Aspies For Freedom

Sometimes I'm amazed by what kids can accomplish... I wouldn't let age hold you back, really. Kids can start writing letters to govt officials, collect signatures from people, etc, etc... and they can get media attention more easily than adults because reporters and the public will be impressed that a minor is doing stuff like that instead of just hanging out at the mall or watching tv. <grin>

Anyway, I'm in the pro-homeschool camp, so... I personally don't care.

Yes I do , if they are prepared... Too many aspies parents or they themselves have not prepared themselves for the NT world.  I am of the belief as a diagnosed aspie that we all need to come half way... Aspies need to learn social skills and NT's need to totally understand we are brilliant geniuses who should be respected in our own right.... and our own quirkiness.

Our quirkiness is normal to us...

I do believe that we do not have enough properly trained counselors and therapists for aspie children and more often than not their parents are in denial and do little to help them to survive...Hence 98% who are supposedly unemployed.

Aspie children and NT children need to be educated from the beginning about each other with FACTS and proper information and aspie children need dance, self defense, and theatre training to learn social skills... However the instructors need to be excellent and know how to work with aspie children and their needs.  Not every teacher is a good teacher for any kids or aspie kids... Parents need to educate themselves and look for the  best for their aspie children.

Survival skills are important, otherwise we are shooting ourselves in the foot.

I don't ever remember being bullied.  I learned to hold my own as a kid, even through middle school and high school.  I wore black nun shoes in middle school.. .long before Gothic was even imagined... and black tights... It seemed even though I was different , i held the respect of other students.  All I had to do was excell in anything they thought they were brilliant in... even sports, art, theatre, grades ... I did use my intelligence as a weapon and kept myself busy learning to learn.... everything... and how to present myself to the NT world.

I really think many need to learn from successful aspies how they did it... esp the older ones.  We did it the hard way with little or no help with our aspergers and our related disorders.

I have been helping many parents of aspie kids and their children are responding with great success... Either people want to be happy or they don't.  Its a choice.

It pains me to see so many aspies hurting.... There is no need for life to be that way... At 56, I have been there and done that... and middle school I know is the hardest...it was for me.... and I got through.... PM me anytime.  

This will not be the case for some Aspies; some need to be accomodated, and shouldn't have to risk being considered "weak" by any of the more "faux confident" Aspies around.

Depends on the aspie, depends on the school.

I had a great experience in mainstream, but it was a small school with a student culture which I think is extremely respectful compared with most schools, and I think I'm a lot less obviously different than a lot of aspies.

There's more to this than just bullying.  You're right, it's not as simple as "Be in one category, get eaten.  Be in another, eat."  Besides, aspies are just as likely to bully each other, probably more so when on a level playing field without a common threat.  I did say I'm not suggesting total separation, just enough time away from all the crap so one can concentrate on studies and be a more effective learner.

I can see how it might be a problem if it's a boarding school, where you live there 24 hours a day with hardly an NT in sight.  But if it's a commuter school, where you go home every afternoon, then that should be sufficient time to practice your mixed social interactions.

I read an article last year that mentioned a public school that does have an aspie homeroom, for just that purpose.  Problem is, if you're stressed out and have to go to that room, you still have to make your way from wherever you are, through the hallways (fluorescent-lit, I presume) past god-knows-what to get there.  I can imagine running into a gang of bullies skipping class while on that walk.  (Just what you'd need.  /sarcasm  Remember, you're already not feeling too good if you're making that trip.)  Whenever you're ready to leave the safe room, you'll probably find that news of whatever incident sent you there is making its way around the school.  Or, perhaps a teacher who decides to be a jerk and not let you go there, thus letting you just have a meltdown in class in front of all the other kids.  I guess that's better than nothing, but still I can imagine endless bad possibilities with that.  It would be interesting to read what rules are in place to prevent over-utilization or under-utilization of the room.

If I'd have had something like that at my disposal (back in the 1980's when I was a kid), I would have probably kept skipping PE until somebody stopped me.

I was mainstreamed after Q1 of G8.

I would not have had the academic opportunities in special ed I had on the outside.  Lowest common denominator, prejudice of too many education officials, or simply just the reality of catering to the average

Yet I think we should be permitted to opt out of the school day in whole or in part to avoid troublemakers (usually the less well achieving students in a school), so we can achieve without their interference, achieve at our own pace, be reminded of our own potential, and maybe (privacy issues nonwithstanding) know we are better than the troublemakers (but also know that the troublemakers are mean because they are miserable)- when you achieve nirvana, there is no need to go hurt someone, just enjoy inner peace on your own cloud, you know?

So, yes, mainstreaming, for the practical reality of better classes, but
no, mainstreaming, for the hope of a ideal curriculum that can protect and promote children of ourselves at full potential.

I never considered that, Yetti.

The more and more I read this blog and think about high school, the more I think I should have stood up for myself even at the risk of cuts and bruises, because
a. force usually helps solve problems in the real world, especially superior force (think Kosovo, or, think what God is going to do to Satan, sad thing is, Satan will make sure lots of people get hurt in the middle of it)
b. internalizing problems leads to suicide, depression.  We mustn't forget the problem is the bully here.

Understood.  Even after I was completely mainstreamed (by the start of 7th grade), I was still set back in math and had to catch up.  (Why in blazes they had to use math of all subjects, makes no sense to me.)

I'd suggest keeping the aspie programs separate and completely independent from the familar "special ed" system, such that you can get decent-quality, useful coursework from within the program.  People who have an interest in seeing aspies succeed in life (be it parents, adult aspies with long memories, or software companies etc. making sure they'll have a new generation of systemizers to hire) would need to (in the case of public schools) lobby their politicians on a regular basis to make sure the necessary resources are going into such programs, and that it's not falling to the wayside as second-rate.  (Let's keep the political aspect of it in a different thread.)

Back in G5 the teacher told Mom, uh, I'm a year behind in math

After a little bit of [now you tell me.......  &**(@^&^* and fireworks] Mom had me caught up over Easter recess

Mom trained to teach high school English.  But the Supreme Court had just done Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka Kansas and America had fireworks in places like Little Rock Arkansas the year Mom graduated college, so Mom left the field of education and entered the safer field of legal secretary instead.  Imagine President Eisenhower sending in Airborne troops to send African American children to school over the objections of the Arkansas governor.  

Hey, I thought the North won the Civil War.  Not unless they were prepared to stay forever, I guess.

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.

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.

Janet, maybe a day after Jesus comes back, no, actually I am mistaken, there won't be any bombers then

The problem CJ is that teachers do not seem to make anyone immediately rich like stockbrokers.  The cause and effect is 20 years off.  

That is the problem of having teachers and police as civil servants rather than as employees of the wealthy.  They are badly paid.

Bill Gates, our resident bazillionaire, is an advocate for better education, and he preaches a need for smaller schools…

The public mainstream middle schools around here are the last place where you’d want your teen if they are on the spectrum, in even the slightest way. The public offering here for middle school has a population of 700+. Sort of like a big ‘cattle corral’ for teens. -- A bad place for quiet sensitive intellectuals, and is a recipe to get self-esteem beat right out of them with the social pressure, bullying types. Some make it, some don’t.

Curriculum here is limited too, holding back intelligent kids. The NCLB left no room for curriculum targeted to needs of ASD’s, such as social skills, PE alternatives.


So… Mainstream? Depends on the school, curriculum, and the individual.

I say yes… and insist on changes in curriculum.  Private ‘mainstream’ school for now though…

Not sure. I was always placed in mainstream classes. Whether the distress caused by this situation was any worse than the potential of being labelled is somewhat of a quandary.

Noone seems to see a person of normal physical build, healthy tanned complexion, acute eyesight and hearing, and normal to above normal intelligence to have a problem.