How could they improve the educational curriculum?

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What changes do you think they could make to the educational system's curriculum to better suit the special needs of aspies?

As suggested in another thread, I figure making most of class time to be about drama and psychology, complete with acting workshops, and devoting less time to the standard academic subjects such as English, math, science, etc. would be of more help to people like us.

But they're not going to expend too much of their budget to serve the needs of a minority of freaks, are they?

I answered a similar question before:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt77990.html

In general, schools should have more and better instruction in math and science earlier on, along with language instruction starting with Esperanto at the beginning of elementary school and moving on to Spanish, Mandarin, and possibly a few others as options like Arabic, French, German, Hindi, Japanese, or Russian. Everyone should be fluent in at least 2-3 languages by graduation. And everyone should be doing at least single-variable calculus, advanced students should start to get an introduction to it by middle school.

For Aspies, they should identify and cultivate special interests. Also, explicit social skills training should be provided. Explain the patterns to look for in social interaction, train us to act normal enough not to freak out our peers, help us learn to deal with bullying.

The minumim educational curriculum is determined by government, whatever it is state/province or national. The link of the Illinois state requirements is here and any substitutions for requirements must be approved by the parents and yes, one would need parental consent to get out of gym class, since it is required by law. The ways to get out of gym class in Illinois, one must submit a reason for it (if one's medical consists of either brittle bone and/or hemophilia, if one can't wear gym clothes for a religious reason, and in my high school: juniors and seniors can do academic overload, which I did; marching band, or playing sports).

http://www.isbe.net/news/pdf/grad_require.pdf

In the United States, the two most common taught languages are Spanish and French. One would see German, Latin, Russian, Manadrian, Japanese, Arabic, and Farsi also being taught. The larger universities would teach more languages, but none would teach Esperanto.

As for me, I like learning languages, but I perfer learning a language that I would have a use for (Spanish) rather than learning a language that I would have no use for (Esperanto).

From my learning, it is a combination of the Illinois state public school system and what some people would call unschooling, which means that one learns on their own.

That sounds a lot better than what we have now. The education system needs to be more challenging and quit teaching to the lowest common denominator. Smarter students need to be given room to grow, not stuffed in a box like they are now. If our education system was more challenging and efficient, then I'm sure everyone would come out of 12th grade knowing a lot more than now.
I'll add something else to your idea, Orwell. School needs to teach us how to write better. I don't even think I had to write 10 essays the entire time I was in High School. Most, if not every, university in the United States is extremely dissatisfied with how public high schools leave most of us with inadequate writing skills.

Yeah I think that they should make the curriculum a lot more challenging than it is now. Also they should prepare certain students more for university. For example by making sure that we know how to write a long essay etc. For aspies I think that if we have a special interest then it should be encouraged in some way. I also think that students/children who have been diagnosed with AS and have social problems should be taught how to behave and what to do in certain social situations. That way we won't stand out as much and will make certain aspies' lives a lot easier. Personally I would have a liked a cirriculum which wasn't so strict because even though you can choose a subject there wasn't much choice when I chose my options for GCSE. A lot of it is quite dull really.

I've never heard of Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Arabic, or Farsi being taught in American secondary schools.

Esperanto is useless in itself, but it is useful to learn it first as preparation before learning a "real" foreign language- studies have shown that studying Esperanto first helps students learn subsequent languages faster.

One of my high school teachers mentioned that in his high school that they taught Russian. My high school teaches Spanish (which I took), French, German, and Latin. Maradarin, Arabic. Farsi, and Japanese are slowly becoming more in usage.

Natural languages have history and culture embedded in them and one learns about them along with the actual language. The main purpose of Esperanto was to create an international language, but only a certain percentage speaks it and it is not one of the official languages of the UN. Other artifcial languages' purpose is for literatary needs (Klinglon for Star Trek for example).

You mean it is learned to grasp the concept of languages?

At least, it shouldn't have exams that are too casino.

Your first foreign language is your hardest- once you become bilingual, it is easier then to add a third, or a fourth, or more languages because you know how to learn a new language. Since Esperanto is extremely easy to learn (it's a constructed language with simplified grammar, clear rules, and a generally smaller vocabulary) making it the first foreign language learned makes the whole process considerably easier. There have consistently been studies from 1920 to the present day that support this- students who spend a year studying Esperanto, and then a year studying, say, French, end with better mastery of French than would students who devoted all two years just to French.

the school I sub for offers Japanese and Mandarin.

Sounds like a terrible idea Orwell. In fact, I consider it absolutely terrible. Foreign languages should be elective. Advanced math should be elective. If you are stopping at high school, then you don't need calculus, you probably won't need more than one language, and if you do, you'd probably be interested enough in learning it anyway. In any case, you are making the same fallacious mistake that the current system is making in teaching all students as if they were going to go off to college, they plainly aren't, some people are going to stop at high school, and don't need, want, and can't use anything taught like that. Heck, perhaps more people *should* stop at high school, given the college drop out rate, the fact that college doesn't generally build intellectual capital but is instead just used as a signal, the costs of college, and so on.

Instead, I would argue that we need greater decentralization in schooling. If you live in southern Texas, sure, spanish might be more important, but in Wyoming? Why? There also needs to be more student freedom. If you are going to stop at high school, then learn *useful* skills instead of wasting time in a freaking calculus class. If you are going to college to study brain physiology, then study biology to death, and so on. Finally, explicit social skills training still should not be forced upon anyone, such a class can lead to labeling, and some individuals, even on these boards have shown a very strong interest in hiding their aspieness from the rest of the world. I mean, a plan such as yours, Orwell, is not only a waste of resources, but also a failure given the fact that we haven't been wholly successful with the more limited training that we've been trying to give anyway.

You should instruct all students as if they may decide to go to college, because at any point they could change their mind. Otherwise you risk singling out students you feel aren't capable of learning and placing them on the "not smart enough" track. I agree that we should make foreign language a requirement. Our schools are too dumb already... you want them to get stupider? And who says that the student in Wyoming must remain in Wyoming?

And the dropout rate for college is because our high school suck so much at preparing students to survive on their own that they can't handle the transition to either college or a career. Parent-teacher conferences at 18? do colleges have parent-teacher conferences? Will your mommy go to your professor to ask for an assignment extension because you stayed up late playing Xbox? Will your professors do interpretive song and dance because you haven't figured out how to adapt your learning style to comprehend the material? Will your boss accept you always being late? can you wake up on your own? study without your parents looking over your shoulder? can you balance a checkbook? pay your bills on time? Where do they teach this at high school?

Aspies should be allowed to take social training courses. Heck as an adult I have to take them. This is not a mainstream class, its a specialization and a great idea. It is not necessary to force it, most would opt for it anyway.

your post is an epic fail brought on by extreme ignorance.