Skool Sux

We saw a school yesterday. I will not send D. there.

The school we visited happens to be basically next door to The School, so at least we knew how to get there and how long it would take. I knew almost nothing about this school, and I had no preconceived notions.

We entered the building and signed in, and the director led us to her office. We chatted about D., answered some basic questions, and she talked about the school. The general population served is children with ASD. We explained that D. has many ASD-like behaviors, but that he is exceptionally socially motivated, which is good, because he really tries hard to please people. The director suggested we go look around at some of the classrooms.

The building itself is small. The rooms felt cramped to me, but I am not a preschool child. As we went through the school, the director opened every classroom door and had us walk into each classroom. We cut through several classrooms to get to other parts of the building.

One of the pre-k (or possibly kindergarten) classes was in the art room. Two of the boys, excited to see the director greeted her by name and one said, "Look how I'm coloring fast." He scribbled his crayon across the paper. His friend said, "Yeah, I'm coloring fast, too!" and did the same.

I can think of many possible responses. None of them are, "Oh I don't even want to see that!"

I guess I felt this school is disrespectful of the children they serve. Barging into classrooms, disrupting routines, and not allowing a child the freedom to scribble... none of it sat well with me. So we're not going there.

Which means I've narrowed the field down to eleventy billion minus one.