The new series of the BBC TV programme about a school features a girl pupil with Asperger Syndrome.
According to the new Radio Times (TV Guide), the teachers are threatening to strike, if the girl attends the school (doesn't explain why).
Will watch with interest, and report back......
It is on at 8pm (BST) on 11/10/07 in the UK, not sure if it will be on the BBC TV Player on the 'net.
From the preview for the programme in the Radio Times:
"...there's a potentially difficult new pupil to accomodate, a girl with Asperger's. But staff are unprepared and ignorant. The worst offender is, of all people, the teacher in charge of 'pastoral care', who is cruel, unkind, calls the girl a 'fruitloop' and withholds her medication. [...] 'You can't pretend she acts normal!' she bellows as the rest of the staff, with their habitual touching concern for their pupils, threaten to strike if the girl isn't excluded."
I will also watch the programme with interest, though I have not seen any others in the series.
Does anybody remember the Asperger's boy in Home & Away? I think it would have been 3-4 years ago at least. The last I remember seeing of him on the show was when he was on a roof and people were trying to convince him not to jump. He thought he could fly. I found the portrayal fairly good up until that point because then it made him look mentally disturbed.
I suggest those of you in the UK who get that channel, boycott any advertisers who support that show. Write letters to them explaining why. (Just using a minority to bring up its own ratings, apparently with little regard for how it will affect that minority in the real world.)
It's on the BBC which does not have advertising.
I stopped watching Waterloo road last series because it was a bit dull, but I think I will give it a go tomorrow.
The representation might not be as bad as it sounds, I will watch and then pass judgement.
If it's bad, you may get a long rant about it from me tomorrow, so be warned.
1/4 hour in: Same old at the mo. Mummy dearest is sorting everything out for her and she doesn't know what 'wait outside' means- she's literally gone outside instead of just outside the office.
20 mins in: Taking everything literally still and she's really nervous. Otherwise OK as in i've seen worse.
Or not. She's on anti anxiety prescription things, and she's being compared to somebody off crimewatch.
25 mins in: Headmaster wants her out for some reason and has written a letteer of lies to her Mum. And surprise, surprise, she's maths obsessed, and keeps quoting it.
Bit of a 'poor amazing aspie girl' feel to it all.
1/2 hour in: Some teacher's gone mad and she's nervous. For some reason nobody told the teacher she's aspie. She's just whacked him with a chair. Taught him a lesson.
Some other teacher has just called her 'Rain Man.' What kind of educations system is this?
Bearing in mind they're over-dramatising it because it's a drama. It's OK. At least they're doing a bit from Karla's point of view.
35 mins in: Now the teachers are striking until she's fobbed off to a support teacher.
40 mins in: She's pulling apart a sandwich. Don't know why as NTs do that too.
Teachers want support staff and are about to bully the LEA.
3/4 hour in: They're letting her speak, so that's OK. But some teacher has called her a fruit loop, so that isn't. Where is this school, twatland?
50 mins in: She's just gone home. Says that smiling stops people asking questions. Methinks she should let them ask and then answer them.
55 mins in: The headmaster is sticking up for her, but the others are still striking.
Bit better than I thought, but not perfect, and tehy've describes her as high-functioning, which is true, but I still don't know any aspies like her.
I thought it was a sensitive and sympathetic portrayal of Karla. She comes across as a likeable and intelligent person. Though she is definitely an aspie, she is not a one-dimensional cariacture of one. I believe that the viewers are meant to identify with her. For example, the incident with the English teacher - who is a control freak, in which she defended herself with a chair from his perceived aggression, was shown from her point of view.
The teachers are shown as ignorant and prejudiced about autism and Asperger's syndrome. But it seems to me that Karla is the only pupil in that school who wants to learn.
When Karla first came on the scene, the headmaster remarked that at least she's not fullblown [autistic that is]. Later he told his staff that she has what is called "high-functioning Asperger's", which unlike high-functioning autism is a non-existent diagnostic category.
It didn't show her maths obsessed but that her maths ability fitted her for the top set, not for the bottom set in which she had been put. Also she has high abilities in English, she had read Herman Melville, Jane Austen and William Shakespeare. When a teacher remarked that even a parrot can recite Shakespeare, the headmaster replied but not do critical theory.
By the end of the programme the teachers had ended their strike.
Karla is not meant to be like any aspies anybody knows. Are any of the teachers at that school like anyone knows? Such as like the teacher who punches the headmaster full on the mouth, and who is having an affair with one of the pupils. She got married to another pupil.
Karla will be in next week's episode. I am interested in seeing how her character develops.
If they did their research at all competently on Asperger's syndrome, I expect the scriptwriter(s) read 'Martian in the Playground: Understanding the School Child with Asperger's Syndrome' by Clare Sainsbury.
I thought it was a sensitive and sympathetic portrayal of Karla. She comes across as a likeable and intelligent person. Though she is definitely an aspie, she is not a one-dimensional cariacture of one. I believe that the viewers are meant to identify with her. For example, the incident with the English teacher - who is a control freak, in which she defended herself with a chair from his perceived aggression, was shown from her point of view.
The teachers are shown as ignorant and prejudiced about autism and Asperger's syndrome. But it seems to me that Karla is the only pupil in that school who wants to learn.
When Karla first came on the scene, the headmaster remarked that at least she's not fullblown [autistic that is]. Later he told his staff that she has what is called "high-functioning Asperger's", which unlike high-functioning autism is a non-existent diagnostic category.
It didn't show her maths obsessed but that her maths ability fitted her for the top set, not for the bottom set in which she had been put. Also she has high abilities in English, she had read Herman Melville, Jane Austen and William Shakespeare. When a teacher remarked that even a parrot can recite Shakespeare, the headmaster replied but not do critical theory.
By the end of the programme the teachers had ended their strike.
Karla is not meant to be like any aspies anybody knows. Are any of the teachers at that school like anyone knows? Such as like the teacher who punches the headmaster full on the mouth, and who is having an affair with one of the pupils. She got married to another pupil.
Karla will be in next week's episode. I am interested in seeing how her character develops.
If they did their research at all competently on Asperger's syndrome, I expect the scriptwriter(s) read 'Martian in the Playground: Understanding the School Child with Asperger's Syndrome' by Clare Sainsbury.
Yes, that is a good, honest review. I took to the character of Carla too.
I had one or two reservations, particularly the ignorance of the teachers. I know some can be ignorant, but it was obviously emphasised for dramatic effect. And, would any teacher in 2007 call a pupil a 'fruitloop', after that pupil only being at the school for a few hours, and the said teacher also supposed to be a counsellor/advisor.
It will be interesting to see how Carla develops.
PS What was with all the £2,000 cheques the head was writing?
Anyone else want to castrate that male English teacher with something very very blunt?
Bit of an egit and egotistical prat isn't he?
Actually, most characters on the programme a pretty annoying.
Like NTs, only worse.
Here are some comments from an NT colleague of mine:
I watched the program last night though I found it difficult! I didn't like all the background noise in it, I guess I just hate children!
I thought the girl with Asperger's acted well. I didn't see anything too different from the sort of thing I expected. What I didn't think was accurate was the reactions of the teachers to what she did and said. I guess it was really a caricature of reality. The NT teachers were way over the top. I think they were trying in a short time to represent accumulated frustrations to such literal interpretations of everything.
Really good portrayal tonight. I indentified with that, as I often go on logic and not not my feelings like that.
Although you have to admit she's a stereotype.
I take it I missed it/was on in the US then? damn, I would have liked to have seen it.
I'm not sure it gets shown in the US. It's a UK drama on BBC1. Youtube might be worth a look if you want to find some clips, or Google videos.