What is an Education?

Yesterday, before I nipped into the garden centre for a bit of retail therapy, I spent the morning at a special needs school that was holding an open day.  It is our hope that Our Youngest will be able to go there sometime in the next year or two, although that requires our pursuading the Local Education Authority (LEA) to fund it.  While I was there I spoke to other parents who were just coming to terms with the bureaucratic nightmare that is intricately linked with getting your child the education they deserve.  It is nobodies fault that mainstream education is geared to meeting the needs of mainstream children.  They do, after all, make up the majority.  However, for the minority that do need something more, it is a thoroughly depressing process.

This morning, The Wife and I went to Our Youngest's school for her annual review.  It is just over a year since we were able to obtain a statement of educational need and the purpose of the meeting was to review how that statement is being met.  A LEA representative was also present.  We sat on little chairs meant for far younger posteriors.  When, with the school's full support and with a raft of specialist's reports endorsing our view, we informed the LEA representative that we wished to move Our Youngest to our chosen special needs school we received a polite, but unequivocal no, the LEA do not send children there.  This was then tempered with an admission that they do, but only after a Tribunal.  This was not news, it was only what we expected.  The LEA rep was kindly and had an air of resignation that acknowledged that they knew we would fight this all the way, and so would they, and that ultimately Our Youngest will move.  It may not be to the special needs school of our choice, the LEA may find a better one.  But their default position is that Our Youngest can have her needs met where she is.  This was met with polite disbelief from Our Youngest's own teachers, who know better.  But, that is how the system works.  To get an appropriate education for our child, we have to dig deep and fight hard.

What Our Youngest needs is an education that teaches her practical life skills.  We, obviously, have a major role to play in that.  What she can do, even if her reading and mathematics remain basic, is make and grow things.  This was one of the factors at the back of our minds when we decided to dig up half the garden.  This is the raised bed I made for her:

That is her little watering can on the side.  The Wife helped her to plant her pansies and marigolds and a tomato plant.  After I collected her from school yesterday afternoon we came home and planted the brocolli together.  She dug the hole and then watered the plant in.  She told me how well the roots had developed.

There it is today, enjoying the sunshine.  Our Youngest enjoys her food, and is a big fan of brocolli, and she will take great pleasure in watching it develop.  More importantly, she is learning about how things grow and how to grow them herself.  She is also developing her own sense of what she likes and appreciates.  Last weekend The Wife took her to a nursery and Our Youngest had a free rein on what she wanted to put in her raised bed.  This is what she chose:

As you can see, somewhat unexpectedly, she has an eye for roses.  In two weeks time she and I will be visiting our local special needs school together.  It will be quite a testing day for her.  She is not a fan of change.  Hopefully, though, it is another step towards her getting what she deserves.  After that, we will continue with our negotiations with the LEA.  In the meantime though, her education in the garden will continue.