Counting Down the Days

Mr. C. has been counting down the days until school ends. This past year has been a rough one on him and I am praying that his 8th grade year goes smoother. As far back as I can remember he loved school, then out of the blue the once happy child turned sad and distant. More distant than his norm, I wondered what it was that caused my child's world to suddenly change. Mr. C. did wonderfully in a blended classroom, when he was mainstreamed everything was turned upside down. A well adjusted child who had a decent self esteem became angry, non-compliant, moody and worst of all hated, absolutely hated school.

I looked closer into everything that was happening at school, from his daily schedule to the children he had contact with. When it came down to it, I realized the one aspect of my child's autism was the social component, the importance of it at the middle school grade level was having a negative impact on my child. Mr. C. struggles daily with social interactions with peers, he is more of a loner and that is one of the obstacles that presents itself in his daily life.  From the inappropriate responses all the way to the missed social cues. Frustrated beyond measure from his side and mine. At what point will the educational system grasp that the one major component to education is the one component that my child lacks?

A change was made to my son's learning environment, an effort made by the school district even after being told for the past 2-3 years that this would happen. Shoving the problems aside does not accomplish anything, in fact from my experience it only makes things worse. What it does not do is make the problem go away.   Mr. C. may be counting down the days until the end of the year, I am counting the years until he no longer attends school in this district. When he can go to school without the worry of being bullied because he is different and that he processes the world differently.

Eight days until summer vacation! We have a lot of plans this year one of which is to go to the local zoo, an activity he has enjoyed since he was two. Mr. C. has requested that we also visit the local state parks that are close by. Sounds like a perfectly wonderful summer.