High school awareness

Post Reply New Topic

A teacher was discussing a historical figure today and suggested that he could have Aspergers syndrome. He asked who knew what it was and out of a 20-25 person class maybe two raised their hands. When the teacher explained what it is and how people who have it have "intense focus", he mentioned a surfer with such a passion. A few kids asked to see a video of it, as if it was something revolutionary.
Also, the teacher said something along the lines of 'despite having AS he was a top student in school'.
Should I be feeling pessimistic about this?

Nope. Having a decently aware teacher might come in handy at some point.

Was he kind of running a version of "trying harder"? That the young man who's a famous surfer was a top student "despite" being Aspie?

Woo-hoo, another hero overcame adversity and triumphed, so you can, too! Ohmygawd, that's such an inspiring Hallmark moment, I may cry from gushing sentiment and sh*t my pants in awestruck disbelief at the same time.

See, this is the message that bothered me about John Elder Robison's 'Look Me In The Eye,' too. All the positives about what a successful life he's had making techno-toys for a world renowned rock band, and lived happily ever after, blah, blah, blah - and not an effing word about the actual difficulties of functioning on a day-to-day basis with an invisible handicap that causes people to berate, abuse and discriminate against you. Not a word about what it's like to spend years upon years getting fired from job after job in spite of your skills and creativity. Nothing about being taken advantage of repeatedly by people who can see that you don't read social signals very well and play on your naivete. Not a solitary breath about the hurdles of forging relationships when you can barely speak to people.

I don't believe in using AS as an excuse to whine and bellyache constantly and make no effort to take control of your own destiny, but I also think it's cruel and unfair to pretend that it's such a minor obstacle that there's "nothing you can't do, if you just put your mind to it" - you know what, I've got over 50 years worth of experience that says that's B*LLSHIT. And I wasn't using my autism as an excuse all those years, because I didn't even know that I had it.

So people can stow that "Oh, look, So-and-So became a success story, so that means handicaps needn't hold you back," Pollyanna attitude. Mick Jagger is a billionaire, but that doesn't mean every Business School dropout can become a rock megastar just by force of will and a positive attitude. Most of us will still struggle our entire lives and as the Red Queen tells Alice in Through the Looking Glass, will "have to run as fast as you can just to stay in one place - if you want to get anywhere, you must run twice as fast as that."

Here endeth the rant.

I mean the teacher was talking about someone long dead who is rumored to have had aspergers, and when the teacher was talking about Aspegers he gave a living surfer as an example.
I don't think it is an excuse either, just the teacher's mention of it and how he presented it surprised m.e.

Pardon me, Willard, but I have written extensively about being marginalized, ridiculed, bullied, etc. I'm not sure why you would say I "skipped over that." Not only have I written about it in books I have talked about it on TV and in numerous articles.

In each of my books - Look Me in the Eye, Be Different, and Raising Cubby I talk about those issues. In the last I talk about how my Asperger son is affected too.

I agree that I emphasized the positive, but I present both sides and I think that's a fair presentation.

So the teacher succeeded in making an explanation that weren't screwed up beyond repair despite being without formation?

And the example of a surfer SUCKS. A better example would be a researcher gifted with intense focus on (school) books.. like Einstein. (in my opinion..)

Being successful "despite" AS misses the point. It's about making use of the intense focus to become successful and not being hampered by social expectations. People with AS may unaware of the expectation that one is supposed to be dumb ..

Keyman, my book Be Different addresses the points you raise. That book focuses on two ideas:
- How I used my differences to develop competitive advantage in life and work
- How I minimized the ways autism disables me

I think you have to present both sides. While some on the outside praise "succeeding despite your challenges" and that seems to bother you, the fact is, many with autism do not grow up to succeed very well in our society. Yet others do, and there is no way to tell them apart in the early days.

Not being screwed up beyond repair is a big improvement. And I think a surfer is more relatable then Einstein for a class of mostly NT's.

I am around Wiilards age and have been through a lot of the similar BS he has been through. Epsilon is in High School. Her experiences will likely be different then ours. 50 years ago black people were in segregated back of the bus. 50 years ago the DSM classified being homosexual as a mental disorder. 50 years ago if you were afflicted with "classic" autism you were misdiagnosed and were put in an institution and your "refrigerator mom" was blamed. So it can get better (or worse) .

I am curious as to why Aspergers was brought up, was this class a history class? What was being taught that day?

Physics class about Newton. Didn't mention it because I didn't think it was as important as the connotation of the lesson itself.

Thanks. I still think it is good you have a teacher that can bring aspergers up in a positive light.

I think you should... when the educators can't even get it right... how can we expect the masses to learn...

HOWEVER... ANYONE who claims they can diagnose someone who is long dead is a quack...

My principal seems vehement about things like communication and respect so I am highly considering asking someone to set up autism awareness assemblies since, from numerous other instances like this one lately, I noticed awareness is lacking. I have no idea how to go about it or if the administration will laugh in my face. They have football games supporting different forms of cancer all the time, which is amazing, yet I've never seen them support awareness for or even mention autism on a wide scale.
Any ideas how to go about this?

A small step for the teacher, a big step for the collective


Perhaps another way to deal with it is to ask some suitable organisation or people from the outside with not social stakes at the school to ask the principal?


Ouch, this is a warning sign of soccer-mom-NT-value-borgs
Ie, they might frown on even the suggestion there might be other values and causes..

Sounds like a good idea.

"Asking by proxy"

"Oh that EVIL organisation their - it's all their fault!"