I talked to the director this morning and told her I wondered if he would be able to write the play and memorize all of his lines in such a short amount of time but she said she knew he could because he had such a good memory. She has known him since he was four and she has never seen him have trouble memorizing anything. I told her his memory used to be good before he had such trouble sleeping because of the brace and the migraines and the foot and back pain. She still thinks he can do it.
It is great your son is doing so well in the play. I know it is really hard Lori but I would strongly encourage you to stay out of it. It is your son's obligation and his responsibility to complete it or ask for an extension or whatever help he needs. Learning what you can take on is a life skill everyone needs. Learning how to ask for help when you are in over your head is again something people need to learn to do. You aren't going to be going to his college professors and telling them his private medical information and I don't think you should with the theater director either. Your son is telling you he wants distance and you should listen to that. Let him work it out.
I do think he learns more at home by himself than he would in a classroom but he would miss out on classroom discussion. I really wanted him to take a co-op literature class in the fall but he says he will learn more if he doesn't have a teacher telling him what he has to read. He says he can talk to me and his dad about what he reads and he does this all the time.
It isn't his whole education, he will still have plenty of time to learn on his own. There are certain things that can only be learned in groups and one of them is how to handle it when you get an assignment you don't like.
He says he didn't have any friends as a teenager because he had a job and school and didn't have time for friends. He said it didn't hurt him.
But, your son doesn't have school or a job. So, other than the once a week theater group he's got nothing. And, people are all different. For many kids loneliness intensifies during the teenage years. I don't think it makes sense to opt for isolation because it didn't hurt your dad.
Your son may not get a great gang of kids he can really relate to at this age, but doing all of his school work on line he's closing off one potential avenue for interaction.
