Was reminded today of one particular special-education high school that I went to, which will probably forever stick in my memory as The School That Got It Right.

Tiny school - 3 classes (~7 students each) total, that was the entire school. Located in a temporary building, former daycare. It was specifically a HAVO/VWO ("higher level") special education school, which were a novelty at the time, as previously only "lower level" VMBO (vocational) schools existed in special education. But that's a topic for another time.

Being an experimental school, they had a lot of leeway in how to run the place (for a Dutch school anyway), and oh man, did they make use of that. It was with some distance the most pleasant high school I've ever seen or been to.

Like I said, the classes were small. They were also in a fixed location; you were in the same classroom all day, every day, unlike regular high school in NL, and with the same teacher. You always had the same table, with a crate next to it containing all of your books.

There were no lectures, and there was effectively no homework. Every day you would get a list of "stuff to do", basically a list of book chapters and assignments to complete and read. If you completed it before the end of the day, you had no homework - this was easily doable if you made even a slight effort. I've never had homework, despite my ADHD.

It was entirely self-directed; you'd go through it yourself, at your own pace. If you got stuck, you'd talk to the teacher, and they would explain it to you 1-on-1 until you understood it, however long that took. Practically everyone passed every year as a result.

And keep in mind that this was special education; there were students with severe mental health issues, learning disabilities, and so on! And they were extremely good at dealing with them.

As is common in such schools, mental breakdowns of students happen sometimes. We're talking "throwing things through windows" and such here. The common procedure at the time was to basically lock someone in a room in isolation, until they calmed down. But not at this school.

They had an isolation room, sure, but it wasn't locked - you would be explicitly told that they'd bring you to the room, but that you could come back whenever you wanted, whenever you felt up to it. The janitor would be waiting outside to help you if you needed it. Unlike the forced-isolation rooms, here students actually calmed down, because they weren't trapped (imagine that!) - it was used as a support mechanism, instead of a punishment.

And that theme continued throughout; they did not punish for 'misbehaviour', instead you collected 'points' for every part of the day that you did not cause issues for others. You could then exchange those points for personal rewards (like playing online games on one of the computers, once all your work for the day was done), or collective rewards for the whole class (snacks, even an extra school trip). This successfully shifted the atmosphere to be positive instead of negative.

Students started doing better and better throughout their time there, pretty much universally, including the kids who would've been considered 'hopeless' in other schools.

They were also very flexible in terms of personal accommodations; I had trouble focusing in the morning, and so they told me that I could come to school an hour later. There was a couch in the hallways in case you needed to escape the classroom for a bit and relax. And so on. They were incredibly supportive.

This is the only school I've ever truly felt comfortable in, that I was excited to go to, and the only school where I was genuinely learning things.

And it has taught me a lot about how much the right environment can do for people.