One-Size-Fits-All Education System Doesn’t Fit Highly Sensitive Children 

Is your highly sensitive child struggling in a traditional school environment? A one-size-fits-all education system is not great for any child, but it certainly doesn’t work for a highly sensitive child. 

Highly Sensitive Children Struggling in School Are Told to Adapt

As parents of highly sensitive children, we often hear that our children need to adapt to their school environment. They need to learn to cope at a young age with the noise and bustle of a traditional classroom. It’s a big ask, and sets a child off on the wrong foot from the start of their education journey. 

Teachers tell us that our children need to toughen up. We’re told exceptions can’t be made just because our child can’t focus with a wall of noise around them. They have to behave in a way that feels uncomfortable to them. They have to change to fit in with the system in order to survive their school days. Survive, not thrive or flourish.

Perfect School for a Highly Sensitive Child?

So many parents of highly sensitive children have said how lovely it would be if there were schools that were set up specifically for highly sensitive children. What would those schools look like? (Check out The Perfect School for Highly Sensitive Children to read how parents of highly sensitive children have answered that question.) How would these schools for highly sensitive children operate?

Isn’t it nice to dream about our highly sensitive children learning in an environment that doesn’t ask them to behave in a manner that is unnatural to them?

If your child is struggling in school think about what your child would need to flourish in their learning environment. Get a pad and pencil out and write down their needs.

There’s Nothing Wrong With Your Child

Next time you’re tearing your hair out, desperately searching for the tools to help your child get through each and every school day, remember that there is nothing wrong with your highly sensitive child. Not fitting the standard mould does not mean they need fixing.

Too often our education systems attempt to be a one-size-fits-all system. And that’s just not practical. It doesn’t match the needs of most children, let alone highly sensitive children. And it doesn’t even match up with the adult world!

Here’s what Susan Cain has to say in her bestselling book, Quiet (a book I highly recommend if you are raising an introvert, or you are an introvert yourself):

It’s important for you and your child to know that there is nothing wrong with them. Many school environments ask children to behave in a way that is not their nature. And it treats all children as if they have been made in one mould, which obviously is not the case.

What’s the Solution When Your Highly Sensitive Child is Struggling in School?

The one-size-fits-all issues of the education system is why many parents of highly sensitive children that have gone before you have searched for alternatives. How do you know when it’s time to switch schools? There’s a comprehensice guide here.

And there are different types of schools, or homeschooling is an option, depending on the country you live in.

• Read why Tara switched from Public schooling to homeschooling
• Read why this mother decided to homeschool
• Here’s why a democratic school appealed to this mother of a highly sensitive child