Sunday School is a good social learning ground for Aspies

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You can get socialization from the Scientologists and pakistani madrassas too. The scientologists are even running a Florida charter school now. I bet that's real fun and social.

Sure, religion has utility in certain circumstances. But that doesnt justify it's mystical doctrine.

This thread is about social interaction, not religion.

I don't think we need to go down the rabbit-hole of everyone's perception of Christianity. I would rather examine the social aspect of Sunday School.

I'd love to hear from people who've had experience with ADA programs. How would it compare, I wonder?

I absolutely object. This post has been hyjacked.

Not at all - I moved it because I thought the social/religious aspects with respect to the teaching of young children was a subject covering many areas which would normally be addressed by PPR.

But I'm quite happy to move it back for you, if that's what you'd like?

I went to church three times a week as a kid (Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon and Thursday evening) and had Sunday school. When I was older, I also attended choir training, church-organized youth events, and went from door to door with older church members in order to bother people with pamphlets and hollow phrases.

It didn't do me any good though. If anything, my Jesus freak status alienated me from my peers in school and made social interaction much harder in places where it really mattered. Nowadays I'm a social recluse. I have no friends because I never learned to socialize in a normal way with normal people, and I no longer have any contact with my family because I couldn't take their religious craziness any longer and they weren't very interested in maintaining contact with me after I left their sect. So much for Sunday school and social interaction training.

This is not about religion but about socialization.

I've not had any experience with ADA. What do they do in those programs? Don't they tell you how to be - how to get along in the world - the world overrun with NT's?

Again - nothing about religion. This post was moved to the wrong category. Please don't hijack my post further by continuing with the rip apart Christianity responses. It's not about religion.

[Moved back to Social Skills and Making Friends on OP's request]

No one's trying to justify mystical doctrine. Just trying to make sense of what I've experienced.

What about Girl Scouts? Anyone get into that?

I never felt comfortable there. Girls can be so catty. The thing I liked about Sunday School is that I felt safe. The people around me were a known quantity and I knew they loved me.

What else was available? What is available now?

(clipped for brevity)

Not sure where this is going exactly...



I imagine that any focused guided interaction without a specific time-limited goal which is mentored in a ratio much like this one (1 watcher for 4 or 5 learners) can be a pretty great experience, under a variety of contexts.

Sounds a bit like a social gathering, with people who aren't there to judge, or to grade, with a few other folks around to see that the venue is safe, convenient and friendly.

My older brother says that if it were proven tomorrow, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there was no God, people would still go to church. It is largely a social gathering - I think it's a lot like a small town, complete with everyone up in your business.

It is supposed to be without judgement but humans run it and a lot is about behavior standardization so there is judgement. Think Mrs. Olsen from "Little House on the Prairie." If you don't measure up there will probably be someone there to point it out. Not always pleasant.

It's not always safe, either. Pedophiles troll anywhere where people are apt to feel safe. You really have to keep a look out these days. The last church I attended did fingerprint background checks on all it's Sunday School teachers. I know our Park District does the same thing for anyone who works with children, even the volunteers. I'm sure the same goes for Girl and Boy Scouts.

I'm just saying this to be fair. My experience was mostly good.

My father taught me all those values and he was an agnostic. I hated Sunday School as a child. I was just as socially isolated there as I was in regular school. Because of my experience, I correlate church with insincerity and judgement.Your father must have been a special person to be able foster real community at his church. My son goes to church. He has Asperger's and he feels very valued and comfortable there.They know he has AS and they really just like him. Perhaps it's more of a socioeconomic thing. The church he goes to is small and shabby. They spend their money helping the community rather than enlarging the church buildings like many churches do.

I like churches that behave more like a hospital than a health club.

I have a nephew who is autistic - non-verbal. My niece and her husband belong to a church that is very helpful to their situation.

I guess you just have to find the right place. I'm looking right now and am having a little bit of a hard time finding a good fit. It's a little like dating... damned humans.

The church my son goes to is Brethren. They are much more conservative than I am but I will always respect the Brethren for starting the Heifer Project.
http://www.heifer.org/

A family friend joined the Peace Corp and taught English in Thailand in a tiny village. She was the only Westerner in the village besides a missionary. She said the missionary put a live chicken on an old woman's doorstep and told her the next morning that "God" had put it there. That's a vastly different approach than the heifer project. The missionary must have thought the old woman was stupid.

I'm Catholic and I'm dragged to CCD every Sunday. I'ce only got 1 more year left of it until I get my confirmation. I hate it though because my friends all have CCD at different times, we keep getting caught texting under the tables, and all we do is sit and read packets then play hangman. In my church, we don't learn squat!!

It wasn't good for me but I'm very analytical & logical & I questioned things a lot when I went. They thought I was trying to be a smart-ass when I really was not I got in trouble for my conduct a lot

When my oldest brother was just a young boy, a Sunday school teacher asked him what he thought of Sunday school. He told her he thought it was execrable.