"A mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lit." Plutarch
Jeff is now a happy highschooler here in our county in Tennessee, but I cherish the homeschool memories.
I believe every parent who knows their own child can make the decisions regarding what that child needs. In our case, it was clear to us that Jeff needed something more than he was getting. Most of all, after starting "school" at age five weeks, called "early intervention," it was time for a break. Little did I know that homeschooling would teach me a lot more than it did my student.
Not until I began homeschooling our special needs son did I fully understand the "Love of Learning" concept. I recognized it for what it was, though, the first time I stumbled upon it. It made sense. I'd known it all of my life. It's the very thing that motivates me in my own life. The unquenchable desire for learning.
So how does this love ignite? Is it possible to instill it in someone? Why are there so many children who never learn much, or just enough to get them through school? Why do so many graduate, diploma in hand, and can barely read and hide in fear of "further" education?
With all those questions in mind, how in the world was I to teach my 14-year-old son with Down syndrome when the school teachers couldn't? Especially with his language difficulties. Jeff was mostly nonverbal, using signs and some vocalizations. We understood him, but few other people did. He'd scored extremely low on all psychological testing because of his speech, or lack thereof.
I went back to his infant years of "early intervention," which first consisted of one teacher and one student. Jeff learned to do all the things babies do, just with more effort and time. And, in spite of what one of his doctors said, he did learn to sit up, crawl, and walk. He learned to feed himself even earlier than his older brothers and sisters. Probably because he liked to eat more than the others.
That early education worked.
Then later on came public school, and this didn't seem to go as well. It started off just fine, but by age 14 Jeff was totally turned off to learning. He continued to learn at home through daily routine, however. He became a library addict. He would sit for hours on the floor in the library -- any library -- and continually flip through pages, staring intently at the words on the pages and the pictures.
He learned to set the table, to wash dishes, help his dad with farm chores, help care for the pets.
At 14, he joined the youth group at a big local church and did well. The other boys helped teach him, and he willingly learned. He enjoyed the friendships.
When we first started homeschooling, if he remotely thought I was trying to "teach" him something, he shut down. The first book I bought on homeschooling said that it's sometimes necessary to take a "break" from education. I know I wanted a break, and I figured Jeff did too.
So we walked in the woods behind our house and collected plants and leaves and flowers, pasted them in a nature journal, visited bookstores, watched movies, went to plays with our homeschool group, played games (especially dominos), went grocery shopping, cooked in the kitchen.
But mostly I read books to him.
I was "hiding" learning from him.
Jeff is now in the eleventh grade at our high school and is enjoying it. We still read at home, go to the library a lot, and all of the other things we used to, but there's less time when he's in school all day. He still has his speech problem, but with the help of a peer assistant learned to vocalize a few more words. He's enrolled in the Work Based Learning and has worked at a grocery store, the YMCA, and a restaurant. One summer he worked at a family-owned dry cleaners at Vanderbilt's Kennedy Center Transitions Camp.
Jeff isn't as high functioning as some other Down syndrome people, but he's pretty self-sufficient and sometimes more independent than we would like.
We have a plan for his future. God has a plan for his future. Jeff has a purpose for being.
Jeff is an integral part of our family. He's funny, feisty, teasing, and smarter than all of us on occasion.
Excerpt from "Instilling a Love for Learning," Kathryn Stout, B.S.Ed., M.Ed., Published: 1995.
"I was given the almost impossible task of teaching a class bored and often defiant sixth graders. I didn't bother to think about why they hated school. I didn't see them as once eager six-year-olds who had become school weary eleven-year-olds. I just tried to make things interesting so they would change their minds. The only time I had their undivided attention was when I read aloud.
Over the next five years I taught special education, administered tests, and worked with other teachers and the troubled students they referred to me. Although I had always realized the importance of how something was taught, I now recognized how disastrous the consequences could be when that was ignored in favor of simply dishing out information...I had managed to captivate my sixth graders with stories read aloud because they had been able to return to preschool memories of discovery just for the pleasure of it.
Hammer in hand, Jeff helping Dad on the roof.
