Being a Parent and a Teacher: Personal Reflections

I am the parent of a teenage boy with Autism. I am also a special education teacher working with young people who have high and profound special educational needs. This means that I have spent countless hours sitting at both sides of the table at individual education planning (IEP) meetings. I know the heart of the parent; and I also know the realities of the educator. As a parent, I have found that some of the most challenging aspects of raising a son with autism have been at the crossroads between home and school. Over the past 11 years of my son’s fulltime schooling I have attended numerous meetings, received a plethora of phone calls and emails, and spoken to “the Principal” on more occasions than I would have imagined. Unfortunately, the majority of these encounters have been for negative reasons. My son is not the student who “is a pleasure to teach” or who “sits quietly in the corner;” so as a parent I have had to learn to be resilient amidst a fairly constant barrage of less than positive communications with schools.