Kids on the spectrum don't belong in mainstream school

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Might be a good idea, tho', to include in their education some training on how to deal with the monsters that also attend the same school.

I'm not sure separate schools is the answer, since as someone mentioned, more impaired kids could be as distracting/damaging to Aspies/HFAs as "normal" kids in a "normal" school can be.

Also have to agree, tho', that kids are not sweet little cherubs. They can be total monsters, like wolves romaing in packs, or even solitary beasts looking for prey.

We have no natural defenses and need to be taught how to deal with them. How to react when they go on the attack.

I was mainstreamed all my life, save for a year or so being homeschooled (though with a public school curriculum).

Although I did not like school at the time, I think that I would have been completely different in a "special" school. The playground can be a place to learn about how to interact with others and get along socially. At the time, I just wanted to be accepted, which was challenging at times. I would often play by myself, usually in the sandpit/sandbox or some similar place, and sometimes other kids would join me in the sandpit - some of these kids would even help "protect me" from the mean kids. I hated fitness/PE though as I was not a very fast runner and was the kid who always got picked last.

In the classroom, a lot of the experience depends on the teachers. I've had both good and bad teachers. The better ones generally do a better job at keeping the class under control, while the bad ones do nothing about the teasing and bullying. I remember one teacher who was the strictest in the entire school, but she noticed that I had some talents, especially in mathematics, and helped me tap into them.

High school was four years of torture - most of the teachers liked me, but some of the other kids did not - I suspect they were worried that I would "spoil their fun" as I was the smart kid who followed all the rules. Outside of classes, I generally kept to myself and tried to avoid trouble. There were some bright spots though, such as Journalism class, where everyone worked as a team to produce the school newspaper, and in my senior year, I started taking AP classes with all the other smart kids

Mainstream school sucks for the fact that the teacher union guarantees pay, so no one is willing to work because they will get paid the same amount anyway... unfortunately, this also applies to special ed and they tend to treat me and a few of autistic friends with contempt; they still do. I wish that teachers actually took time to ask "What is it like to be a person?" because every teacher hasn't given me that impression.

I do have one friend with gender dysphoria and she's treated the same way. Her dad got mad and came close to filing a restraining order on the teacher.

I never liked the concept of school, and teachers in a special school literally let me teach the subjects to myself while the kids were accepting. I move to a closer, less expensive, and more """challenging""" mainstream school? Nearly everything I hear in between classes and in gym class is acid against someone not present and a significant portion of the people in here are just here for the As, not the knowledge or comfort in knowing you're accomplishing something no matter how little. It's also partially an 'open space' school so when I'm in that area I can hear 3-5 classes at once
Countin' down the days.

I was mainstreamed with education plan that separated me from other kids. That was good for me.

Depends on the individual. Some can probably handle regular school. More can probably not.

Had I stayed in public school past elementary it almost certainly would have gotten worse (I was home schooled after that due to my social and developmental challenges, never diagnosed, which presented a plethora of other problems but I digress). There were bullies to be sure, but I always managed to find my own "pack" of 1 or 2 other misfits.

Granted one became a raging non-functional schizophrenic and the other didn't make it past high school with his problems (so I could be worse off), but at least elementary school wasn't so bad.

Why is considered very wrong to segregate people based on race, religion, sex etc but desirable to segregate Aspies?

Would it be wrong to segregate physically disabled people from able-bodied people if the end goal was to identify who most needed access to physiotherapists?

Everyone should be case-by-case, in an ideal world.

Public school for me was something that I would best describe as totrure. Where and when I was in school there was no special ed. It took me decades to recover from the damage it did to me mentally and emotionally and even today I still suffer somewhat from that horrible environment. I think that I would have to class it as PTSD. And we call that education? I have no children, but if I did I would NEVER put them in a public school. Oh, how I wish that I could have been home schooled!

Elementary school was fine for me, but middle school was not. When I was in middle school my needs went unnoticed, and also the busy work kept me from focusing on what I really needed to focus on and got me aggravated because I wanted something that actually challenged me. I also had problems with neurotypical students trying to console me or trying to be physically affectionate with me whenever I had a meltdown, which made things worse. When I look back, it seems like I functioned worse during that time than I did before I went to middle school, probably due to anxiety.

That is why I went to a special school afterwards.

Public school was torture for me, the closest thing I can relate it to is being thrown into prison with predatory inmates and sadistic guards. Not only did it NOT prepare me for the real world(unless your definition of the real world is living in a prison) it messed me up socially and mentally and it took me years to fix that.

I got to the point I ignored everyone because by middle school kids would torture me with saying hey like your shoes.....naw I think they are hideous you %$@&*...........nah man I really like them. They just wouldn't stop, even when I wasn't reacting at all, when I was totally silent.

I dropped out of middle school despite doing work at a college grade level, just because of the bullying torture. I was different enough that the kids instantly seized on it and wouldn't let go like a pitbull.

If I wasn't in mainstream, my social skills would have been worse so no win for my parents. I was better off in mainstream. Living in a small town was best because of lack of bullies and it meant small schools so bullies stood out more."

Agreed. Social skills must be learned, but there are better ways than putting you into a den of wolves who will tear out your throat and make you think you are inferior to morons and bottom feeders for half your life.

People on the spectrum should receive a deweyite education separate from NT's. I would also advocate physical defence classes to prepare them for integration into the human jungle the NT's have created.

I learned nothing of any interest or value from school, until I got to college. I can say without hesitation that my personal intellectual, and social development was set back by having to attend it.

Last edited by Stannis on 25 Feb 2014, 12:40 pm, edited 3 times in total.

I don't think going to a special school would have helped me. If anything, for most of my life mainstream schooling was "too slow". I don't think a special school would have been able to meet my needs and the needs of developmentally delayed pupils.

Was real fortunate that up to the 7th grade I was in private schools for developmentally disabled.
I am by choice now in a public school with some special ed.
My only/best friend is my assigned helper and he has several buddies.
There is not a whole lot of bullying at my school, but even still everyone knows if they mess with me
they will have my friend and his buddies to answer to, so I am left alone.
I over hear mean comments about me once in a while, but that is all.