How can I teach him that school is important?

Q:My 9 year old son is having difficulty accepting the importance of school. He has 2 bad years of horrible teachers that didn't take the time to understand Asperger's. Is this something he will outgrow? Do you have any suggestions what I can do to turn him around? I had to withdraw him from public school and enrolled him in a Virtual Academy in hopes this will help, but now I'm facing the stubbornness of helping him realize things are getting better.

Thanks!

Maria

A:
It's not so much that he'll outgrow it as that school will grow to meet him. The importance of School isn't really something most Aspies can accept. The importance of Information is much easier. The more school is focused on actual learning of interesting information, the less resistant he'll be. And the older Aspies get, the easier it is for them to accept that even though a given activity does not have inherent value (such as the sort of busywork that makes up most of the school day) it does have not-getting-in-trouble value. We still don't like it, but we will at least tolerate it. In the meantime, try to make what he needs to learn relevent to what he wants to learn, and get started explaining the concept of not-getting-in-trouble value.

Wiley