Published on 12, July, 2020
All her life my daughter has fought the stigma that being Autistic was defined as, first a "learning disabilty" and now a "disability". It has destroyed her life, made her feel inferior and sapped her self confidence. Then to see the BBC describe autism as a "lifelong disability" made me furious. Then to find that the source of this bigotry is the definition on the NAS website makes me incandescent with rage. I too am Autistic. The NAS does not represent me or my daughter. The challenges which Autistic poeple face are not what we are but how we are misunderstood. For the NAS to insist on perpetuating these myths makes you part of the problem. I can only presume your definition of Autism was written and approved by a bunch of, perhaps well-meaning, poeple who suffer from Autism Deficiency Syndrome and who lack the flexibility of thought that Autism gives us and we, in turn, have given the world the technology which I am using to write this.
the learning difficulty one that they used to call it is very old fashioned and is likely the reason many people never got diagnosed.they see you have problems, then they called it learning difficulty, but when they tested you for learning difficulty they instead found you actually smarter than average so you dont have a learning difficulty, so they they scratch their heads and go away and left you and considered you too confusing to diagnose due to them wrongly calling everything a learning difficulty at the time.
and for one i dont believe in learning difficulties... there is no such thing... there is only teaching difficulties of bad teachers that do not know how to teach.
Caelus said:and for one i dont believe in learning difficulties... there is no such thing... there is only teaching difficulties of bad teachers that do not know how to teach.
That is a bit harsh.
Who is going to teach the teachers how to deliver the education to every variant of learning technique that we have.
Some need a rigid routine for learning without interruptions
Some can only learn visually
Some have attention issues (ADHD type symptoms)
Some have dyslexia / dysgraphia / dyscalculia / dyspraxia
Some mask or just tell the teacher what they think the teacher wants to hear.
and so on.
Is it really fair to put the load onto the teacher of getting the right variant of teachning style for every students needs. They are poorly paid and heavily worked as it is so to expect what is effectively a specialisation in teaching neurologically different students.
To me it is like expecting every doctor to be a heart specialist, a brain surgeon, an oncologyst, a gynocologyst etc - it just isn't realistic.
The solution is to up the teachers pay in exchange for retraining them to cater for more learning needs, but that needs money the system isn't going to get and effort from a group who are already fed up with the unrealistic demands placed upon them.
Which brings us back to having to take more initiative to supporting people who have difficultiy in learning using conventional teachning techniques - learning difficulties for short.
It perfectly describes the condition but maybe needs a makeover to be called differently educationable to keep from being perceived as insulting.
Caelus said:my maths teacher in school, he couldnt do maths... he wasnt a maths teacher he was a languages teacher, who they also used for english, and geography and maths... but he couldnt do those subjects...
Then the solution would be to tell your parents who would then complain to the school - that is how most stuff gets resolved. Once the knowledge is public domain then the school has to cover its back by doing its job and either hiring someone else or training the teacher.
The behaviour of the teacher reflected on his unwillingness to learn the subject (high school maths is far from rocket science, especially as the text books talk you through it step by step) so he probably deserved to be reassigned to another school over this or to lose his job it the contract stated he had to cover any subject.
As I recall it, teacher training college trains you to be a teacher in any discipline. You may have a specialisation but you are trained to cover any subject if required. Can anyone clarify if this has changed?
see it still isnt the learners problem, it isnt a learning difficulty then... its a system problem.my maths teacher in school, he couldnt do maths... he wasnt a maths teacher he was a languages teacher, who they also used for english, and geography and maths... but he couldnt do those subjects... the school didnt care, they like any workplace have a worker and throw them at the problem. so they threw him into a subject he couldnt teach.... it isnt fair on him, it isnt fair on the students... it isnt the students problem. you can be fairer and say its the systems problem... but yet the teacher has a responsibility to teach so part of it lays on them in a teaching problem, the protblem that my maths teacher couldnt do maths, thats his problem, and the systems mostly, but his to some degree too.... he just sat there in lesson, reading his own book and told us if another teacher comes in pretend you are doing work.