Reply to Structured/traditional vs Progressive school for adhd/anxiety

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Reply to "Structured/traditional vs Progressive school for adhd/anxiety"

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[quote=Anonymous]OP, have you had her formally evaluated in any way? I ask because you need to fully understand the potential scope of her needs in order to make a good decision about placement. Sometimes ADHD is the tip of the iceberg. Consider which school can serve her long-term vs which school is likely to counsel her out if her needs are more than they want to meet. That may point to the progressive school which you say is neurodiverse. If you do go progressive, confirm that they are willing to provide her OG tutoring right now-- some "progressive" schools don't intervene until later and they say it's healthy child development philosophy yada yada Scandinavia reads later but it also lets them avoid providing services and keeps the cost down.

On the other hand, since your daughter is bright and may do well with dyslexia support, consider which school is going to meet her academic needs. "Child-led" sounds good to parents of little kids, but in the long run that can lead to the kid avoiding things that are difficult and focusing on their preferred topics, leaving big holes in their education. Especially for kids with ADHD who sometimes have a hard time focusing on things that interest them less. "Child-led" shouldn't be an excuse for failing to awaken the child's interest in the full range of topics while still making it feel child-led. That requires a very skilled teacher and not all schools have them. "Love of learning", to parents, sometimes just means their child enjoys going to school. And sometimes children enjoy school more if they get to focus only on their favorite topics, but that doesn't make it a good thing for them in the long run.

Also, real talk. Neurodiverse sounds great to parents of little kids. Yay, diversity! Who could be against that. But your kid might have a much harder time with it due to her ADHD. If other kids in the room are stimming, dysregulating, or just generally being noisy-- and that's the model of the school so it's not gonna change-- that might be pretty hard for your daughter when she's trying to maintain focus. And at schools like this, the kids who are more academically capable sometimes peel off in upper grades because the parents want a stronger academic peer group. So the class has a higher and higher ratio of neurodiversity as time passes. What you get as a peer group in K and 1st at this type of school just isn't the same as what it may be in 4th and 5th when you're left with true believers in "progressive education" plus kids whose parents think they wouldn't do well elsewhere. I'll probably get flamed for saying this out loud, but that was our experience. [/quote]

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