Friday, February 6, 2009
Why I Homeschool
I was called in for a meeting this morning to discuss "a couple of things" by Preston's therapist. I felt attacked but walked away feeling vindicated. Apparently when she asks him what he's doing in school, he tells her "nothing". So.....she thought he was doing "nothing". Through many tears, I explained to her what we do and how we do it and why we do it the way that we do. Preston, on the outside, seems like a normal 7 year old boy. When you look at his brain MRI, it's a little different. He spent 4 1/2 years (4 1/2 of his DEVELOPING years) on chemotherapy. How could it NOT affect his brain? We are very honest with his Oncologist and his Endocrinologist about his progress, his lack of ability to read at grade level, in addition to his health related issues. It appears that the majority of kids with his disease are learning disordered and/or developing neurological issues. Once again, how could they not after all that chemo in infancy, toddlerhood, and preschool ages? No, we may not sit at a desk for 6 hours a day like you would in public school, but we are learning. We are learning our measurements through cooking and and measuring liquids and solids and using a tape measure on everything in the house. We are learning levels and pulleys and ramps via rodent traps all over the yard and the field across the street. We learned about electricity through a board with all different sizes of batteries and light bulbs and wires. At some point in the meeting, I saw a change in her face and I knew that it "clicked". At the end, she told me that if her now learning disordered 20 year old were in 4th grade, she'd do the same thing I'm doing. She also told me that if anyone else questions my decisions, to send them to her. Yes, I feel like I won this one...but why must we homeschoolers constantly defend ourselves and our decisions?
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2 comments:
Tonya, i think you made your point and did you did it beautifully. Preston is blessed to have such a loving mother and teacher. I believe his therapist would definitely agree. Love, sherri
Sorry you were made to feel that you had to again defend your manner of teaching Preston (home schooling). I don't know a lot about it but if I am not mistaken a person has to meet certain criteria/requirements in order to be able to home school their children (or anyone else's for that matter). It never ceases to amaze me how others, on the outside looking in, think home schooled children just aren't receiving the same quality of education as publicly schooled children. In a great many instances I suspect the education is probably much better since the child is not having to fight for the focus of the teacher. While I certainly applaud those teaching in public schools (I can think of four friends of mine who are or have taught in that environment) I also know that teachers come in all forms and sizes. I myself was a training specialist for EDS if you will recall - and while I had no degree in the field my students often complimented me on my ability to take a subject that was foreign to them and present it in ways that helped them to understand it (perhaps, in some instances, in a way that would not have been possible had they been only at the mercy of someone with a "teaching degree"). ...and you are SOOooo correct about the chemo, etc. Hell, I was in my forties when I underwent the stuff and I remember how it affected my own brain. I can ONLY GUESS how much more of an affect it has had on the little guy during those developmental years. Give Preston a big hug for me! (BTW, I haven't forgotten about the HotWheels I told you I was shipping over. I've been going through more that I found and was going to include "a few more" in the shipment, thus the delay. *giggles-n-winks!*) Love ya, cous.
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