My Thoughts on School, By Daniel

Growing up, I needed to tell teachers that I was doing work that was too easy.  School was really frustrating for me.  Right around kindergarten, I started to feel left out.  Kids going to my school sometimes forgot to talk to me.  Maybe they thought I didn't want them to talk to me, but I wanted it very much.

Starting in the first grade, I went to Journey.  I liked it there.  Going to Journey was the best year of elementary because the teachers didn't treat me like some little baby.  I found Journey to be a safe and happy school.  I sincerely liked my teachers there.  Kids so much tried to work hard for them.  I always had interesting work to do, like working on their computer, and singing songs.  I very much missed Journey.

In second grade, I had some good friends. They have probably not missed me but I miss them. My homeroom teacher was good to me.  She was so motherly.  I probably liked the second grade best after Journey.  The kids still talked to me.

The third grade just started going downhill.  I just needed to learn, but everything was too easy.  I started to hate school.  The truth is that I hated being there so much that I would not do what they asked.  Like my teacher would give me only easy matching sheets, and I thought this is ridiculous.  I wanted to learn math.

In fourth grade, I liked my homeroom teacher very much.  Just going to school really made me so miserable.  Kids would not talk to me.  I had terrific aides.  They were so patient.  Going to school though so made me very sad.  Just the same boring stuff was given to me every day.

In fifth grade, I went to a new school.  It was just kind of the same thing.  My teacher was very nice and dedicated.  Her class was for kids with autism.  My parents hoped I might get the help I needed but they just kept doing the same boring stuff. Life was awful.

My parents then decided to put me in a private school.  Just so much bad stuff happened there that I was relieved when my mom took me out. I hated it.

My parents then put me back in public school and I started at middle school.  My first thought was that going to middle school would be really exciting.  Life had to get better.  My teachers were nice but just being there was awful.  Kids made fun of me. Kids just laughed at me.  My only friend was Gabe. Gabe treated me with kindness and showered me with attention.

Kids should be more like Gabe.

Hardly nothing changed in the classroom.  I felt so hopeless. Nobody believed in me.  My mom started teaching me to type.  She told my teachers how I could spell.  I don't think they believed her because they didn't try to teach me typing. When my mom took me out of school it was so great.  Her decision to home school me changed my life.  Now I have hope for my future. Life is so much happier.  Knowing that I don't have to go back to middle school makes me so very happy.

Kids like me just need a way to communicate.  It needs to be the most important thing a teacher does. My teachers did not think I could do it, but I can.  

Mom's Note: Daniel chose the subject matter for this--his second post. I believe that when a person goes 14 years without a voice, he should be free to express his thoughts exactly as he wants to.  I have plenty of my own thoughts with respect to the failures of our school district.  One of the most significant is that I truly believe there were many kids in his class who would have liked to befriend Daniel, but they needed the assistance of an adult to make that happen.  I wish that our school district had been committed to ensuring meaningful inclusion for my son.  But it was not.  

(Journey refers to Journey Learning Center in Grapevine, TX.)