This caught my eye

At the end of a story in our local paper about the most recent school board meeting, I saw this paragraph:

Two parents of special education students, who have regularly attended meetings since last fall, again talked about questions they submitted to administrators regarding their children. They had received answers to over 100 collective questions submitted and are now waiting for answers pertaining to their individual children. [The board president] said the questions are in the hands of district professionals and it would take time to answer them.

I expect there is more to the story than this. As a homeschooling parent, I am not "in the loop" with regard to issues in our local district. I do know that I have seen and heard a number of unkind remarks about these parents and about providing services and accommodations to children with special needs. I was rather suprised by this, since the townspeople who know us and who, more specifically, know my son, in general have been very tolerant, accepting and understanding. Perhaps I am merely hearing the opinions of the lunatic fringe?

At any rate, when I see that these parents have been advocating for their children for the past year, at least, and they do not seem to be making much progress, I wonder just how much of a battle we would have to wage to get O the accommodations he needs. But, again, perhaps there is more to the story....

Structure More Effective In High School Science Classes, Study Reveals

ScienceDaily (2009-03-28) -- Self-led, self-structured inquiry may be the best method to train scientists at the college level and beyond, but it's not the ideal way for all high school students to prepare for college science. That's according to findings of a new study. ... read full article

Thanks to Judi for the heads-up.

Get out and play

Recess Makes for Better Students

Math teachers

A new study finds many math teachers are just one chapter ahead of their students. Unsurprisingly, this situation affects (negatively) the quality of math instruction.

I guess I can beat myself up a little less -- maybe -- about feeling challenged by my boys' Art of Problem Solving textbooks.

College after tenth grade?

An interesting new proposal from New Hampshire.

"Taking Things Apart"

...along with "All About Pirates" and "The History of Snack Food," "Taking Things Apart" is an elective offered at a small high school for boys on the autistic spectrum. This is a very interesting article - check it out!

It has been a while...

...since I posted anything here. I am still around, just a bit busy with homeschooling and following political and economic events. Birding seems to be taking up a lot of time around here, too.

Anyway, here is a story from today's New York Times, about what might be the next big bubble -- the NCLB bubble: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/education/13child.html?em

Interesting stories from NPR

From today's Morning Edition, "Learning to Thrive with Attention Deficit Disorder," a story about a young woman with ADHD who is learning to adapt to life as a college student. Another piece, "Ten Tips for College Students With Disabilities," accompanies the main story.

Another story from the same Morning Edition series, "Your Health," aired last week: "An Autistic Student's Journey to College."

It's getting uncomfortably close...

"Thanks" to Jennifer for sending me this story from The Onion, as I put the finishing touches on plans for the coming school year and continue to contemplate our options.

Restraint

NYTimes story suggesting that more and more schools are turning to physical restraint and other controversial methods for dealing with children who have developmental and behavioral problems:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/health/15restraint.html

Another story for the "Why we homeschool" file

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/may/23/st-lucie-teacher-has-class-vote-whether-5-year-old/

A kindergarten teacher in Florida is getting more attention than she anticipated when she decided to have her students share, publicly, what they did not like about their classmate, and then vote on whether or not he should be allowed to stay in class.

The boy was voted out of class, 14-2.

The child is in the process of being evaluated for special needs and subsequent (we hope!) accommodation, although it is suspected that he has Asperger Syndrome and ADHD. Why that evaluation process, which was begun in February, has not yet been completed is anyone's guess.

This story reminded me of when my son was in Montessori preschool, and the other children were taught that he was "the bad boy." The teachers liked to joke, to me and to other parents, about how they sent my son out of the classroom whenever there were visitors, so he would not reflect badly on the school. Just think, I was paying good money to have people like that care for my child....

Fixing NCLB

An article in today's Slate about fixing NCLB and education policy in general:
http://www.slate.com/id/2187680/