Hello Everyone,
This may sound odd from the other types of threads that you read but never the less I feel this is just as important for your child or yourself if you are a student. If you or your child may be on either end of the spectrum, alot of you perhaps dont want to give your child another reason to seem less "normal" or cant afford to put your child into a private school or a special needed school, so Mainstream schools are you're only option. I am a student, 18 years of age, I have Aspergers syndrome. I just want to explain my experiance at a very good, mainstream school before I explain the problem.
When I first diagnosed, I was just about to do my first set of exams. This school in particular did not have good facilities despite having a *lot* of funding put into it. Here are some of the issues:
Take the very well known English teacher, this man had got many students with pass results (Later found out that is because most of the parents can afford tutors) however he had a preconieved idea of what Autism was. He believed if you didnt "look" autistic, you werent effected by it. The story to how I got kicked out of his class is because one afternoon (We had double lessons, a break inbetween) We were studying close reading, where you look at a text and have understanding and analysing questions. The questions I was given that day were about tone in text. Many of you may know that reading tone in a text for someone who is autistic can be difficult, to say the least. However I was determined I had to pass this class so there I was staring at this text which to me couldnt have a tone in it because you are writing! My page stared blank for atleast 20 minutes before I plucked up the courage to raise my shaking hand and go "Sir...Can I have help please with this question? I dont understand the tone in this"
The response I got was "Go onto the next one" Seeming like a clear instruction I did so..ah, another tone question, another twenty minutes of blind confusion and back up my hand went. "Sir, I simply dont understand the tone in these questinons, can I have some help please to understand?" He looked at me with a frown, the whole class silent and watching me, it was clear he was angry with me. His response, made my jaw drop.
"You arent even trying, How do you expect to pass your exams when you cant even try, there isnt a right or wrong answer. You are being useless"
Was I being useless? I had sat for 40 minutes making myself frustrated and embarassed for trying to answer something like everyone else...and asking for help makes me useless? By this point the first class had ended and I couldn't help feeling that I had wasted a whole lesson. If the man paid to teach english wouldnt teach me english. I went downstairs and found a random P.E teacher in passing during my 5 minute break. I said simply "Sir, Can you help me with this question? I have no idea what tone in text is" He was clearly about to go and do something, and had no idea where to start on english, but he gave me a smile and took me to a room and done his absolute best in the five minutes he had to give me an answer to this question. (The answer was completly wrong but at that point, beggers wanting an education cant be choosers to who gives them such) When I came back, two minutes late because I was tidying my handwriting up I was welcomed with another angry look, I was asked why I was late and I said politly "Sorry Sir, I went to get help with my question so I would of had an answer for todays class". I was told to grab my bag and get out his classroom. So I did such. He stepped outside and shouted in my face, calling me useless, how dare I leave his classroom to get help, how dare I...
My response, I will never forget because I still wonder this. "Sir, You are an English teacher, how come I got more help from a P.E teacher in 5 minutes than with you, in 50?" I was told to never come back to his classroom.
Before some of you think simply bashing education, and few of you will think "Maybe its just that teacher.." Well, There was the math teacher who literally refused to teach you if you had any learning difficulty or behavioural problem. The history teacher who believed dyslexia and asd could be cured with a stick being hit off your table, the head of your year telling you to leave school at age 16 because you academically werent the same because of your learning difficulty.
The problem here is this, For some students and parents, the only option is to have your child in mainstream schools, some mainstream schools getting alot of funding, and some teachers getting more than their worth in pay. Teachers cant help your child because they either dont know what Autism really is, or they believe it isnt a big enough problem. My solution is that if you can be paid to teach, you should be able to teach *ALL* students, with any difficulty before you are qualified as a teacher.
The reason I made this thread, is to give you an insight to what many students go through a day in normal mainstream schools, I want to hear if you or your child is experiancing this like I did. If you witness these problems aswell as other children around you. If you have had to deal with prejudice behaviour from educators, or open discrimination because you have ASD.
