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Private school: good or wrong choice?

I will also talk about Rudolf Steiner and Waldorf education but that will take a little longer...

What I want to say is that I highy respect Maria Montessoris achievements as a woman in the 19th century and her unique view on children. She worked specifically with kids from poor neighbourhoods and special needs. You need to look up her biography!
 
Most of the more popular progressive education concepts are from the 19th century.

Before I move on to Waldorf you need to have a look a Rudolf Steiner and anthroposophy.
The article is English, I recommend to read it.
https://bildungsgeschichte.de/beitrag/2543
Attention, this will get dark. Rudolf Steiner was actually fascist.
 
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This thread is my first post using this internet resource. My goal was to learn about schooling experience that people with autism have had and what lifelong outcome they have. Maybe I didn’t worded my question in best way possible to get answers. Anyway I appreciate all the comments from you! We might have different options but let’s respect each other and be kind. People like myself (a parent of child on spectrum) indeed need this type of resources to learn from you who has gone through many troubles related to ASD. Those of us who ask questions here are doing what ever possible to make the right decisions for kids with ASD because today’s decisions will impact his/her lifelong outcomes.
Please be kind to each other! I extremely value this forum.
Thank you
 
Tatimax -

I give you much credit in reaching out to get information and answers that will assist you and your son. Please do not let your first experience here dissuade you from continuing to ask questions and interact with many of the quality members that may be able to help you.

Your son is very blessed to have a loving mom like you.
 
Aneka said:
Most of the more popular progressive education concepts are from the 19th century.

Before I move on to Waldorf you need to have a look a Rudolf Steiner and anthroposophy.
The article is English, I recommend to read it.
https://bildungsgeschichte.de/beitrag/2543
Attention, this will get dark. Rudolf Steiner was actually fascist.
Click to expand...

This already gets interesting.
My introduction to Waldorf type education was from a friend who decided to educate herself in this way, considering she got an absolutely pisspoor education in the exact same religious home schooling program that I had to use. It's kind of wild & creepy the way the article implies Waldorf schooling was basically 1900s German Nationalism's form of religious homeschooling. Considering the modern willingness to bury all things Nazi with the dutiful enthusiasm of the Nurenberg hangman, I wonder why it is that the Waldorf method escaped with its image still intact as a Good Idea.

Looking up Rudolf Steiner on Wikipedia there are a number of strange things about his religious beliefs--he is one of the kingpins of an idea called anthroposophy which I'd never heard about and am glad I never met up with in a spelling contest. Even happier I never had to listen to anyone who actually believed the stuff. He built the racism right into the core of it.
 
The oxymoron of our times. I don't get it either. Especially how many families who regard themselves as cosmopolitan and politically left choose Waldorf education.
Waldorf can not be cleansed of its origins.

I have practical experience with a Waldorf daycare.
So I'm trying to write a bit about what I've witnessed. They used only natural materials for furniture. Toys were also made from natural materials. They did gardening, cooking, handicrafts and needlework with the children, taught a lot of practical life skills. Children were allowed to use tools with teachers supervising. There were colour codes to symbolize the seasons when decorating indoors.
The teachers would often start to work on something like an art project and the children watched, joining in if they wanted.
So children were free to choose which activities they wanted to participate in.

The teachers were more narrow minded than in other daycare centres I've been to (I can only talk about that one Waldorf daycare though). Everything had to be done 100% exactly their way.
It was all about the rules- even among staff. Petty rules like what kind of meal you were allowed to bring to work. Towards parents, too.

At the time I had zero knowledge about Rudolf Steiner and anthroposophy. I learnt after an online article popped up in my news feed...
I didn't learn much about their teachings while I visited them.

There are great schools and daycare centres with diverse conceptions today.
I've worked in one that focused on ecological awareness and it was great. They took a little bit of everything.
We had a lot of projects about nature and environmental topics, hatched butterflies and built insect hotels, went to the stables of local farmers almost weekly, harvested potatoes and apples, made our own food.
 
Tatimax said:
Hi! I am a parent of autistic boy who is 6 and has significant difficulties with speech. We went through public kindergarten and while he goes there without any issues, they fail him academically. Most importantly I never see other kids from his class really interacting with him. He is smart boy loving minecraft, gymnastics, swimming, steam trains and attempting to learn skateboarding.
We decided that private school (not therapeutic but focused on academics and social interaction) will be a better place for his academic needs and finding friends.

If you attended private school for autistic kids, was it a right choice for you? Please share your experience and outcomes. I can’t ask my son yet.
Click to expand...

It probably depends on where you are...
My son goes to a public school and I chose that on purpose. I am studying teaching, and have learned quickly that private schools can hide a lot of funding and are not as transparent with governing bodies especially when it comes to special needs and inclusion support because they are independent. (that's the whole point right).
This would be fine if everyone had the best intentions for all our kids, but I think we know by now that this is not the case.

I picked a school with a focus on values and social skills rather than academics. My son excels in academics, so I feel that's not what we need to work on. He struggles with social skills and so a school that is very inclusive and wants to work with us to accommodate his needs is the priority and I have found that at our public school for the last 3 years.

They have been extremely helpful and I've also found that there is a lower level of bullying because he is in a small school that prioritizes safety and relationships over kids competing to be the smartest.

I was a tutor for 3 years and saw a lot of private school kids getting tossed aside with empty promises and the parents didn't have many avenues to go down when they weren't getting that support from the school. I'm sure there are also private schools though that have their heart in the right places. but at the end of the day, sometimes they are run like a business and not a place of learning.

*JUST MY OPINION** as someone who attended private schools with my autistic brother, it just was not pretty. and when I switched to public, they may not have pushed academics as hard, but when I wanted to excel the opportunities were there.
 
Homulilly said:
Sheesh, I’m going to rip you for this. If the kid likes computer games, he likes computer games. Minecraft is a good game that promotes teamwork and creativity. If the kid has problem with speech and kids at school don’t play with him, online gaming is a good way to meet new people and work together with friends. Gaming isn’t some sort of poison that devours souls, y’know. I’m not saying he should spent all his time in front of games. But done right, it would be a great part of his childhood.

The age of kids who are first having smartphones have been falling very quickly. Kids are growing up with computer games and such. Tbh even people our generation grew up with computer games, and you happened to be some weird exception that didn’t get that growing up. Your views on online gaming are prejudiced, period. Most gamers don’t go around telling people how they are missing out without computer games, but when circumstances are reversed, people who “love the nature” somehow feel entitled to push people to stop gaming. Ugh. I know you love living in the 19th century, but, sorry, we are not there anymore. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...


Thankyou!!! <3 <3 <3

When people tell me to get my kid off the tablet I tell them this....
In our day (when we were kids) we could roam around a little more. If I let my child wander just a little too far, I have to worry about him getting snatched up or worse.

Additionally, Minecraft is an excellent tool that they use in schools now. It teaches strategic thinking and allows special needs kids to express their creativity in a way that is logical to them and that links to the real world.

I have to support my child through every little activity, so if I'm not there to offer him support the options for him to have free time are very limited. Minecraft is an excellent and educational choice which I limit to an hour a day and I also play with him many times too! We have a connection through minecraft that is relaxing and therapeutic as in our everyday there is allot of frustration and not much time to laugh or celebrate because of the hell he experiences in his every day out in society.
 
I'm going to have skin in the game soon expecting a granddaughter in the next few weeks, her mother is a teacher.
graduate education in teaching, currently teaches in the private system gifted and kids from wealthy families.
 
I know this thread just got revived and OP probably isn't around anymore, but when you're sending your kid to a private school you're basically preparing your kid to live in a world where only the 10% live in, which autistic people generally can't expect to be a part of on account of their social skill levels and just their brain differences. (And I would know this because I actually did spend a few years in a private school on a scholarship, and everyone could tell I wasn't one of them from a class perspective as well as from the more standard "she's weird" perspective.)

Plus, the whole point of going to a private school (or an elite college) is to network with other kids who have influential politicians or C-suite executives for parents, who'll eventually recruit you as their employee and give you lots of money in exchange for your willingness to defend them as you proclaim "I too came from nothing so if you're still poor you have yourself to blame" in a society where 90% of the population never had the chance to attend a private school (no, seriously, these places are even marketed as "exclusive," it's like the whole point).

So unless being rich is literally THE dream you have for your kid, let them mingle with the commoners and begin to develop their life perspectives and social skills away from people who think it's totally normal to go to Aspen every summer or have a vacation home. Sure, your kid may still ostracized because autism, at least theh won't have an added layer of being incredibly out of touch as an adult.
 
I agree with you, my son had a learning disability, I had to give him additional help when he hit puberty. Everything changed he started to blossom, Even the way he meet his fiancé, was out of the box thinking. She has graduate degrees in teaching. Now they are on the verge of having their first child and currently she teaches in the private system.
 
Each school and each person is going to be different and have results. Do as much research as you can and visit the schools that you can. Find out what extra curricular they have and sports if your child would or might be into any of those things. Schools with certain rankings aren't necessarily the best for your child- most/all schools have opportunities to have a quality education if your child really wants it.
Online/cyber education may be a possibility too/instead. Schools that are fully cyber that claim they have done a cyber model don't know what a cyber model truly is. A true cyber school already has their staff having learned the software beforehand and it's standard for students to be sent computers and information on how to get an Internet connection etc. In Pennsylvania, Agora, Reach Cyber Charter, and PA Cyber are some examples off the top of my head. There are private cyber schools but they are expensive. Not all states allow cyber schools- PA is one of the states that allows a true cyber school model. If this hasn't changed, NC, TX, CA, and ID are some states that also allow a cyber model via charter school funding (meaning that your tax dollars pay for the education, meaning that your child could go for free if accepted through the application process.)
 
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