I also worked for about 20 years and my daughter graduated from a public school. My son is almost ten, so I am probably one of the few with an older child having to deal with isolation.
My life was very different while I was working full time. I had work friends. I dressed in nice clothes. People were nice and friendly to us. My daughter was physically gifted (a cheerleader) as well as above average in intelligence so she fit in beautifully in an area where you are a nerd or a geek if you are too smart and physical giftedness is more valued than academic giftedness.
We moved to a small town to be closer to my parents and because we thought a smaller school would be better for my son since he had motor delays and hypotonia in addition to being academically gifted. I didn't realize the public school in this town was known as the "sports school" and that we would have to homeschool for my son to have an appropriate education, so it was a big mistake, but we have to stay now for family reasons. My dad needs our help in taking care of my mother.
Last week, we just happened to look up the meaning of the prefix "iso" meaning equal, because my son still plans to try out for the spelling bee next year and we have just been going through the dictionary. He asked about the word isolated and said it must have come from something else. So we looked it up and it said something about an island and we both talked about how it felt to be on "our own little island" and how we will just have to make the best of it. We know that our little island is better than the one my parents live on. When my mother became ill, family members even stopped coming over to visit so we try to visit every day because we know how painful the isolation can be at times. I come home from those visits feeling like I have had the life sucked out of me sometimes but I think my son understands. I wanted my son to be able to attend school part time so he could get away from this at least some of the time but unless our laws are changed they don't have to help us with anything. It has been several weeks now and still no answer from my state senator and my state representative and no answer to my email to the Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Schools.
