Homeschool Decision

Well, I've thought for years (knowing from an early age that Rosie was "quirky") that the homeschool decision would come up, and I was trying to put it off until after Rosie's IEP is complete. But here we are, after the holiday break, and Rosie has been melting down for days thinking about the return to school. So that's that. We're doing it now.

The school psychologist and principal and her teacher have been distressed; they believe wholeheartedly in the high value of the IEP and the theraputic effort of the adults at the school. They were also afraid at first that we were simply reacting to her emotions and pulling her out of school in a 'mistaken' desire to protect her. Words were used like "truant" and "removing her from school." It was hard to explain enough to them so that they were satisfied, yet only give them the amount of information appropriate for a family's private decision.

I do believe in their desire and capability to help, and that's saying something, considering that my family tends to be suspicious of bureaucracy in any form. If this essential sense of fierce individualism did not run in our family (from both sides!), we would be working with this IEP team and no doubt feeling glad for it. However, there it is - we are not a family with particularly mainstream views, and we feel that nurturing her individualism and particular mode of cognition is superior to being trained to fit into the herd. And yeah, I'm afraid I do see how terribly arrogant that sounds. It's not meant that way, if you can believe it. One of our top family values - if not the top one - is valuing the unique qualities of people. So, the realization that the IEP team's idea of what would be helpful is not just social skills training (for instance) but how to be like everyone else fills us with horror. Every time Rosie's older sister mentions a class assignment that requires her to watch some TV show, I break out in hives. We don't do TV in our household.

We believe in the value of homeschooling, we know Rosie and her needs, and we're a family of quirky, intelligent, and successful geeks, who know what she's going through - partly from experience. I don't have any worry that we'll do well once we get into a good routine.