Was English class a struggle for you in H.S.?

Post Reply New Topic

Although I haven't been in high school since the nineties, and was not diagnosed at the time, looking back I can honestly say that English class was the worst for me. This is despite always having been highly articulate, grammatically sound and enjoying reading for the most part and yes even Shakespeare. Looking back now, it all makes sense. The downfall for me was attempting to grasp metaphors, and abstract concepts, including foreshadowing and symbolism. I believe this also goes hand-in-hand with not intuitively picking up on key elements in a movie plot, or for that matter just not getting subliminal messages and subtexts as neurotypicals do - it's just not part of our "default program".

It all reached a boiling point in my last year of high school, at 18 years old, I really rubbed an English teacher the wrong way who became openly hostile towards me. He basically insisted that there was NO WAY that I couldn't understand the abstract concepts that others were absorbing without breaking a sweat, by this point. He insisted that I was bamboozling him (his own word, not mine!) and that I was being passive-aggressive and should shape up before I enter the real world because my "attitude" wouldn't be tolerated there. I got a C+ in the course, the lowest of all of them. I'd switched schools in my last year, so the record of my progress wasn't as apparent at the new school I suppose. But then again, neither was the diagnosis/condition of Aspergers.

Yet despite my attempts to try to figure things out, to make sense of where I was going wrong by approaching him with what I believed was genuine concern, he responded negatively - he raised his voice at me (to a moderate level, but noticeable even for me) and a couple of times I could swear that he was trembling on the inside with rage. Yes, odd how I noticed that given my nonverbal challenges, but I did, I guess it spoke to how frustrated the teacher truly was.

I'm sure today though, there is more remedial support for learning such abstract concepts in literature for those of us with AS.

I can relate to you , I have had same problems with my mother tongue... I got an F in 'Crime and Punishment' when we had to write our impression of it... I understand hidden meaning much better now although regarding literature, I still have to google what certain metaphore or sth means... especially with Verlaine, Rimbaud avant-garde and stuff like that, hated it... :/ .... children don't have teacher's support (at leats in Cro) in learning abstract concepts, but they are provided with support od special educator or SLP (in elementary school)... in HS- you're on your own I guess...

Quite the opposite for me, actually. I got awards for the highest mark in English every year in high school. I've always loved reading and writing, since I was a toddler, and English was my favourite class because I could just write and not have to talk...
I don't really like metaphors, though. I can never think of creative ones and I never understand exactly what they mean.

im in hs and i did well freshmen year (90s) but sophomore yr i got a 75 then a 90 b/c of sensory issues... i couldn't read because of my health problems but didnt realize i was autistic. jr year i took ap composition and have over 100 average due to the weighted grade. writing is so much easier than reading for me

English was always an easy A. Math was what gave me headaches. I made it through trigonometry and geometry, but I'm not sure how.

Was my hardest class, especially with reading. I have a hard time getting past page 60 in a book. Plus at that level, there is a lot of non-literal meanings, symbolisms, and implied content. Things that fly over me so i struggle to get the intended meaning of the story. One example was a question of a story "Why did the murder take place?" Nowhere in the story was a murder ever expressed, so i said it was a trick question - it didn't exist. I was sternly told by the teacher that it was implied at the end of the story.

People complain I talk too metaphorically.

I enjoyed English.

Getting good grades wasn't too hard, but I could never really get into most of the material and I stayed away from Honors. I finally completed my last mandatory English course last semester and I'll be glad if I never have to take it again.

I always did well in English, due to my proclivity for reading and vocabulary. The only English class that was hard for me was AP Literature in 12th grade. We mostly read really old works, like Hamlet and Canterbury Tales, and that is the type of work that I cannot understand. The symbolism is way above my head.

I did well in English without trying, but maths was difficult because if I didn't follow something in class (inevitable as an Aspie in an under-resourced school full of troubled students and before my diagnosis), I'd fall behind and it'd be increasingly difficult to understand anything. Later on at university I found a Japanese language class especially difficult.

I have been phenominal at the language arts (American-English wise) at every level of my education. It is likely because I started reading at a very young age and have devoured every written word I could get my hands on since.
The majority of the math based subjects I do very well with as well. Physics is probably my best sunbject (and my current job). Physics just makes sense to me. I can "see" the numbers of the world better than I can see what my eyes tell me.

My big academic weaknesses have always been history, art, and the social sciences. I guess anything that has to do with people. I have learned to love the social sciences (even though I have difficulties); the more I learn about them, the less confusing life is (although I still have a long way to go).

I enjoyed and did better in my math & science classes. I did ok in English, but I struggled and always felt challenged. I really enjoyed reading the different types of literature but just didn't do well on tests or papers or any type of class participation. I couldn't answer questions verbally, on tests I could only answer the yes/no and multiple choice, and I had a tough time writing papers that challenged me to express how I felt about characters, or what I thought things meant, or interpreting any type of symbolism....I just didn't get it.

It's interesting that there's this variety among Aspies in how well we do in these different areas, yet we seem to have similar strengths and weaknesses at the same time. I think it's probably about the way that we approach the subject. I take a very analytical approach to English, with attention to fine details - which makes the most of my strengths. Do you think there's a particular Aspie style for the areas in which we do well?

it was hard because i couldn't be bothered to read books that I wasn't interested it (ie non science fiction). I never got less than a 90% on any essay I've written in English class, ever. But I couldn't pick out symbolism to save my life. A river is a river is a river, nothing more. Well, until my teacher decided there was way more to it. So, deciphering things and character intent, not so good, but in practical writing and reading comprehension I have scored past high school since the 2nd grade.

I wonder whether an analytical approach can help overcome this, for example analysing the qualities of the river, the context in which it's referred to in the text, finding associations and patterns. That's the approach I've taken, and it has served me well - but I can only guess how I developed that. Maybe other Aspies who have similar problems can benefit from trying to look at it in that way, rather than how NTs do it.

I actually did quite well with interpretation and symbolism. I read hundreds of books before I even started school (my first true obsession). For me it all boils down to patterns. There is actually very little truly new and original work. Even a lot of the classics recycled themes and styles and symbolism from those who had written it before. So you start to see repetition and similarities between what you've read before and what you are reading now. I still have trouble with conversations in books. People in books tend to talk much differently in books than in reality.