I need your opinion - special school

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I recently saw a documentary about a special school in the UK for kids with Autism.
One guy (who claimed to be ASD) said these institutions were a load of crap and would only make things worse for them. I got into a pretty heated discussion with him (with a lot of insults thrown my way) that institutions like these are VITAL for these kids to give them the self esteem and support they need to go ahead in life.
His argument is that it would segregate them further from reality and wouldn't prepare them at all for trying to deal with the real world.

So I get a better idea if I am wrong, what do you guys/gals think?

I've been to public, boarding and catholic schools, including special ED. And the only thing I've ever learned in school is how to survive in prison, and that's no joke. I got no help for my self-esteem in any of those schools.

BTW: what was the name of that documentary? Is it on you-tube? I think I may have seen it.

I think it's called ''make me normal''.
I had terrific respect for the school's efforts myself.
I personally think the most therapeutic approach for someone with a developmental problem is to put them in with likeminded creatures (we are all social people at heart)

Ya! I saw that movie.



That may not be such a good idea. I never got along at all with anyone in my special ED class and EzraS had the same problems as well. You would think that like minded people would be a perfect match, but their not.

ive been in special education programs and i didnt enjoy rthem and i dont think they did anything good for my self esteem. but i also have been to a mainstream setting and it wasnt good either.

i didnt have friends in the special education programs and was bullied a bit. i didnt have friends in the mainstream setting and i was bullied a bit. different people same thing really. except i had more teachers telling me i'm too slow to be taught things and more kids telling calling me ret*d in the mainstream setting. in the special education programs i was mostly doing things like they tried to teach me to make toast and life skills rather than actual lessons.

id rather have learnt the curriculum in a special education program if i had to go to school. i learnt it at home alone instead.

I went to a dyslexic school from middle of 6th through 8th grade. I was in public school from kindergarten through 4th grade. Went to a Catholic school form 5th through middle of 6th & went to a Catholic high-school. I was bullied aLOT before I went to the dyslexic school & I also struggled aLOT in my courses which caused me to have low self-esteem & felt really excluded & unprepared for life due to all my struggles. The dyslexic school understood me better than all the other schools & I grew & matured alot by not being so stressed out & being taught in a format I could understand. Learning what I did there made things easier for me to deal with in high-school.

I think that mainstream is usually (not always) the best route for autists. The world is full of people with different types of brain wiring. You don't learn to live with them by spending all day with other autistics.

I have just finished reading this book, published in 2013:

"Square Peg" by L. Todd Rose with Katherine Ellison
subtitled: "my story, and what it means for raising innovators, visionaries, and out of the box thinkers".

What a book: it made me laugh, cry and want to send a copy to everyone on WP who has ever been a square peg in a round education system.. he has wonderful sense of humour and relates his educational "progress" to the point of dropping out with wit and candour - it's an autobiography of a "troubled child" with ADHD born in the 1970s who ends up, eventually, teaching neuroscience at Harvard.

However as well as telling his own story, he wrote the book to provide a road map for kids and parents now
who are badly served by the system of education that is not designed for, and does not suit, the different kids - not just the gifted ones. He could have called it "How schools fail children, and how we can stop them from doing it".

Loved this book. You can read about it on Amazon and its also on Kindle if you are interested.

Separate is inherently unequal