Still excited!

I'm still very excited.

I've wanted to do my Masters for so long now, about 10 years really, that the idea that I am about to start it is amazing me.

This year is funded by the County, as part of my continuing professional development.  Next year I'll need to find about £2,500 for the fees, and the same the following year, plus books and so on.  But then I'll have an M.Ed, and be able to get a job more or less anywhere.  I'll still be at the school I'm at now until the AC finishes there, but he's only got 4 years left and then the world is the mollusc of our choice!

There are so many opportunities for us now, for us as a family, to go and do all kinds of things, because the extra qualifications means that I will be paid a bit extra (about £3,000 a year) and that it will prove that I do know what I am talking about.  Some parents only listen to someone with a piece of paper that proves they know more about what is up with that child.  Some parents still won't listen, but hey. *shrug*  That's up to them.

Which reminds me....... ADHD news item says that there is a genetic line for ADHD.  If you see this and get excited - don't.  What they actually found out was that 15% of those with ADHD had genetic anomolies, as opposed to 7% in the control group.  Even that study says that it is still early childhood experiences - up to the age of 5 - that are still the lead cause of ADHD.  If a child experiences trauma, upset and neglect in the first few years, then they are more likely to show symptoms of ADHD.  The study then goes on to claim that it is not bad parenting that causes ADHD.  That's as may be - although in my mind deliberately causing trauma and neglect to a child, whether physical, emotional or sensory is bad parenting - but in school, time and time again, it is bad parenting that makes the situation worse.  We can dress it up all we like in social worker words, but it is bad parenting.

Anyway, I'll know even more about that all soon (ADHD, not bad parenting lol!) and I am still very very very excited!