Class of 2018

schleppenheimer
Fri, 09 May 2014 00:19:34 +0000

So, DS is finishing up senior year, and the plan is to still go to Earlham. In fact, the plan is to go on August Wilderness – Ontario. That should be a lot of fun. But as parents, we have two concerns:


In November, on top of inattentive ADD issues and high-functioning autism issues, my son started to have seizures. Only two in a year, and they seem to be controlled, but the anti-seizure medication has just kicked his butt as far as making him super tired and cognitively slow for a good chunk of this year. I think (?) that the neurologist has figured out the right dosage, and things are slowly improving, but it is just yet another wrench thrown into the anxiety of going away to college. I really think DS is ok, he must have a very mild type of seizures, but when you already have trouble getting your stimulants to work, the anti-seizure meds just make it all EVEN WORSE.
We visited the disability office, and had a nice talk with Donna Keesling. It would seem that Earlham’s way of handling disability students is more “hands-off” than other colleges I have heard about. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – I’m just trying to prepare for what’s ahead. Donna gave us the impression that the professors and the students tend to handle any “issues” – and the student must procure any help that they need. The disability office is basically just there for handling LiveScribe pens for note taking, handling Kurzweil 3000 software for reading and writing help, and the writing lab. No overseeing of the student to make sure they are on task. Understandable, in that these kids are adults and need to proceed as adults. But I wonder – do their academic advisors help out in a kind of “guidance” position? Any experience anybody out there has had in this way at Earlham would be wonderful to hear about!