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12 year old ME sufferer forced to go to school

optimist

Senior Member
Messages
434
Location
Norway
It is sad that this is still going on:
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=no&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=no&ie=UTF-8&u=http://www.nrk.no/rogaland/har-me-diagnose-_-far-ikke-skolefritak-1.11992292&edit-text=

They say that to be able to get relief from school one needs to have something like cancer, and not a psychological* issue like ME :( The GP, the officials and the "Municipal pedagogical psychological service" all agree he should continue his studies as normal. He was diagnosed with ME at Haukland (where the Rituximab studies are going on). The mother is frustrated, and she wants to keep him home. The say that the child welfare is now involved with the case as the kid has not been in school for one month... The mother fears they will push him so that he gets more sick.

We have still have a battle to fight...

*EDIT: My spelling checker changed psychological to physiological, and that sort of ruined a bit of the point...
 
Last edited:

optimist

Senior Member
Messages
434
Location
Norway
I don't know much about home schooling here, but I don't think there are many who do it. Can't say I ever heard of it or met any here who did it. I just did a Google search and found that it is legal, so that could possibly be an option. But, the article didn't mention any dad, so my guesses are that the mother has to work to support the family.
 

JAM

Jill
Messages
421
I homeschooled and there were several single moms in our group. It is possible, but probably harder where homeschooling is less common.
 

optimist

Senior Member
Messages
434
Location
Norway
Yes, I suppose if one can team up with others it would be more possible. I find home schooling fascinating.
 

snowathlete

Senior Member
Messages
5,374
Location
UK
It's crazy and there's talk of this becoming the mainstream view in the UK too. How do you protect your children from the govt?
 
Messages
15,786
That poor child. What are the homeschool laws like there?
I'm not sure about Norway, but in the Netherlands it almost impossible to home school. If a child is too sick to go to school, something has to be set up for the schooling at home, which I think involves a teacher coming to the home frequently - daily or several times per week.

They don't want to do it because it's expensive.
 

brenda

Senior Member
Messages
2,263
Location
UK
The parent can ask the school to de-register the child. The law on attendance only applies to those who are registered. I went to see the head when my child was 5 and having a horrific time at school due to being gifted and the head was fine. You don't have to allow the authorities to check on you but it is safer to do so in a high profile case. Family members and neighbours are also a good source of help in the education especially grandparents but get in touch with Education Otherwise for advice and support. We did not do formal teaching like in schools, but followed interests and went on outings etc.

The child was really into computers so we let him take one apart and reassemble it and he took programming manuals to bed to read. He was offered a place at the Open University in computing at age 13. The yearly visit from the authorities LEA went fine as we said on the report we made that we thought character development was primary in under 10's and we did not believe in teaching reading till the child wanted it (around 7ish we found) but gave them a list of all that the child had learnt which was considerable and had a few items he had made.

Children who are home educated are a different kettle of fish and have a much higher chance at being accepted in some universities. Exams can be sat as outside candidates if you wish to go that route but a conference i attended said that many know how much better these kids are at everything even socialising. One family famously took their kids out of school because of a job in America for a year, and got their 4 kids to just write a report of what they had learned every day, nothing else, and they were above their classmates at school when they got back to England.
 

optimist

Senior Member
Messages
434
Location
Norway
Even though they take him out for home schooling, I am not sure he will be able to study anyway... he sounds quite ill, so I guess the mother would be in trouble no matter where she would be enrolled.
 

JAM

Jill
Messages
421
Even though they take him out for home schooling, I am not sure he will be able to study anyway... he sounds quite ill, so I guess the mother would be in trouble no matter where she would be enrolled.
How silly is that? Education is very important, but falls after health in the big scheme of things.
 

optimist

Senior Member
Messages
434
Location
Norway
If you have any questions about it let me know. I educated both of my children at home.
That's good to know :) Thanks! I am yet to have any children, but I've been thinking a lot about how to give them best upbringing the day when it hopefully happens :) First I just got to chase these very much unwanted condition out of my life :)

How silly is that? Education is very important, but falls after health in the big scheme of things.
Silly and very sad!