Aspies For Freedom

I didn't see the show.  I live in Canada.

I can think of a few causes for the problem:  bullying, sarcasm, and frustration.   Frustration can be on the part of the teacher and the student.  The teacher doesn't realize that they need to use a different approach in communication so the autistic student doesn't get frustrated.   Maybe a different way of explaining something or clearer instructions.  The student might have to develop some better coping skills with their frustration.  

As an adult, when I get frustrated, I can walk away from something and tackle it later.  A student can't do that.  They are not allowed to leave the room or their chair or they will be punished.  I used to think of school sometimes as jail.  A child can react differently to frustration by avoidance, totally "zoning out", tantrums.  Everyone has a limit to what they will put up with before they get frustrated or angry.

Someone go and tell and teach Channel 4 and the makers of this terrible programme and the school's 'head and teachers and other workers  there about the 'social-model', PLEASE!!!

I was horrified by this documentary. I have spoken with Adrian Whyatt, DANDA too about thiis programme and he shared my views and we totally agreed that this kind of programme needs to be challenged by us and was so 'stereotypical' and is abuse of our basic human and civil rights and this programme will reinforce negative 'attitudes and behaviour' and 'stir-up' more '(dis)abilist' attitudes and behaviour towards 'us' from others in society.

The programme did not give a balance viewpoints on ASD's at all. It was so 'negative' and where was the postive life-stories in living with ASD's

Adrian and I agree that a complaint should go in about this programme by 'us' all.

Do you want to make a collective complaints with DANDA and I about this programme?

'Nothing about us, without us'

I forgot to mention that in my opinion what happens to these children at this school and how the makers of the documentary presented it was 'Child-ABUSE'!!

What was these positve methods you emailed to her?

The positive methods I could send to her is to close the school now and tell her to go and find someone else to abuse somewhere else in a place far way from our neurodiverse children, where they can't be abused by her and others under her wing anymore.

Can I cause a bit of trouble here?

My experiences of autism are confined to my Aspergers personal experience (which was fairly mild) & a lot of net surfing, and the whole autism rights movement is also a pretty new thing as well. I'd like to make a few observations.

First off, it appears to me that the programme did show that some autistic people do have real problems - I was particularly struck by the comment by the girl with glasses doing the narration, to the effect that she didn't understand that you can't have a relationship without the other person's consent. Can anybody tell me how common such a perspective would be among auties of that age (she appeared to be about 19)?

Secondly, I'm completely in favour of the idea of teaching autistic kids how to cope in an NT world - indeed it's the perfect thing to campaign for as an alternative to 'curing' autism. However, why wait until the kid is on the cusp of their teenage years before sending them to a school like Spa? Roxanne had known she was autistic since she was 6 - what was done in the intervening 6 or 7 yrs before being sent to Spa? Seems to me if their problems dealing with the world were dealt with at a much younger age, they would be in a much better state, in terms of self-esteem and all the rest of it, than they clearly are!

Having said that, it's clear that the programme was a very biased one, and the school's perspective a very negative one. One point I'd like to make though - the kids' negative self-image and of their condition might change. When I was a child and a young adult I had a quite negative viw of myself, created largely through other people's attitudes, which took years to leave me - long before I worked out I had AS I knew I was somehow different and well into my 20s worried that there was something 'wrong' with me. It's only recently that I've realised that actually there is nothing wrong with me at all! Maybe in time the attitudes of the kids in the programme will change as well.

I'm really interested in getting some thoughts on the words of the girl doing the narration - I don't remember her name - about how she didn't understand that you can't have a relationship with a boy without their consent. It surprised me and I am wondering how common that would be?

THE SPA SCHOOL BLUES

(Written after watching 'Make Me Normal' featuring four young people with autism who all attend a large State run Special School. Channel 4, June 2nd 2005)

Four beautiful young people Alive, feeling, wondering why The world does not seem to want them.

Every day they are sent to Special School

To hear from Jude And her conspirators

That the world does not want them Because they are flawed

To the core of their beings

By AUTISM

And their AUTISM won't go away

But will ruin their lives

Unless they practice and practice and practice

Acting like normal people

Special School has a mission it seems A curriculum based on self hatred.

"I have to drum it into them"

Jude's earnest voice informs us

"What a big and awful thing

Their AUTISM really is".

She needs them to know this, she says,

So they can not expect too much of life.

It works.  They are learning.

One looks at the camera and says she has one friend,

Just one friend in the whole world.

"Is life worth living with just one friend?"

She asks.

Another is desperate to have a girl friend

But  no young mates to show him the ropes

A third spills her pain all over the playground

Not knowing she is being filmed.

The youngest, just lost his mother to cancer

Climbs into a trunk

And from the dark safety inside

Wonders if his bad behaviour killed her.

Now it is too late, he says,

To tell her he was sorry.


No one comforts, no one reassures,

No one explains that they are good,

Magnificent and courageous,

Interesting and delightful.

No one tells them that they are loved and wanted,

That autism is part of them, like their hair and their eyes,

Or that it is the world which needs to practice

Carving out the unique places

Each one of us needs

In order to be included,

To live a life amongst people

Who can embrace our differences

And in so doing,

Embrace their own.

Don't make us normal.

Make us welcome.

© Micheline

4.6.05


Micheline Mason is the Director of the Alliance for Inclusive
Education.  She is herself a Special School Survivor and, alongside
many thousands of other 'Survivors' is campaigning for the closure of
all segregated schools and units by the year 2020.  

Special Education is based on the false assumptions based on the medical model of disability which assumes all the difficulties facing a person living
with an  impairment, be it physical, social or intellectual, stem from the impairment itself  and therefore the only hope is for a cure or the learnt
ability to hide  the difference and become 'normal' - an impossible
goal.  

Disabled people, including those with autism, have rejected this model in favour of  the social model of disability which acknowledges impairment as a fact,  but locates the disabling effects of living with such impairments as stemming from barriers of access and attitude within society.  This
model is progressive and leads to social change.  

The struggle for inclusive education is part of the movement forwards towards this goal.  

The programme 'Make Me Normal' was an illustration of the medical model in its most insidious form.  

We believe that in the interests of balance and a  fair hearing, a second programme should  be made which contrasts the  special school approach with the approach taken by many mainstream schools to adapt themselves to accomodate the needs of all their pupils, including  those
with 'complex needs', and to learn from such young people how to be
more human.

Micheline can be contacted on 0207 735 5277 (w) 0208 682 2736
(h) or at the e-mail above.

Reply-To: "Alliance for Inclusive Education" at:-

The Alliance for Inclusive Education
UNIT 2, 70 SOUTH LAMBETH ROAD,
LONDON SW8 1RL
Phone 0207 735 5277 | Fax 0207 735 3828 eamil:- info@allfie.org.uk

Website:- http://www.allfie.org.uk/

I saw the programme and wasn't pleased either, i agree completely with what Gareth said

Good idea Amy, what kind of reply did you get? I hope it was a positive one

Kev, I am satisfied with the exploration of our viewpoints.
Nothing constructive will come from speaking further on this topic.
A brief skim of your reply shows contradictions pilling up.
Plus, any little deviation from a straight comment is perceived by you
as non-civil.  So I will shake you up no more.  

Brightman, me quoting you was for Kev.  
I know you were shaken and stirred too.  
My memory is generally good, and sometimes I have a recording of the programme.  

Peace.

Kev,
I hadn't read the edit when I posted before.  
I suppose you were having trouble dealing with me and now someone has handed you a handy little excuser.  Do you really believe my responses in this thread accord with those of a troll?  "Getting a bit unwieldy", indicates to me an awareness that the topic was more of a mouthful than you'd thought.

Life in general or of a documentary - people have expectations.
What is a "concept of 'wrongness'", if not an EXPECTATION in someone's head of negativity?  You could not accept any positivity from the program.

"I'm gonna kill myself", one of the children exclaimed, nothing about it being an option reinforced by anybody.  See why I asked about "environment", you say "includes but not limited to the school".  The children viewed and reinforced a negative view of autism before they got to the school.  So who or produced the desire to suicide?

Tell me what is not clear about you saying nobody said mentioning autism was bad, and then me quoting those people?

"Headmistress is not to blame" in this message, 'we need to examine the headmistress' role and beliefs' in the previous message.  Hmm.

If you read the producer's notes then go on to criticise the program on things it never set out to do, you contradict yourself when you later quoted the N.A.S site and found no problem with the first paragraph from the producer.  If you knew it was an hour long, and so probably limited to one dimension because of this time, why watch or forget to state those factors in your first criticisms of the programme?  Could it be my alleged "misinterpretations" that makes you reassess your assumptions?  

You talk of me arguing points not made by anyone, but you are criticising the program on aims it never set out to accomplish.  What do you call that . . . trolling, hypocrisy?

Who is misleading, when they take a plain fact or generalisation and twist it, by putting it in a negative context and arguing *backwards from that*  how it is sometimes negative to state a plain fact or make a generalisation?  Ergo you found the program negative and correct.

Even when I don't actually state an opinion - let alone a fundamental one - for you it is a difference of opinion.  It is not that, but rather I am saying something you'd rather not hear. And I am saying what I am hearing form you is not clear.  This is the heart of the matter: in your opinion, its immaterial what Saucecode, the producer of the programme, or the headmistress actually say, some people will just add a negative reinforcement to it.

You stating Make Me Normal was irresponsible and sensationalist is just an opinion. The difference between me and you, is that I can back-up mine.  Whereas some people - like the one who informed you that some view me as a troll on another forum (FAM) - can only retreat into that judgement or cry emotional foul or feel threatened.

You confuse empirical fact with my opinion and colloquial/informal expression with abuse.  Then you go on to prove you know little of the writings, in autism and the wider population, on the mind's expectations--its ingrained habits/patterns of perception and belief.  Then again, it could be because expectation is such a big part your expectations.

Following yours were no problem for me

When people cannot tell the difference rubbish and a nourishing meal they are in real trouble.

Clash. . .discussion, some have a stronger stomach.
Or can you not be civil yourself anymore - ego.
Sorry, if you are bent out of shape a little.

Are you telling me to shut up, Amy?

Are you telling me I cannot post in this thread?

Am I for forcing Kev to respond?

What is your defintion of arguing?