I cannot only offer you sympathy in your situation, I can completely empathize with you! My 2e son is now in the 9th grade. I am an elementary teacher who has chosen to stay out of the profession until this past year due the extra effort involved in managing the education of my 2e child. As far as your son's schooling goes--you are the best educator for him right now. You understand him better than anyone else. You are doing the right thing to dig in and learn all you can about your son's abilities and needs. Find other avenues for socialization for your son other than relying so heavily on the "perfect" school situation. There is no such thing as a perfect school situation. Kudos to you for educating your son's educators on his learning situation. I have been doing this for 10 years now. I still manage to discover something new just about every day. Some states have district-written curriculum for 2e students. This is not completely ideal either (as each 2e child is unique), but at least these districts are acknowledging that there is enough of a growing minority of students with 2e situations to warrant their own set of district curriculum guidelines.
Sometimes us parents need to kindly, gently educate the educators of our children. At the beginning of this current school year, I assembled a small packet of papers for the group of teachers who will instruct my son this year. In the packet, I included a brief letter of history and description regarding my son as well as copies of classroom suggestions for educating 2e children that I found on the internet. My suggestions centered around organization of materials and making sure that instruction was not always by the "talking head" method. I found that the teachers were receptive and have already been applying these techniques prior to my packet of papers. I even found that my son has a teacher with a son who was like mine when he was in school!
Hang in there. You have been given a wonderful gift in your child. It's just that the package he arrived in is tied up with more string and tape than the "average." Keep unwrapping and helping him discover his world and his talents.
Been there and still there,
lincue
