This was actually finished in August, but only just posted.
I've used the usual seed beads and bugle beads, with a few freshwater pearls and some square beads I found in a bead shop recently, plus some of my first attempts to make polymer clay faces. The charm says Be Yourself.
I don't know how good that advice is right now - myself is scared, angry and depressed while trying to deal with the impenetrable vagaries of the Victorian education department and its attitude to high functioning autistic children. Yes, he's got funding for an aide. At the moment the aide (and teacher) are accomplishing little beyond baby-sitting, and not even that very successfully as he keeps running away from school and coming home. It's not their fault - they are well trained and very skilful and have done a million PDs in the subject - it's not the school's fault, which has done EVERYTHINg imaginable to make things autism-friendly - it's not our fault, we have tried every possible technique in every book ever written. The school principal begged Region for help, and their only response was that he should be suspended every time he ran home. Er, hello....? Officially sending him home because he runs home? We are all at our wits end. We had a meeting yesterday and I almost bit the head off the school pysch who said that Wombat 'needs to learn the value of education' when he has been raised in a family that values education very prominently and always has done so.
We may be driven into the private system, which we cannot afford and don't want to use, because the publicly funded system, to which we have contributed both via taxes and personal sweat/blood/time for years, refuses to help our son - who is legally entitled to an appropriate education. So much for A Fair Go being one of the so-called Aussie values on the new citizenship test.
Rant over.
6 comments:
Actually your August piece looks rather peaceful... was school not in session then? Or, maybe you needed peace of mind and this was a place you could go. I scrolled down to see June and July, and enjoyed seeing them again. I like the colors and the simplicity of them. Good job on your Polymer faces.
How sad! I cannot believe that a school system cannot help your son. It's amazing that they cannot work something out besides suspending him. Keep up with it for him and those who come after him. The school will be improved by it, and you can and will be strong through this. Insist that they have him with them. They may need to hire another aide to shadow him at all times. I am flabbergasted that they think that he needs to learn the value of education.... does that person have any idea of autism? His behavior has nothing to do with his values!
I am a substitute aide in our elementary school and am in awe of the love and respect given to our special kids. I know it can be done.... just hang in there and bead away those frustrations!
Sending love and hugs your way!
Your August piece is very lovely, serene and calm. And I like it very much!
You and your son will be in my thoughts . . .
Kathy V in NM
Your page is a cool, calm place. Peaceful as Robin says.
Schools! In California, my grandson didn't get help for his severe ADHD (the hyper part isn't much of a problem but the attention span is baaaad) until this year for 8th grade. It took a lawsuit to be filed before the federal and state governments would look into it and finally, finally (he had a nervous breakdown due to the poor treatment he was receiving) the school says he's got ADHD and will help him! Sorry to see you going through this.
Oh I feel your pain. My son (who has Aspergers) couldn't cope with school at all, we (ie I) homeschooled him for almost all of his schooling through to the end of Year 10. We then insisted that he went to Year 11 and 12 (which are in a separate college here in the ACT). OMG. Talk about a daily struggle...
The support staff were wonderful, bent over backwards to help him get through, adapted coursework, made exceptions for him etc. In the end he wanted to quit, and was only attending about 1 hour of school a week, and doing the rest at home. Talk about pulling teeth. I cried when he graduated.
Our next challenge is getting him some higher qualifications - he seems interested in some IT course at our local TAFE. He's been unemployed for 6 months now, and seems quite happy to sleep in, play computer games all day, and not do much else! Argh!
I wish you all the best with your son's situation. It's so difficult.
I am sorry that your son is not happy at school. Help him excel at what he is good at and he will go further than trying to work on his weaknesses all the time. No one want to be reminded that they are different. School can be sooooo stressful for kids and we need to stop putting so much pressure on them. It is CRAZY!
Read what I wrote about education on my Cicada Barrette page.
I am also a high functioning autistic.
Peace.
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