As I've said before I am proud to be from Canada. We have many choices. Now some of us this is always an easy task. You have the choice to spend your money, or save it. Coffee or tea. House or condo. college or work. You have the choice to have a family and get married or stay "urban single". Now yes in life sometimes you can't help fate. Things happen that aren't really a choice but you do have the choice of how to deal with it.
We have a country that allows us to make the choice of province/city/town we want to live in, the job we want, and even the CHOICE to vote. So with a proud country of choices, why aren't we able to make the ?simple? choice?
Other provinces offer you choice of home phones, cable companies, and which brand of milk you want to buy. They even offer you what school you would want your child(should you choose to have any) go to. Now here it's a little different. This is where choice has some what been eliminated. Here you have the choice of school, however, remember your choice needs to fall into the division and catchment in which you live in. So if you don't like your "home" school, get your boxes and move. Then you have the choice of english or french. Now with a speech impaired child that choice is fairly easy. We also have this thing called an "inclusion policy". Now the intentions behind it are good. I will not knock that. They tried to offer change compared to 40-50 years ago, but it's not yet perfected. Here's the other catch. Your "choice" is simple. You send your child to school or you don't. Again seems like a pretty simple choice. You want your child to have a proper education and make something of themselves and be a active member of future society. Now if your child is different/special/high needs/low needs the policy is meant to include your child. It's meant to treat all children regardless of "needs" the same. It does work, for some! The point of inclusion is to include ALL children. Now any professional will tell you that special need children are all different. They might have the same "label" but everyone is different. They need to be addressed differently, and taught differently. So in a world of choice where either you go or you don't to school, which has a policy that is suppose to make all kids feel equal you ask what's the problem?
The policy isn't including everyone. It doesn't include mild to moderate need children, and for the high need children you aren't getting a "trained" professional in their special needs area. Now other provinces offer you a real choice. You can take the public school system, or there is things like school of choice, chartered schools. So why not here? We're all from the same country. We're all under the same FEDERAL laws, and policies. Why such a difference?
Not everyone agrees with schools of choice, and chartered schools and a lot of people feel it's a step backwards. Now in Canada we're all "free of opinion". I'm not saying your right over another, or she's wrong over him. I'm saying in a country that I proudly call home, and a country that prides on our CHOICES, why don't we have equal choices. "Special Need schools" or placements, or segregation may be a thing of the past but it's my CHOICE to explore. I don't feel the inclusion policy is working at least for my family and a few others I know personally, and I don't think home schooling is an option. Maybe it's a thing from the past, and maybe just maybe it won't work. That's the thing with choices. You never know if it's the right one till you try it. I'm not saying if my child went to a chartered school his Autism would be cured. However I would like to have the choice, to see if it will benefit him since the current "choice" isn't.
So on the ending note,
we're all different, and we all choose differently but being Canadian we have the same great gift of being able to choose. I'm simply saying I want my choice. Everything with my son is trail and error. Somethings work, some don't. That's just the road that I'm on. I've tried the public schools, and the "inclusion" and it's not working for us, so I'm ready to try the next thing. My end goal is not to set us back(as a society), it's not to put down others that feel the system is working, I'm simply trying to find the best system for my child.
maybe people need to start being open to having more than one right answer to a problem that is much larger than single answer.
Wendy
No comments:
Post a Comment