It’s amazing how almost all people, who mainstream their children, think they know what’s best for ALL children. I hear comments like, “My child did well in public school and she survived even though she had a learning disability,” but yet saying it without realizing the differences which exist in regards to learning disabilities.
I was recently told about a girl who struggled with learning to read and write. Her father was trying to use his daughter as an example to show that Asperger children do better if they are mainstreamed with their education and that homeschooling can’t equip them for the world as well as being in a large school system. He mistakenly thinks Asperger’s syndrome is merely a learning disability that mainstream schools can accommodate. I wish I was quick enough to plug in the question, “Since when do scholarly studies have anything to do with socializing issues?”
Another thing that’s warped is the term learning disabled. It’s a classic “it depends” case. Using the logic most people do in regards to this term, I could say my bright neurotypical daughter is learning disabled if I taught her the same way I taught my neuro-A-typical son. When it comes to educating neurologically different children, they cannot learn in the same environment using the same methods!
Putting autism spectrum children into a special needs classroom is NOT enough and may even be more harmful than good, because they already have a strong awareness of being unacceptable due to being socially and cognitively different. Special needs classrooms are still in the mainstream environment. Those classrooms will not only never be built differently enough, they can never become customized for each Aspie student’s needs. Most Aspies don’t learn best by such traditional methods as using a teacher talking, writing notes on the board, and having all her students staying seated to focus on her.
Most people really believe that if a child with Aspergers is homeschooled, or attends a school specifically structured for those on the autism spectrum, that s/he will be at a disadvantage because they think s/he will become spoiled. Okay then, how about if I throw some tropical fish into a tank that goldfish thrive fine in? Is having a special aquarium set up for tropical fish “spoiling” them if there are many more goldfish than tropical fish?
Only those who have raised their children in an unconventional way have the ability to speak knowledgeably on the topic of whether or not mainstreaming is good for a child.
There are Aspie students who ’survive’ mainstreaming (I’m one of them), BUT they would have received a superior education if they were not mainstreamed AND without such risks as constantly being bullied, receiving permanent bad behavior records, and (even worse) struggling with suicidal tendencies! Just like children have different dietary needs for optimum health, they also have different social and cognitive needs for mental health. Feed a food to a child that he’s allergic to and he will have a reaction. Force a child into the wrong schooling environment and expect trouble.
It’s too bad that there is no way to prove that providing for an individual child’s needs, even if it means not mainstreaming, results in an adult with greater assets to give back to society. Oops . . . oh yea, there is. But the problem is most people don’t want to hear it. There are more and more homeschool graduates setting that record straight.
If only non-homeschoolers attended events organized homeschoolers do, such as having a theme park day specifically reserved to only allow homeschooling families to attend. You’d think you left earth and were on another planet, because of the massive amount of polite and intelligent behavior displayed by so many children of all ages in a concentrated area.
Don’t be so quick to blame children and/or their parents when it comes to disruptions in mainstreamer’s routines. Most likely, the problem is IGNORANT people in society who have too much influence over the way other people will think!
Just like an Asperger child can be a disruption to a classroom filled with neurotypical children, it’s equally so that a neurotypical child can be a disruption to a classroom filled with Aspie children! In fact, NT kids behave a lot worse (generally speaking). Can you remember when you’ve last heard about a gang of Asperger children gathering to bully and/or beat up a NT child?
