Would appreciate your prayers this morning at 9:30. Meeting with the school this morning...the process for Malachis three year IEP evaluation begins. He is not where he should be academically or socially. There is a big disconnect between what the school is calling success and the lack of success he is having across the settings of his life, i.e., community, home, church, social groups I have tried to enroll him in, etc. As a parent this is troubling and confusing that success is not generalizing or translating outside the school...and the school is refusing to acknowledge any responsibility for this. I get the complexity and limitations of the role the school can play in his life, yet he spends so much of his life there 5 days a week, 9 months a year. He is capable of so much more than he is accomplishing academically, he is not developing socially as he should - and he is in one of the largest social settings available! Is it wrong for me to want more for him? There are good people at his school doing their best with what they have to work with, people who invest themselves in him, and truly love him and care for him. It pains me that the system we have to work with is not really helping Malachi reach his potential in ways that translate to success in other areas of his life. School seems to be a Petrie dish, a very controlled environment with lots of support and structure - in my opinion maybe too much, in ways that are not allowing him to experience and grow and develop in ways that will help him acquire important life skills for the real world. The school and I are not seeing eye to eye on some issues this year, and this troubles me. They are good people doing their best, I just want more for my son. Am I being unrealistic? Expecting too much? Not in touch with the reality of my sons potential? His grade report this year is deplorable...how does he go from As and Bs and get on the honor roll all these years to such low grades this year? He is nearly twelve years and can barely write a legible and coherent sentence. He cannot function in a group setting. I have a problem with this, and its compounded by the fact the school feels this is outside their realm of responsibility. I am not criticizing them, these are just the facts, it just is what it is. Autism complicates everything. I am grateful for the progress he has made at school these past few years. We just seem to be at a plateau where we are not moving forward and I must decide what to do in order to help him keep moving forward making progress. Thanks for your prayers and support.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 12:41:12 +0000