we're homeschoolers again.
Katie has expressed great anxiety over school. The noise and chaos overwhelm her, she's constantly frightened; no, there aren't any particular threats to her person, but the whole atmosphere is an assault on her senses. Her autistic brain just can't filter out the unwanted stimulous, and as a result she's doing poorly in school. She's smart, she has a firm grasp on most of what she's been/being taught, but she can't articulate in any way that can be graded within the curriculum.
Jami has similar problems, though it comes down more to the fact that he is smarter than pretty much everyone in his peer group and the other kids are singling him out for "special treatment." He's not being challenged.
Add to that the Missouri school system is becoming a numbers game, where our children are being treated like dollar signs. Attendance is of the utmost importance because it's tied to state and federal funding and we frequently get letters and/or phone calls on the general subject of, "Where's your kid??" You know, when my children are sick, they're sick; when they have medical appointments, they have appointments; when there's a feis, we travel. Fuck off.
The last quarter of the school year, education grinds to a halt as the teachers start teaching the MAPP test, and our kids don't test well in any case.
So we're bringing the children home.
I'll take Katie to her school tomorrow so she can say goodbye to her teachers and get her stuff. Jami, who has been sick, will go as soon as he's well. Both kids seem...relieved.
Katie has expressed great anxiety over school. The noise and chaos overwhelm her, she's constantly frightened; no, there aren't any particular threats to her person, but the whole atmosphere is an assault on her senses. Her autistic brain just can't filter out the unwanted stimulous, and as a result she's doing poorly in school. She's smart, she has a firm grasp on most of what she's been/being taught, but she can't articulate in any way that can be graded within the curriculum.
Jami has similar problems, though it comes down more to the fact that he is smarter than pretty much everyone in his peer group and the other kids are singling him out for "special treatment." He's not being challenged.
Add to that the Missouri school system is becoming a numbers game, where our children are being treated like dollar signs. Attendance is of the utmost importance because it's tied to state and federal funding and we frequently get letters and/or phone calls on the general subject of, "Where's your kid??" You know, when my children are sick, they're sick; when they have medical appointments, they have appointments; when there's a feis, we travel. Fuck off.
The last quarter of the school year, education grinds to a halt as the teachers start teaching the MAPP test, and our kids don't test well in any case.
So we're bringing the children home.
I'll take Katie to her school tomorrow so she can say goodbye to her teachers and get her stuff. Jami, who has been sick, will go as soon as he's well. Both kids seem...relieved.