Public Education is HELL for Aspie children!

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Zeno
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26 Dec 2007, 10:24 am

The role of education in fostering a vigilant and active citizenry who are willing and capable of defending and sustaining the institutions of freedom is beyond the scope of our discussion. Though I admit that much of what is discussed on this board has to do with what it means for a man to be free in a social context. For by not allowing Aspies to be what we are, our freedoms are diminished; sometimes to the point where life cannot be sustained. Still, it is more useful to talk about what young Aspies can achieve within the educational system and to set reasonable expectations so that disappointment and cynicism does not become inevitable.

In almost all schools, students outnumber teachers. Only if there are many more students than there are teachers can economies of scale be achieved as scarce teaching resource is leveraged over many students. Teaching the masses would be impossible if such efficiencies were not realized. If we had one teacher to one child for instance, then the entire working population would be occupied with raising children. Instead of thinking of it as training an industrial (or post-industrial) workforce, it is better to view it as the industrialization of learning. Take such a view that and you will see the limitations that all schools face. Just as it is impossible for the workers who assembled the computer you are using now to have given it individualized attention, it is really asking too much for teachers to give each and every child the personalized care they need. Children will fall through the cracks as many Aspie kids do. It is frustrating but the system cannot cater to the needs of talented but special kids.

So what can the Aspie get out of school? Once the basic symbolisms of language and logic are mastered, most Aspies will probably get very little out of school. I spent more time looking at the birds in the trees than listening to class. Even though I had an obvious interest in mathematical logic and philosophy, none of my teachers ever attempted to foster this interest. Most people become teachers to earn a steady living. Dealing with an obnoxious kid who wants to know the basis of what was taught was not what they signed up for. Looking back, I was happiest when the school day was short since that meant liberation from a dull curriculum and often bullying teachers.

But even though school was dull enough that I sought comfort in Tolstoy as a young man, it was preferable to staying at home in a hell created by a mother who was often depressed and bogged down with her own issues. There were bullies in school but I was bigger and often smarter. The teachers were harder to handle but with lives of their own to lead, they mostly left me alone if I left them alone. Home schooling is not an option in Singapore and even if it were, I would not have accepted it.

Both the school and home environments were difficult for me. But taken in smaller doses, the effects of each balanced out the other. And that is why I feel that going to school made most sense for me. It made my life bearable and livable; though it must be said that I learned very little in school. And I dare say that most children learn nothing from the classes they attend. Nor was the social aspect of school meaningful. Everyone thought that I was weird and did nothing to hide their contempt. As you might imagine, I did not really have any friends. Even though the social interactions were hard, at least it happened. Left on my own, I would simply retreat into my little world and ignore everyone else. To grow up without even a cerebral and anthropological understanding of the social would be disabling.

Aside from mathematics, I am practically self-taught. And of mathematics of the axiomatic kind, I taught myself. Where the Aspie has the mental faculties for it, self-study in a subject matter of choice is perhaps going to yield the best results. What they need is for someone to guide them and point out the resources that are available. The sort of literature research that seniors do in college using a search database or bibliographic reference is one way to engage the Aspie kid. In a sense, these Aspie children, or little professors, are geared for academic research but are unfortunately trapped in the inane world of adolescence where stupidity is the norm. Even though such things cannot be done in school, they can be attempted outside of a structured environment where there is room to explore. Aspie children are more like trains and NT kids are like donkeys. The teacher takes out the whip and thinks that if they crack it a little the Aspie kid will fall in like the other mules. It either has no effect or is counterproductive. What is desperately needed is to guide these awesome locomotives to the right tracks that fit their unique gauge. And when you have done so, you can sit back and watch as they chug-chug-chug along from here to infinity.

School does not quite work but if you keep it short it remains manageable and gives these fragile children the chance to acquire some identity and belonging. But you must be aware of what a school can deliver and what it cannot do. For Aspie kids, school will never be enough and there will always be a need to develop learning programs outside the school curriculum. The system maybe broken, but it ain’t the system.



lotus
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27 Dec 2007, 1:32 am

I was homeschooled by a controlling mom. Most of the homeschoolers I grew up with were doing it for the wrong reasons. I think that every child will need something different and even among siblings you may find different schools that match the child better. My daughter is currently in a public school and things are going quite well. I would like to get her in a charter, but there is something to be said for bigger schools too.



johnpipe108
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27 Dec 2007, 5:54 am

The only effective home school I've ever seen was created in a suitable environment, acceptable to the state, with a licensed teacher, and controlled by the group of parents who created it for themselves. It's much harder for a non-professional to just teach their kids in their own home, and having a separate, private school created by a group of parents for their own kids makes a lot of sense, and is often a possible solution in municipalities that aren't friendly to "home" schools.

You can easily have a first-class "home" school, you just have to make it not look like one.

It takes one thing for such a school to succeed, and that is, the parents have to be able to agree with each other, and keep control of the school.

The biggest root cause of the problems with public education that we have in America today is that the schools got out of the control of the parents.

The PTA was created originally to see to it that parents maintained control, and stayed in close relationship with their children's teachers, to see to it that the schools stayed in line with the basic ideals of education, the 4 R's, Reading, 'Riting' 'Rithmetic, and Reason.

Regardless of how poorly the 1st three are taught, the most damning and critical failure is the 4th R. It is not being universally taught. As many have testified here, some have been fortunate to be taught, and some have not.

NT children are at the greatest risk here, as they have a much harder time with the 4th R than asperger's children do, unless they are formally taught.

The NT's that fail to get this in school, I remember well such children in a rural school system that I had to transfer to in the 4th grade. These kids were very backward mentally, not because they weren't intelligent, nor because they weren't learning reading, writing, and arithmetic (they were), but because they hadn't been taught the art of reasoning.

I have to tell you, I felt shocked, at that tender age, at their relative level of superstition and general ignorance, and thought, childishly, "oh, country people are just stupider than suburban people".

No, they are not; they were just not educated by the schools in how to use their reasoning abilities. Sometimes this happened because the teachers never learned the same thing in their own education.

This is the one that the corporate recruiters are hollering about failure to teach; children can learn for themselves what they weren't properly taught, only if taught to properly use that 4th R.

My children being grown-up, and grandchildren being pre-school age means I don't have knowledge of what the present state of the PTA is; I presume it's probably a deteriorated institution now, like so many of our American Public School systems are.


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Tim_Tex
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27 Dec 2007, 5:58 am

I was in public school and I turned out ok.

Tim


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Rosenametaken
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31 Dec 2007, 12:27 pm

Liverbird wrote:
The problem with the American education system is that it is based on EVERY CHILD LEFT BEHIND. We are teaching to tests that are arbitrary and ineffective ways of measuring a child's capabilities at best.
A system designed for Aspies, would teach standards based on their interests and obsessions. A child can learn to write a paper on anything and still learn the same basics in their own context. Unfortuneately the current regime has picked what they feel is important and they are pushing it down the throat of every child in exactly the same way. Since every child is fundamentally different, how do they think this is helpful. I am very frustrated with the school system because they don't give my son what he needs outside of the social input.


I teach special education. As an Aspie, it seems obvious to me that you do the "I don't wanna" stuff first, then the "fun" stuff as a reward. Kids who hate math and love dinosaurs start the day with math and end with dinosaurs..... and give them an "out" on the math! Let them pass a pre-test with a certain score, and give them the packet and let them tear it up and throw it away while the rest of us cheer for them!

But - try telling admin how this works...... Of course, I am doing everything wrong, and about to get fired..... but my kids are approaching grade level in testing. The worst, most messed up kid, IS at grade level and they want to know why he's not mainstreamed. I actually had to explain the difference between academic and functional levels. And they don't even try to understand about sensory needs and overload.

I HAVE to use the district approved curriculum, even though it doesn't work and I have something better. I HAVE to teach the same lesson everyone else is even though my students can't learn that way....

And I'm "in trouble" because my Aspie students don't act like NT students. *sigh*


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hhyyjj163
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01 Jan 2008, 2:51 am

china is more and more hell for aspie child special when they are in big city and their parents are high education


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MusicMaker1
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01 Jan 2008, 3:08 am

johnpipe 108, I could really relate to your original post on this thread (I haven't had a chance to read much more here). The damage done in school to me was immense.. and has, in deed, taken many years to work through. In adulthood, people have not been understanding either, but it isn't the same as being forcibly trapped (like a prison) in school where you have no choice and can't escape.. At least in the adult work environment, a person can try to find another job.

I like what you said about how Aspies and the more militaristic-type NTs need VERY different forms of education. I thoroughly agree. I've thought about being a teacher before, but don't know how I would deal with the militaristic, highly aggressive types myself...

Thanks for this Topic. I'll try to read more of the posts here later.