06/07/2025
📣 Let’s talk about education in all its forms.
I’d like to preface this post by saying that this is purely my opinion based on my experiences with my own children and from what I’ve witnessed over the years. Obviously there will be some in agreeance and some not and I welcome both sides and everything in between to discuss.
There is a move to promote inclusive education in our primary and high schools rather than different spaces or schools for different learners.
Honestly, I’m against inclusive education and cannot see how it could possibly benefit all young people. Everyone has such unique and varying needs, we learn in different ways, we need different environments with different sensory requirements, some value academics, some value the arts. All are valid but how can they all be provided in one space and why should they be?
My children spent some time in an autism specific school where their sensory needs were met beautifully. Unfortunately, the goal was to get them to return to mainstream so this wasn’t going to work long term for us. As many of you know, we are long term homeschoolers as mainstream was never a good fit and I didn’t see the point in having a goal to return my children to a place that caused harm in the first place.
Almost every day I speak with a parent who has a child struggling in a mainstream classroom. They feel trapped and guilt ridden as homeschooling isn’t an option but mainstream is damaging. It’s a no win situation when there are lack of options.
Why is mainstream seen as the Gold Standard?
Why can’t we celebrate diversity and provide education options for our children?
Why can’t we be proud of the differences between our children rather than have everyone put together and call it inclusion?
Maybe if we had lots of options then mainstream could be seen as ‘just another option’, not the be all and end all that some believe it is.
Some of us homeschool as we felt there was no other option, some of us do it as a lifestyle choice. For those who were forced into homeschooling, many of us would appreciate a school that was tailored to our children’s needs and celebrated them as they are. A place where they would be educated in a way they can learn. There’s no shame in that. We don’t all want mainstream.
Please share you thoughts on this.
The awesome homeschooled Summer Farrelly nails it with this hoodie.
🤩
