Hatred of All Things... Educational - Part 1/5

     So, here I thought I would rant and rave a bit about how much I hate the school systems of North Carolina.  This post ended up too long for one entry, such is my hate for the school system, so I separated it into five entries, that will post five consecutive days, so stay tuned for the complete story.
     Our story begins when Teagan was three years old, and he was first diagnosed with ADHD.  He qualified for the Early Childhood Intervention program/Exceptional Children's program, and he was placed into an appropriate pre-Kindergarten classroom.  Wait, did I say appropriate? 
     Of course, we knew that transitioning from playing all day at home to a structured school setting was going to be very difficult for Teagan, and we were prepared for it.  However, we were not prepared for the clinging, sobbing, heart-wrenching pleas not to leave him, could we please just stay with him, or better yet take him home?  But, we persevered, and left him in his big boy classroom with what we thought at the time, to be a very capable, kind, caring, and compassionate teacher and her assistant.
     About two months in, we were told that Teagan would mentally shut down when he did not want to do something, and would lay his head on the table and fall asleep.  This, we were also told, is exactly how the teacher let him stay until the end of the school day, which at that time was only a half-day program.  Seriously?  If I wanted him to sleep all day, I could have left him at home without the headache of juggling work, getting him to/from school, and coordinating with my mother when I wasn't able to take him or pick him up.  We met with the teacher and her assistant (the teacher we realized was a complete idiot and the assistant seemed to hate children, I have no idea why she was even in that line of work).  We explained to them that they were going to have to just wake him up and make him do the work, otherwise, how will he ever learn?  How will he ever get into the routine of school if he's allowed to sleep all day?  That just teaches him that if he doesn't want to do something, he can just shut down, fall asleep, and be left alone.  Needless to say, that first year was a complete nightmare.

     The second year of pre-Kindergarten, he was in the same school with the same teacher and the same assistant, but this time we had fought to get speech and OT therapies included in his IEP, which was no easy feat.  Let me explain the reason why we added these, and why I still hate this teacher to this day.  About this time, Teagan was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified, or for those not in the spectrum-know, Autism.  We gave this new diagnosis to his teacher, who promptly informed us that she did not see Autism, and that there was a child (who went on to become my son's very best friend, but also died from drowning 2 years ago  - We miss and love you Grayson!!!)... sorry about that.  Anyway, there was a child in his class who had Autism, and Teagan was nothing like him, and she did not see Autism in Teagan.  I'm sorry, since when do teachers have medical licenses?  If they did, I'm sure they would not be pre-Kindergartner teachers.  Well, she kept telling us that all year, but we got our way anyway, and got the speech and occupational therapy placed in his IEP.  We also got him a one-on-one worker.  One, because the teacher obviously could not or was not willing to try to work with Teagan, and two, to keep an eye on that teacher for me.  The one-on-one worker was a dream come true.  She was so nice and caring, Teagan loved her, we all did.  Sadly, at the end of the school year, she took another position.