Here we are again, shaking our heads over Mary's school. I have two major problems with her school. One, I'm not sure I like the kids she has decided she wants to mimic. Mary feels the need to act like other people sometimes, I think she just doesn't know how to be herself when as he is with other kids. I know I have explained all that in more than one of my posts. Two, I do not believe all of, or I should say any, besides one of Mary's teachers, has any experience teaching special needs kids. Example: Mary had to study for a science test, we did the best we could, she really tried. I was shaking my head over trying to figure out how she is supposed to remember the difference between, toposhere, stratosphere, photosynthesis? Give me a break! Still, I did not discourage her, we made an attempt to memorize it all. So, as I suspected, Mary got a 64%. What does the teacher say? "You didn't pass your test, so no treat for you next week" Please, just imagine the smoke coming out of the top of my head. This is only one recent example.
I have always been adamant about not putting her in public school, thinking it would be detrimental to her development. Well, really, is this any better? I started browsing the website of the public school in our zone. Not much there on special needs, so I checked the public school which is the same distance, but not in our zone. Low and behold, there is a whole section on special needs. It turns out, this school is a feeder school for children with special needs, ie: Autism and intellectual disabilities, which means the "mentally educable", which is what Mary has been deemed. From what I could get off the website, this may be good for Mary. I believe that the kids are in their own classroom, and are not included in with the "regular kids". There is a whole method to teaching kids with learning differences. I made a call, and am waiting to schedule an appointment to talk to someone. If anything, we can try this for a year, if it doesn't work out, then we will qualify for Florida's scholarship program and send her to that high dollar private school we were looking into. We need to do something before she gets to middle school, I don't even want to think about having to put her into the middle school we are zoned for here.
I know I cannot shelter her from everything, but if I could just minimize what she is exposed to on a daily basis, then I will. Sure, right now being in a class of 10 seems ideal for her, but wouldn't a class of 5 be better? I am no longer worried about her academic abilities. It is amazing all that she is capable of doing. My main focus right now is not whether she knows about the greenhouse effect, or even if she can add 1 + 1. I need to put more focus on her socialization, behavior, and general mental health. I should be used to this by now, but still, I am blown away by the power of prayer. How God tells you what to do, just by giving you those hunches and instincts. Makes me not worry so much about what going to happen tomorrow.
