Aspies For Freedom

i am in a mainstream school with 2 nertopical friends but i got 3 ese classes

I think Yetti might have seen a different school than young aspies see today.

Today's school (at least here in Norway) has begun with focus on groupwork and projects with a wide array of possibilities, which I never really manage and it really drains my self-esteem each time. I wish school was more straight-forward as it probably was when Yetti went to school.

I don't know how it is to go to school with other autistics, but I can imagine that it could be a more safe environment to learn social skills for many - without having to get overly negative reactions whenever you try to participate in a conversation.

I definitely prefer the culture I find in my current class when I compare it to my previous class - Well-meaning humour has replaced nasty comments.

*bump*

We would ofcourse put private schools based on the overhaul ideas to the test first.

But by all means, be creative and ambitious.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_amide

When I look at the effects I just am not exactly what good it is supposed to do.

I don't believe in the formal education system, so my views on this probably don't even make sense in the framework of the question.

Are there enough Aspies in your average school to make a separate class worthwhile? The usual quoted statistic is 1 in 100, so one would expect there to be 10 Aspies in a school of 1000 pupils, and spread across all the school years. How does a GCSE pupil benefit from attending a class with prepubescent Year-7s?

My initial gut reaction was to say mainstream.  Personally, I think if I'd been diagnosed young enough to have been given accommodations like assistance at school, lower course load, lower expectations from parents and teachers, I'd have used it as an excuse to not have work as hard as I did, and wouldn't have achieved what I have.

But then, maybe I wouldn't have three suicide attempts and a decade-long relationship with the mental health system, either.

Now, this:

Sounds like a jolly good idea.  Unless a kid's causing trouble or failing consistently, the current school system won't care how much they're suffering. Assuming there'd be the resources and skilled teachers to actually make such a school work, it'd be a great idea. However, I think such a school should be set up in such a way as to be preparing kids for life in the 'mainstream' world beyond.

I remember that someone at the chat who went to a special school for autistics said she was beaten up when she was 16 by students she didn't know. So I guess its valid that a "segregated" class could face serious discrimination.

I still believe that there should be a better alternative for many who endure mainstream today. I really don't think it is that good to be in an environment where you don't manage to get friends and get bullied, and I really don't think that's a great way of learning social skills either.

Yes, I agree too (although the jury's out on whether I'm witty or strong... but fiery, yes!)

I think I need to explain my previous post more... because, on the whole, I think IF the individual can cope with it, mainstreaming is probably a better option than otherwise.  Being Aspie, the real world is going to confound us sometimes.  I reckon it's probably better to get the worst of   the social mistakes and the foot-in-mouth moments, out of the way in your school years, rather than being sheltered through your formative years before being packed off to work or university and THEN having to deal with humanity in all its horror for the first time.

However, some individuals just will not emerge from a mainstream school  environment intact - if you dig up the "Could I Sue" thread here, you'll find some horror stories from people who were just totally failed by mainstreaming.

So, I guess I'm back to "it depends on the individual" - it does seem there's Special Ed and there's Mainstream with a huge gap between, and a few Aspies probably belong in that gap somewhere.

Think both can be teached by the same time.

Me too, so I've no idea whatsoever how the alternatives would be.

Mainstream schools are however almost the only option in Norway, and not something that's ever being considered poor as far as I know.

I also think that in the USA at least that if teachers were properly paid and not forced onto contracts, they would attract more high quality teachers. Teachers are probably not so well paid in other countries but at least they usually have security of tenure.