Fully aware, but thanks for pointing this out. One of our close friends is a special ed teacher, and for many of his autistic kids this isn’t so bad (online learning), but for most of his special ed kids this is a big step back. He is more frustrated than any of the teachers I know, because he knows he isn’t able to deliver his program virtually in an effective way to most of his kids.
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I can see why teachers would say this and to some extent even autistic kids… Most of the things teachers would generally do in the brick-and-mortar school house (i.e., keep the child focused, follow them around all day, sit with them all day, help them figure out what’s being required) now falls on the parents. Erin sits all day long with our autistic son as he does his virtual learning. I don’t know if Ronan (our son on the spectrum), or any other autistic child, understands or comprehends the difference at all because they’re autistic…but my wife, and other parents who are struggling with keeping their autistic children on track definitely sees one -
Ronan is the one my wifes school days are dedicated too 100% just to make sure he’s doing what he should be doing, doesn’t get overwhelmed, frustrated which results in him giving up. When he’s had too much and doesn’t want to work, it’s Erin’s job to just give him the 5 minute timeout that the teachers would usually put him on to get him re-focused. Being on top of an autistic childs education is equivelent to parents become full-time teachers in the literal sense. If my wife doesn’t do it, he will most assuridly fall behind.
She commented on what a big task it’s been for her so far to put her “9th grade hat” back on but because she’s sitting with him and hearing all of the instruction as it’s being given, she’s able to comprehend it and break it down so Ronan can digest it and complete the required work against it.
So while I agree that teachers may think it’s easier, and autistic kids may not understand or comprehend the difference, parents with autistic kids DEFINITELY feel and see, and feel, the difference.
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Wow, my heart goes out to you and your wife, and most definitely to Ronan. What a tough time your wife is having, and I think you mentioned previously that she works full time, too. Erin is a sweetheart to join in providing assistance when needed. Best of luck to you getting through this, and to all the parents dealing with uncertainties due to covid-19. 
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We’re actually fine. Things are very easy if you just accept them as they are and deal with them.
Update: After posting I didn’t want to sound disingenuous so let me update the previous comment…things are never “very easy”…but I guess I meant acceptance and just doing what’s required are “very easy”…the transition part of it. The doing part of it is still yes, takes time, effort and is difficult.
Her “full time” work is the kids - always has been. My paycheck pays the bills. She has a business she runs (bookkeeping/accounting services), but that’s part time (what she makes is a wash with what she has to pay to keep the business running) and she also has another part-time position with another company as their accountant (but very little made here - but great “spending cash”). But since schools started, that’s taken her days mostly (classes start at 1000 and go through 1500, 4 days per week). Then she has to work with him to make sure he understands and does his homework. She’s a saint…I’ve always known that. 
I’m a lucky guy. I just do my work, make money and do what she tells me and we manage to make things work.
And I do everything with regards to Liam’s diabetes management making sure loop/tech is working…she has no idea about any of that.
Yes, all parents are definitely struggling and I feel especially sympathetic to those parents who aren’t as fortunate as us in being able to actually “work from home.” If I couldn’t do that, this would be a whole different scenario for our family. Very fortunate to do the kind of work that allows me to work remotely 100%.
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Yes, she is!! You two work well together and great for your kids!!
Yes, I agree, acceptance is always difficult with a challenging situation. I guess most of us Ds and anyone with a health issue have gone through had to deal with acceptance. Once achieved then tackling the issue can begin.
Yes, I agree, I would say most of today’s parents do not have the ability to work from home, and most families have both parents working full time. I don’t know how families manage it, even BEFORE covid-19, but they do, thank goodness. 
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yep. I mean Samson’s 504 is obviously out the window, which is less of an issue, but our other kid who needs handwriting help – obviously they’re just not honoring that. Or they will come up with some ridiculous “distance” plan which is not going to do anything.
Meanwhile in our city, apparently 1,000 people got together on Ocean Beach to recreate Burning Man this weekend. 
So I have little hope we will get back to school anytime soon.
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We had to still do our DMMP and 504 plan even though we are doing 100% virtual, probably for the rest school year as things look now. Did you all also have to still get these completed? I guess their rationale is IF we get to a point during the school year where it’s safe to return then they just want to have them on file and up to date.
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Yes, we had our normal 504 meeting, although virtually. I don’t have a lot of faith that they will be able to deliver all 504 services to all kids. Hopefully the vaccine is here around the first of the year.
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Same. Ours was all virtual. No way i would have had it any other way.
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We had the opposite experience with the public vs private schools ourselves. Our oldest son was (still is) very intelligent… He was reading at a year and a half old, skipped two grades and became a mensa member when he was 4. We put him in a private school from preK-2nd grade where we had hoped he would be challenged. He was not. The school (which cost is 20k+/year) refused to work with us to give him a more challenging curriculum… Instead, he continued complaining of being bored at school, he would sleep during class and was never excited to learn While acing all of the work that the rest of the class was just learning because when they were at the 1st grade level, he was already at the 5th grade level in reading, math, etc.
The Dean and teachers refused to tailor his coursework to provide a more robust and challenging experience for him.
So we took him out of the private school and put him in public school. It was the best decision we ever made. The teachers worked with us to tailor his program of learning so that he was challenged and excited to go to school. We were given the choice of keeping him with his peers or moving him forward two years (skipping 2 grades). They actually wanted is to consider moving him 3 or 4 years ahead because he was so far ahead of the kids his age. We weighed the pros and cons of keeping him where he was vs moving up in grade. After discussing it with him he wanted to be challenged more so we agreed to skip two years.
He has always been in all AP / Honors courses and has always made straight As. He is now in his first year of college in the hopes of become a physicist.
We were VERY disappointed at our private school experience and have loved all of the care and attention that ALL of our children have received in public schools from the overworked and underpaid teachers who do it because of the passion and love they have to help others succeed and grow into the kinds of adults they will be proud of.
I want my children to be happy and successful in whatever they decide to do with their lives… Money is only one gauge of success.
I love public education and how they have been there for ALL of our children in all the different ways they have been.
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Disagree totally. Public school offers all the same AP/Honors that private schools offer and the kind of bright teachers capable of teaching them… Without the elitist attitude to go along with it.
All my kids are AP/Honors and are excelling. Most of the people changing the world came from some form of public school system.
Sounds like you were soured against it and now judge the entire public education system based off you your own personal experience.
I know that private schools are great for some also… But it was our experience that the took a lot of money and provided very little ROI.
It’s really a silly argument to have across different regions and school districts, because both of your points might be equally true in different places. Some districts have amazing public schools; some have terrible ones. Some private schools are phenomenal and offer opportunities/rigor or alternatively accommodations/support that are rarely found in public schooling, while others are meh. You have to evaluate your own local options and make decisions relevant to those, and your answers likely are not going to generalize to many other people.
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I think it really depends on the district and school. For instance, my husband went to a public school where people claw their way into the district, it has pretty much every AP class that’s available. In San Francisco, you have to fight to get a chance to take Calculus, which to me is really a travesty and not sure what I’ll do at the point that Samson gets there. To me, everyone should take calculus in high school, no exceptions…
Anyways, I think in general public schools have been much better about accommodating Samson’s medical needs, and they have worked on our other son’s handwriting issues. But I think that varies school to school in our district.
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This is what I ineloquently attempted to say…you can’t judge an entire educational system or infrastructure (whether Private or Public) based off of one or two limited experiences. My experience with Public has been fantastic while Private was horrible…and @WayTooSweet had the opposite experience…but in both cases they’re just our own personal experiences and don’t speak to the validity that one system of educational instruction is superior to the other. It’s just our own experiences. Every district, state, town, school is going to be different so we’ll all have our own experiences…but that’s all they will be.
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Well having two kids who took two years of calculus I can understand where you are coming from, but we have many friends whose kids are just not up to that challenge. I think this is reasonable if you are thinking science, math or engineering are your destination. If the humanities are in your future, I would think calc is a bit overkill. We are fortunate that in non-covid times our school offered dozens of AP choices, compared to our niece and nephew whose school only offered 5. It is amazing how different it can be based on where you live.
Perhaps I am a weirdo, but I don’t think calculus is harder than, say, 8th grade geometry. I think it’s also arguably more useful than most of those lemmas etc.
I also am perhaps biased but I think a lot of the algebra 2 and calculus I learned is what gives me a better understanding of diabetes management. I think understanding area under the curve, derivatives, rate of change, etc. is just critical for a lot of things.
That and probability should in my opinion be taught to every kid taking the standard course curriculum. It’s kind of appalling how few people understand risk, relative risk, etc., even though that type of math has such a strong impact on people’s lives.
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I didn’t take Calculus until College (ended up taking Pre-Calculus, then Calculus levels after that) and those are classes I don’t miss honestly…and they haven’t helped me in my work. lol
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I assure you @TiaG, you are a weirdo. Since you hang around here, that is a good indicator that you are a good weirdo.
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If that was the case, I probably would of ended up with a GED…I wasn’t ready. I did take calc and stat in college and fortunately I matured enough to buckle down and do it.
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Calculus and Economics were the two toughest college courses i ever took… i do not miss either. Lol.
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