How tolerant are private schools towards neurodiversity?

[Anonymous]

Teachers are paid so poorly compared to the richers that usually they just make us manipulate the data and give parents lip service. Believe me, most teacher hate that the quality of education in the states is very poor. We hate that we have to go along with systematic money based corruption if the upper class who are not beholden to laws anymore. We also hate that we have to be roped into the game of druggin kids for the benefit of pharma/ detriment if human minds and potential. We are making the destabilizing imbalances that they claim to resolve by making the kids addicted to synthetic chemicals that do not exist in nature. They will go through withdrawals at young ages if they don't get their synthetic meth.

[Anonymous]

This thread really took a turn..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread really took a turn..

The big pharma troll who knows nothing about ND students strikes again.

[Anonymous]

I get it drugs are like coca cola for you people. Then y'all mex them with martinis. This is the world that you are normalizing for your kids. What age will the plastic surgery start?

[Anonymous]

At the private school I teach in, some neurodiversity is welcomed and supported. However, we have had many kids with extreme behaviors in kindergarten and 1st with extreme behaviors. (masturbating in class frequently, eloping, harming others, threatening to kill everyone, don't comply with directives frequently, etc) These students were allowed to stay either the entire year or both years. Usually, though by the end of 1st, that is the end of the tolerance window. And it is only tolerated if the parents are good partners. This means they are attending all meetings, getting their kids OT or a neuropysch or therapy or something. But the parents who ignore requests for meetings, who refuse to get a neuropsych, those families are counseled out at year's end, maybe in a few cases mid year.

We do have MANY kids with dyslexia and ADHD and some with other specialized learning profiles. Our school can support some, but not all of these needs. I am really shocked at the families who will spend more on K-12 education than I pay in tuition for my college kids who have their heads in the sand. I don't understand refusing to even consider that one's child might have some kind of a disability. I also don't understand being unwilling to even try medication for adhd AND being angry about being counseled out when your kid is disrupting learning for everyone. It's fine to not medicate, but a private school doesn't have to allow kids who cannot be successful in a gen Ed room to stay.

[Anonymous]

I am wondering if we are becoming a society where it's not socially acceptable to not be on some weird cocktail of drugs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am wondering if we are becoming a society where it's not socially acceptable to not be on some weird cocktail of drugs

Or where posting anonymously about something you know nothing about is socially acceptable.

[Anonymous]

This whole site really has been taken over by a lot of people with weird extreme agendas, poor writing and editing skills, and hateful attitudes. While DCUM has always been a little insanely intense/competitive, it’s a lot worse now than it was 6-7 years ago.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think it’s about being “tolerant.” But most private schools simply don’t have the resources for neuro divergent students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The diagnosis is usually for the are psychotrooic drug script aspect that are healthcare system is based on. In regard to behavior, what do we expect when there are no rules or consequences anymore especially for the upper class. It's lawlessness, the kids are not dumb. Then they will grow up to have the competence of our 47th

I'm dumbfounded by the claim that the only reason to get a diagnosis is to get access to prescriptions. DC has a diagnosis as 2E with associated anxiety, and I've used it to get appropriate therapy, executive function counseling, and reasonable accommodations from the school. Pre-diagnosis, it was apparent to the teachers that DC was spending a lot of time crying in the bathroom and unable to complete assignments, just not why. But now we have a therapist and executive function coach in place outside of school. In addition to helping DC directly, they are giving the teachers advice on how to help DC succeed, and school performance has improved dramatically. It's been a long journey, and very very hard, but I cannot recommend it enough. There are so many reasons to get a diagnosis, not all parents jump to medications right away! And you really have no place judging those who do until you've walked a mile in their shoes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it’s about being “tolerant.” But most private schools simply don’t have the resources for neuro divergent students.

It’s not that. It’s that the other parents are purchasing a set of peers that is of a certain type/level. Kids with autism don’t meet that social expectation even if they are “well behaved” and don’t need much support beyond what the other kids might need. Think Napoleon Dynamite. ADHD is a different story - kids with ADHD are often very outgoing and charming and socially on par (or even popular). Of course this is all muddied by parents claiming kids with any difficulty are “ND” which makes it harder to assess claims that such-and-such a private school is “so accepting of neurodiversity.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it’s about being “tolerant.” But most private schools simply don’t have the resources for neuro divergent students.

It’s not that. It’s that the other parents are purchasing a set of peers that is of a certain type/level. Kids with autism don’t meet that social expectation even if they are “well behaved” and don’t need much support beyond what the other kids might need. Think Napoleon Dynamite. ADHD is a different story - kids with ADHD are often very outgoing and charming and socially on par (or even popular). Of course this is all muddied by parents claiming kids with any difficulty are “ND” which makes it harder to assess claims that such-and-such a private school is “so accepting of neurodiversity.”

Why would anyone want his or her children to have no experience with neurodivergent peers? Are bright but awkward children with autism somehow offensive to you?? The world is a diverse place, why would anyone want to "purchase" a set of peers who have been chosen explicitly to weed out neurodivergence that the school does have capacity to handle???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole site really has been taken over by a lot of people with weird extreme agendas, poor writing and editing skills, and hateful attitudes. While DCUM has always been a little insanely intense/competitive, it’s a lot worse now than it was 6-7 years ago.

Agreed. It has absolutely taken a turn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it’s about being “tolerant.” But most private schools simply don’t have the resources for neuro divergent students.

It’s not that. It’s that the other parents are purchasing a set of peers that is of a certain type/level. Kids with autism don’t meet that social expectation even if they are “well behaved” and don’t need much support beyond what the other kids might need. Think Napoleon Dynamite. ADHD is a different story - kids with ADHD are often very outgoing and charming and socially on par (or even popular). Of course this is all muddied by parents claiming kids with any difficulty are “ND” which makes it harder to assess claims that such-and-such a private school is “so accepting of neurodiversity.”

Why would anyone want his or her children to have no experience with neurodivergent peers? Are bright but awkward children with autism somehow offensive to you?? The world is a diverse place, why would anyone want to "purchase" a set of peers who have been chosen explicitly to weed out neurodivergence that the school does have capacity to handle???

Because that is how most wealthy people think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it’s about being “tolerant.” But most private schools simply don’t have the resources for neuro divergent students.

It’s not that. It’s that the other parents are purchasing a set of peers that is of a certain type/level. Kids with autism don’t meet that social expectation even if they are “well behaved” and don’t need much support beyond what the other kids might need. Think Napoleon Dynamite. ADHD is a different story - kids with ADHD are often very outgoing and charming and socially on par (or even popular). Of course this is all muddied by parents claiming kids with any difficulty are “ND” which makes it harder to assess claims that such-and-such a private school is “so accepting of neurodiversity.”

Why would anyone want his or her children to have no experience with neurodivergent peers? Are bright but awkward children with autism somehow offensive to you?? The world is a diverse place, why would anyone want to "purchase" a set of peers who have been chosen explicitly to weed out neurodivergence that the school does have capacity to handle???

Because that is how most wealthy people think.

I wouldn’t want a weeding out of anyone. But it seemed like a good 1/3 of the class at our prior charter school was dealing with one condition or another and it came to dominate the class in material ways. Our child was fine, but I can understand why some families would seek to avoid what we experienced.