The Homeschooling Handbook_ From Preschool to High School - Mary Griffith [97]
The social aspects of school sometimes are a bit trickier. Some children, especially coming from an unschooling style of learning, have trouble learning not to take the initiative in what they do. It can take a while to develop the school habits most take for granted: asking permission to get a drink of water or go to the bathroom, or even raising one’s hand for recognition before jumping into a discussion. It’s a rare homeschooler, though, who does not adjust perfectly well within a few weeks (and it’s also quite common for such kids to decide to return to homeschooling within a term or school year).
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Special Circumstances
EVEN UNDER THE best of circumstances, homeschooling can be a challenge, but in some situations it can be especially difficult. In some cases, homeschooling is simply the most workable choice among several formidable options. By maximizing individual attention, homeschooling can be very effective for children with learning differences or physical disabilities. Even with the advantages it offers, though, homeschooling in such cases adds to the burdens borne by the parents and other family members. Other situations, such as single parenting or geographic isolation, present obstacles that discourage all but the most determined families from attempting homeschooling.
Learning and Physical Disabilities
It is hardly disputed that learning disabilities such as dyslexia and attention deficit disorder are greatly overdiagnosed in schools these days. Whether such conditions are even physiologically based disorders is still a matter of contentious debate among educators, psychologists, neurologists, and parents alike. Whether a particular child is learning disabled and needs special education services is just as debatable: Each child is different, and the available services may or may not suit his needs.
Many families begin homeschooling specifically because one or more of their children is diagnosed at school with a learning problem such as attention deficit disorder or dyslexia. Such diagnoses often are simply wrong. Teachers required to teach particular skills at specific ages may only note the existence of, say, frequent letter reversals and be unable to devote the time and energy to find out whether this is truly a serious problem or simply a matter of waiting a few months for the child’s skills to catch up with the lessons.
We call TJ “Mr. Reversal.” I think all his “g’s” are facing the right way now. He just turned ten. It’s been a struggle and we’re keeping our eyes open to what might still be a problem. Small print gives him headaches.—Shari, Alabama
Other children may have problems sitting still or staying focused on the material being presented, with the result that their behavior becomes a distraction to both the teacher and other students. Some teachers may look only at such symptoms and the classroom problems they entail, without investigating underlying causes, before calling in the special education consultants. The fact that a child may behave inappropriately because of sheer boredom may never be considered.
Parents skeptical of such “diagnoses” who try homeschooling often find the problems nonexistent at home. With the individualized instruction homeschooling allows, ordinary garden-variety letter reversals can be treated as the fleeting problem they usually are, and the active child can mix in all the physical activity he needs with his reading and written work. A bored child can always be allowed to find something more interesting to do when the needs of twenty-five or thirty other children don’t have to be considered.
Many children, however, have genuine difficulties learning in school, and their difficulties are not confined to the school setting. Such children obviously need special assistance, but whether a formal label of “learning disabled” will help can be largely a matter of luck, depending on the quality of the special education services in your district. A specific diagnosis can