School Tips

Alternatives to traditional schools

Can’t attend traditional schools?  Neither could I. Now days you have options:

• Look into home schooling.  I wish they had that when I was growing up.
• Look into online schools:
  For high school, check out Excel High School.
  For college, check out online universities like Western Governors University.

General Education

For general education, check out www.audible.com for audio books you can download to your computer and play on a CD, MP3 player or your computer.

Dealing with printed materials

• You might want to consider a reading box. A reading box is a specially constructed box (often of acrylic and wood) where a book can be enclosed sealing the fumes but allowing the pages to be turned as they are read from the top of the box. Often wooden dowels are used to turn the pages without having to open the box. I am not currently aware of anyone making these boxes commercially. If you know of someone that does a good job making them for others please let me know so I can help spread the word.
• You can wrap a book in clear acetate to keep the fumes down. Just turn to the pages you want to read, wrap the book up and read.

Communication

Let the school and your teachers know about your condition.  Don’t be shy about asking for reasonable accommodations.

More tips for students

• If you suspect you have MCS, become educated about MCS so you can articulate your condition to others.
• If you have MCS, don’t be afraid to ask for a reasonable accommodation.

More tips for educators

Be on the look out for students who appear to be under performing or inconsistent in their performance, and who might perform very well if they had a few reasonable accommodations.

When counseling students, their condition should be a considered.  A student will be concerned about what jobs they will be able to perform with their condition. Typically, vocations that can be done via a remote office, at the home in a more controlled environment are one answer.  This of course depends on the severity of the condition.

Home schooling, self directed learning, extra days to make up work or tests when they were ill, eLearning, online schools and eBooks are possible ways to mitigate the adverse consequences of their condition.

Efforts should be made to identify students in your school system who are suffering academically because of MCS and offer them alternative ways to learn.

Research Report on The Challenges Faced by Students with MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivities) in a Traditional School Environment

Please also view my research report on the challenges faced by students with MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivities) in a traditional school environment. The initial report was for a university course I was taking for my degree. I had to limited the scope of the report more than I wanted. If there is enough interest I may expand the research report later. It is available online as a web page or a PDF.