Preparing for The Unknown: Homeschooling, Covid-19, & The Dyslexia Battle, A Mother’s Perspective (Guest Blog)

The definition of a Dyslexia Parent is someone who is ever vigilant, informed, organized, and has an arsenal at their fingertips. That parent has a trusted circle ready at a moment’s notice to answer questions or offer support to others; school documentation both paper & electronic, primed and prepped for the next time.  

But, that was the norm.  2020 brought a new reality.  

Copyrighted by Radha Radhakrishann 2020

Over the summer I saw an article that I just could not bring myself to read, entitled “Is COVID-19 The Death of the Working Mom?”  I refused to read it because it was hitting far too close to home for me.  I have an MBA and a career I’ve worked hard for, but falling into the dyslexia world to advocate for my child takes a lot of my time and dedication, and my career suffers for it.  Fortunately, I’m rather unapologetic about that choice and really ok with the fallout, but this time the questions I found I was asking myself all rotated around what is best for my child, not what is best for my collective family, and not what was, or is, best for me.

I, like everyone else, recognize that we are living in unprecedented times.  I never imagined the strain that this would bring upon my family.  To balance work, education, and health on top of the day to day struggle to ensure a child’s right, my child’s right, to an appropriate education is really too much for anyone to take on but collectively that is exactly what we did.  Breaking under the weight is a real possibility on any given day.  I knew about the poor curriculum choices within the schools, after all I am a dyslexia advocate, but I did not have a deep and abiding appreciation for the reach of those poor choices until I was living it every day around my kitchen table, helping my child get through his assigned work.  Seeing the significant lack of explicit instruction in almost every subject…well, let’s just say Mom had several screaming temper tantrums and my child knows exactly what I think about pretty much everything.  

My child has gaps, and it is up to me to fill those gaps through whatever means necessary.  For our family that means mom has had to learn a few new tricks.  I now oversee more aspects of my son’s education myself and have hired a tutor to teach him explicitly in subjects I don’t want to take on (aka math).  The homeschool debate still rages in my mind. But I have yet to answer how to balance homeschooling against working full time, especially if my work requires me to return to my physical office at some point in the future?

It all comes down to how much is too much for me, the mom, to bear.  (Please note that my husband does help as much as he can.)  I will never stop advocating for my son’s rights in education, but now that takes on a new spin as I double down on poor curriculum choices all around on behalf of all children.  I ask myself constantly how we are to save our children in this time, when education is no longer about education, and at a time when our children have become pawns in a political game that has no interest invested in what is best for them anymore.  

With a prayer for sanity, I sacrifice myself, as I’m sure all dyslexia warrior parents do, in almost every way, to ensure our children thrive in this “unprecedented” time.

Ashley Roberts, 

Comments

  1. Neha kumariApril 9, 2021 at 2:42 AM

    Homeschooling is becoming an alternative way of studies and it is a very effective way to improve kid's studies. Many parents are worried about their kid's studies, for parents' peace of mind Ziyyara Edutech offers Homeschooling in India which is gaining more popularity as child gets personalised attention from Ziyyara's online tutors.
    Visit On:- home schooling in india
    Phone no - +91-9654271931

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Unpacking Systematic Barriers for Black Boys with a Learning Disability in Special Education

Image
Special Education classrooms are a melting pot of students who are creative, innovative, and waiting for an opportunity to shine. These are the generalized qualities the students come with as their hard-wired gifts. Students all still need to learn how to read through direct, explicit and systematic instruction, and that will only happen through effective  literacy instruction that is culturally responsive  and teacher training. Literacy should be the great equalizer for students to become academically independent. Not every student will get exposed to quality literacy instruction which pushes them to reach their full potential or positions them to achieve their freedom. However, it should be at the top of the list for educators, policymakers and administrators to train teachers to excel in literacy instruction.  Although the demographics of classrooms are changing to reflect increasingly diverse students, what remains unknown in Special Education is why there is a persi...
Read more

Learning to Read – The Key That Opened The Door

Image
As a young kid, I had always struggled with reading and avoided it at all cost. Reading should be an activity that one does for pleasure and opens their mind to endless dreams. However, reading was not an activity I enjoyed. I was engaged in behaviors that were destructive in order to avoid it. I had to attend an alternative program for two years of high school because I could not control my temper. I was angry for many reasons, but the main one was that I was not able to read.   I was not diagnosed until the age of 18 and graduated from high school reading at an elementary level. My options were very limited. Yet, my life changed in 1996 when my mentor, an angel, Dr. Robert T. Nash literally saved my life and gave me HOPE as a student who was in Special Education. He and his colleague Dr. Kitz told me I was one of the most illiterate students they had meet, but that it was not my fault. They both said the system failed me. Dr Nash saw talent in me, told me I had a gift, b...
Read more

Balancing Resources for Literacy: How Policy Impacts Literacy Quality and Modern Illiteracy Rates

Image
The Science of Reading (SoR) has become a central focus in education, emphasizing evidence-based practices for teaching literacy skills. However, alongside these instructional methods, the role of policy in shaping literacy outcomes is often overlooked.  Understanding how resources—both public and private—are allocated can shed light on why certain literacy disparities persist, even with advances in the SoR.  This piece explores the balance of resources and inequities through the lens of the equation  LQ = R {Pub + Priv (M)} - I , which highlights how policy decisions impact literacy quality and modern-day illiteracy rates. Figure 1 : A black and white vector illustration depicting the balance of resources for literacy, showing books and coins on a balanced scale, symbolizing the relationship between educational resources and funding. Created by an AI illustration tool. While instructional approaches are critical for improving reading skills, how resources are distributed...
Read more