Published on 12, July, 2020
I'm just watching this Yo Samdy Sam video and already noticing (in spite of her posh, private school education - privilege alert!) that many of the teachers' observations are almost exaclty the same as on my own. Almost eerily, in fact, although I went to a very rough comprehensive in the North East of England. My reports were, on the face of it, rather good, but there are some little asides which indicate constant high levels of anxiety combined with my supposed "giftedness" (I was actually terrified into appearing "gifted", I now think). When I look back, I'm getting more of a feeling of, "My goodness - what did they do to me?" Very interesting, I think, And I'll probably reflect some more on this as I watch the rest. My "giftedness" didn't exactly carry over into most of the workplaces I got myself trapped in and I then experienced decades of anxiety and fairly poor mental health. So... and if you care to share, how was it for you? www.youtube.com/watch
I have read of some people with Autism, who were punished probably for things they found difficult to manage because of their Autism. There does maybe seem to be cases of children with Special needs being punished more often, usually teachers who just aren’t educated enough about it. .
I was punished a lot in my early years at nursery and infant school. I would have meltdowns when forced into the playground, due to the overwhelming noise of the other children screaming and shouting. As a result I was punished almost every day. The punishment was being made to sit in the corner, cross legged, facing the walls and I was shouted at if I as much as turned my head towards the class.
Also I found the environment in the school canteen completely unbearable, due to the overwhelming noise of plates clattering, chairs scraping, the cutlery, noise from the other children, the dinner ladies shouting at me because I was too upset to eat.
As a result of my 'behaviour' I was excluded from the school during lunch times and my mum was told she had to take me home every day for lunch. I found out years later that my mum had to go without food herself because she could not afford to feed me At school I would have been entitled to free meals
Things improved in primary school, where my teacher would allow me to stay in the classroom during most playtimes and she would give me extra maths questions to do. I still had to go home for lunch every day.
In secondary school I mainly kept my head down and tried not to be noticed. I did seem to find myself in detention quite a lot for being late, due to problems with time management.
Yes, understanding is often very limited and might relate only to the stereotypical view of autism. When diagnostic rates were low the issue was concealed too. Certainly I should have been identified much earlier on in life, but when I look back there were other kids in my class who were basically yelled at or humiliated in front of everyone for things that they weren't able to change and didnt get any support with.