I don't wish to be treated, I wish to be free!

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I am learning about problems and needs, one of the reasons I joined up.

At the moment all my spare time is spent on my business and programming. I am very confident that I will become rich (£15m-£40m), then the plan is that I will start this up and pour lots of money into setting things like Aspie schools up.

Not sure what a college major is, I assume you're in the US? In the UK we have A levels, and I've already chosen what I'll do for those, mostly to aid my business, computer and English (for my poetry mostly) skills. I don't think I need any degrees or whatever in psychology or anything, if anyone knows about autism it's people WITH autism, not someone with a piece of paper saying they sat in a classroom for hours.

That was quick.
I was still editing my post when you quoted it, nine minutes later.
I need to stop doing that, and use the "preview" button more.

Asp-Z:
I do think you should consider studying psychology. I don't know about whether your schools have this, but over in the US the universities let you take a minor as well as a major field of study--so, for example, I might take a major in biomedical engineering and a minor in rehabilitation tech, if I wanted to specialize; or, I might take a minor in German if I happened to like that subject and wanted to increase my skills in it, even though it's unrelated to my major. If you can do something like that over there, I'd highly recommend psychology--not really Abnormal Psych, which isn't necessarily all that relevant to autism (though you do need to be grounded in the basics of diagnosis), but cognitive psychology (thinking and learning) and child psychology. Only one branch of psychology--clinical psychology--actually deals exclusively with the diagnosis and treatment of disorders. The rest is all about how the human mind works, under various conditions and at various ages. I don't say major in psychology; but a few classes would be really useful. Oh, and if they don't make you take it, then take sociology too. That would be the study of how humans behave in groups, and it is fascinating.

I hear you, and I share your passion, but it just ain't gonna happen that way.

People only get help one-at-a-time and when they are willing to accept it, and that can only begin in that very same way ... and even then, their mothers will still hate you. Making a difference in someone's life and changing the world for everyone are not the same thing, and wrongly-placed focus will keep either from ever happening.

Anyway, my original point was that money isn't the hardest part. If you build it, the money will come. I've seen what it takes to get a charter school off the ground. The hard part is attracting the right people to join your team. People with professional experience in all areas, who are passionate about the vision and willing to pour their hearts, time and talents into it. Not just teachers and shrinks. Politics, economics, the law, business management, real estate, grant writing, PR...
No one person can do it all, and money can't buy that kind of passion.

Now that I think of it, you would be most likely to find that kind of professional when they drop off their autistic kids at a daycamp. While their own children are young is the time when they would be the most passionate and focused, and the most willing to help.

I'm starting to talk myself into it.

I do know of a local daycamp that seems to have the right attitude, but I haven't actually met anyone. I can imagine getting to know some of the parents and creating informal playgroups through the school year. That would create a network which could be strengthened and expanded over time.

True.
Think of what black people had to go through. (Gimme a minute here, this is going somewhere.) The institution of slavery goes back to long before recorded history. The whole idea of one person owning another runs deeper in human nature than just about any other issue you can name. It seems natural, inevitable, to the point where the people who benefit from it feel that they can call it god's will. Resistance is futile, and any expression of doubt is considered proof positive of insanity.
Even after the majority got over the philosophical barrier, to the point where they will acknowledge the practice of outright slavery as a horrific crime, we still had to deal with psychotic attitudes, hatred, transparent excuses for other forms of oppression (sharecropping...)

Deep as the institution of slavery is, our issue runs deeper. So deep that it doesn't have a real name. Society needs and demands scapegoats as much as (probably more than) it needs and demands consoling spirits (alcohol, Rx, street drugs, etc). It's amazing how some people can instantly recognize when they are being abused, but they can turn around and use the exact same form of abuse on someone else, and behave as though they honestly don't know the difference between right and wrong. (Like responding to the fictitious crime of "terrorism" with genocide, as though that makes some kind of sense...)

Race, age, sex, disability, color, creed, national origin, religion, sexual orientation; the list keeps growing. Every civil rights movement that has come along has said, essentially, "Don't pick on our group because ___," which always ends with the unacknowledged message, "go dump on someone else." And they always do. Which defeats the purpose of the movement.

Society is running out of scapegoats and traditional, socially accepted forms of abuse.
As the excuses and methods of oppression become more convoluted and confusing, they chose victims that are more vulnerable and more easily confused and marginalized.

Until they landed on the autistic population, which is probably the final frontier in civil rights.
Rather than "don't pick on our group," the message needs to be "don't pick on anyone."

Good luck with that.

I guess I should count my blessings that i grew up around the same time as Cockney Rebel and they didn't have lables for kids like me...granted..it was very frustrating at times...but perhaps if I had been labled by the system back then, I would have been more limited...and I like being a wild-free-non-conformist type. I do often get very frustrated with my dysfunctions, but the way I am has led me down a very unconventional path..and I should be happy for it..

That vaccine thing is nonsense. My 11-year-old brother got all 6 of the vaccinations he needed for school in the same day (school started and my parents were busy so there was no time to space it out). He is the same as before.

Yeah, I've had loads of vaccines, including the swine flu one, and... Well, I don't feel more autistic...

I felt like someone else's experiment when I was labeled as a child.

I didn't feel human at all being constantly "prodded" and "poked", and being told subtly to behave with no explanation given as to how I should behave or indeed why I should behave in this way. When people didn't like me or wouldn't include me, I was never ever told why or how I could improve the situation.

I felt interfered with by a lot of frightened adults in authority.

When the label was removed, I didn't feel like someone else's' Child Psychology Project any more. No more inane and pointless activities.

I never wanted to be anyone's project ever.
I wanted to learn things in my own way and interact my own pace.

I never wanted to join in the way that they wanted me to.
I wanted to join in in the way that took full advantage of capabilities (detail orientated and a basis in the physical environment).

Truthfully, I never ever wanted to sync up with a group in the way they wanted me to.
I wanted to help the group by generating new ideas and being creative.

Being told to colour inbetween the lines in a group and discussing the so called "artwork" isn't being creative.


Some people do judge with labels.
They automatically that you can't do anything productive.
They aren't prepared to consider the possibility that you can be productive and helpful in a different way from the way they consider to be the "right way".

Even if you don't put limits on yourself, some other people will when they're told about the label.

I agree with you. I would love to be free, which is why I've always wanted to live on Solaria. Robots wouldn't care if I have AS or not.