What were your accommodations in school?

Page 2 of 3 [ 46 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3  Next

funeralxempire
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 27 Oct 2014
Age: 39
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 25,184
Location: Right over your left shoulder

07 Apr 2021, 7:03 pm

TomBarclay wrote:
I was in elementary school in the mid 1960's. The first day of my "2nd third grade", I received a large cardboard box (open on one side) where my desk was placed into, that is where I stayed that year. School never got much better after that.


I never had a cardboard box but multiple years teachers made a big show of having a study desk with a dividers around it delivered to the classroom to exile me to, with everyone told to not interact with me during class.

To be fair that was preferable to Mr. Connolly who insisted on inspecting how organized my desk was on a weekly basis and would dump it out in the middle of the classroom if it didn't meet his standards. He didn't do it to any other slob and didn't like being called out on that by a 10 year old.

I don't care that he's a decrepit piece of s**t now or that he's probably undiagnosed (he had a kid with significant impairments related to autism) but when I see him around town I have to leave the situation to control the urge to one-shot him in front of his grand-kids.


_________________
"If you stick a knife in my back 9 inches and pull it out 6 inches, there's no progress. If you pull it all the way out, that's not progress. The progress is healing the wound that the blow made... and they won't even admit the knife is there." Malcolm X
戦争ではなく戦争と戦う


TomBarclay
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

User avatar

Joined: 4 Apr 2021
Gender: Male
Posts: 51
Location: Planet Earth

07 Apr 2021, 8:16 pm

Fnord wrote:
Rawto wrote:
Fnord wrote:
Is it safe to assume that you want replies only from those who either ARE in school or who recently graduated?
Doesn't really matter.
Okay then ... I went to school in the Midwest from 1962 to 1975.  The only possible diagnoses were "Good Student", "Lazy", "Punk", and "ret*d".  The only accommodations made for each of these were:

• Good Students made all the teams, went to all the parties, sat on the Student Council, never lacked for dates, were loved by all the teachers, and did their best to ignore the rest of us.

• If you were deemed "Lazy", you were beaten, blamed, and shamed until you performed better.  Some of us never really performed to the best of our abilities until after we had graduated high school.

• If you were a "Punk", you were mostly ignored and allowed to skip school, flout the law, and bully weaker kids until a judge eventually sentenced you to a juvenile detention facility (a.k.a., "Juvie Hall").

• If you were a "ret*d" (their word, not mine), you were put inside a special classroom and taught by "Special Ed" teachers who were either starry-eyed idealists fresh from university or people with too much tenure to dismiss and too few "people skills" to teach mainstream students.

In simple terms, the accommodations ranged from "crude" to "non-existent".


How do you deal with the anger and resentment that stems from being mistreated by the educational system back then? I become very upset when I think back on how poorly I was treated.


_________________
AQ=37
EQ=11
Raads=183
Cat-q=111


IsabellaLinton
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 1 Nov 2017
Gender: Female
Posts: 67,988
Location: Chez Quis

07 Apr 2021, 8:24 pm

TomBarclay wrote:
How do you deal with the anger and resentment that stems from being mistreated by the educational system back then? I become very upset when I think back on how poorly I was treated.


My father was caned because he was left-handed. The teachers said it was a sign of the devil and they tied his left-hand behind his back. His friend was put in the centre of a circle of students as they chanted insults at him with the teacher. My mother was sent home by herself -- for wearing trousers inside a her snowsuit when there was so much snow my grandfather had to carry her to school on his shoulders. They didn't notify him that she had been thrown out of the building. I was lifted up by my ponytail and spanked in front of the class on my very first day of Kindergarten because I played with a toy train. The teacher said it was a boys' toy and I should have known because it was blue. She forced me to go to the girls' "House" play centre and pretend to iron clothes. All the kids laughed at me, likely from nervous energy when I got spanked and shamed.



IsabellaLinton
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 1 Nov 2017
Gender: Female
Posts: 67,988
Location: Chez Quis

07 Apr 2021, 8:34 pm

TomBarclay wrote:
How do you deal with the anger and resentment that stems from being mistreated by the educational system back then? I become very upset when I think back on how poorly I was treated.


I had to revisit it when I gathered all my school reports for ADHD testing. It's all there in black and white. There's so much anecdotal evidence of ASD / ADHD it's laughable, but all they did was send me to speech therapy for mutism and enunciation. I lived in my head and was constantly teased for being a space cadet. My mother used to tell me I looked and acted ret*d but did she do anything about it? Nope. She let me hide in my bedroom for 18 years so long as I didn't make a mess. It was too embarrassing for me to interact with her family or have a meltdown. It seems the teachers felt the same way. They gave me books and let me sit on beanbag chairs to read. As long as I didn't cause a scene, I was ignored.

It makes me very angry. I don't expect that they would have had the terminology for autism then, but they could have done something or anything to reach out, or find some type of help. Uni wasn't much different. It was agony to live with other students and be shamed even at the age of 19-20. I was sexually assaulted in my first week but I was too afraid to tell the school or my parents. By then I had given up all trust in the education system.



funeralxempire
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 27 Oct 2014
Age: 39
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 25,184
Location: Right over your left shoulder

07 Apr 2021, 9:17 pm

TomBarclay wrote:
How do you deal with the anger and resentment that stems from being mistreated by the educational system back then? I become very upset when I think back on how poorly I was treated.


Substance abuse.


_________________
"If you stick a knife in my back 9 inches and pull it out 6 inches, there's no progress. If you pull it all the way out, that's not progress. The progress is healing the wound that the blow made... and they won't even admit the knife is there." Malcolm X
戦争ではなく戦争と戦う


Redd_Kross
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 5 Jun 2020
Age: 48
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,450
Location: Derby, UK

07 Apr 2021, 9:23 pm

IsabellaLinton wrote:
A quiet space for exams, where you can time out and take a break and then time back in.
Sensory accommodations for that exam room ^ (non-fluorescent lighting, comfy chair, sit on the floor, etc).
Extra time for exams.
Extra time for papers.
Advance notice of deadlines and topics for papers.
A scribe / notetaker to take notes for you if you have auditory processing challenges.
Ability to wear sunglasses / Irlen lenses / coloured lenses in class (some teachers find it rude).
Ability to communicate with assistive devices as needed.
Service animals.
Exemption from oral presentations or group work activities.
Teachers can reduce the number of learning goals for you, and modify lessons / assignments to your learning style.

Check what your ASD assessment lists for academic and social supports, or consult with the diagnostician for ideas. They should provide you with a summary of recommendations in your report.


I would have found most of these very, very useful.

Not having to give presentations, especially. I've always hated that.



IsabellaLinton
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 1 Nov 2017
Gender: Female
Posts: 67,988
Location: Chez Quis

07 Apr 2021, 9:33 pm

funeralxempire wrote:
TomBarclay wrote:
How do you deal with the anger and resentment that stems from being mistreated by the educational system back then? I become very upset when I think back on how poorly I was treated.


Substance abuse.


word



CockneyRebel
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 17 Jul 2004
Age: 49
Gender: Male
Posts: 113,289
Location: Stalag 13

07 Apr 2021, 9:58 pm

I think that being left alone would have been the best accommodation for me. I got extra test time and assignment time.


_________________
Who wants to adopt a Sweet Pea?


madbutnotmad
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 20 Nov 2016
Age: 50
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,678
Location: Jersey UK

07 Apr 2021, 10:30 pm

I generally wasn't naughty at school, but being Asperger, I did have a tendency to talk a lot, and very intensely,
and not to notice the normal signs to be quiet.
I also remember i used to get distracted extremely easily.

These behaviours you will know are classic ASD, sensory hypersensitivity, inability to read facial expressions, not reading normal signals to be quiet etc.

This result in me getting detentions quiet frequently. My school reports were also reviewed during the diagnosis process.
I also got hit by teachers quiet a lot and i believe i, along with most the other kids were subjected to a fair amount of physical violent abuse.

My Physical education teacher, a man named Mr F, used to hit us frequently with a ping pong ball racket, and later, a rounders bat, both with "ouch" written on them. He must have litterly spanked hundreds if not thousands of children over his time as a school teacher. Including quiet a lot of bare bottom spanking. If he did anything like that today he would be locked up as a pedofile or child abuser for life. Imagine, hundreds of cases of abuse!

But like a lot of other cases in Jersey. the island pretend that such things don't happen in this island.
Only if the victims have money.

Another man, a man Mr G, who was my Religious Education teacher, violently hit me extremely hard, once with a book because i was looking out the window watching kids outside the window making faces.

Another time, when he hit me with a large T square over a meter long, which was made of pure wood.
The T square, which he normally used to help him draw lines on the blackboard must have been a bit broken.

As when he tried to hit me on the head (this thing was solid bloody wood! the Brick!)
I had been doing karate for a few years by then and had solid upward blocks
I blocked his meter stick with such precision the T square literally broke in half.

Yes I would like to meet those two again.

I remember the Physical Education teacher getting beaten up once by one of my school mates, who the school teacher used to rip to shreds because the kid was posh, softly spoken and had a bit of a camp voice.

The kid, who ended up growing to quiet a size, much bigger than the teacher.
did eventually snap and give the teacher a right hiding. good for him! come to think about it,
we all should have given him a hiding.

If we had only known what a child abuser the bloke was.
We would have probably gotten away with putting him in hospital.

I probably would have got the blame though. That is my lot in life
after all I have ASD. Yes, Thanks secondary school jerk teachers. Thanks for nothing.
lucky i am not a psycho and there are no guns in the place i live.

If i had been both, i wouldn't kill school kids
it would be the child abusing teachers that i would get.

Please don't take action though on this, as mentioned, I am not a psycho.
and although what these jerk offs did years ago was wrong.
Two wrongs don't make a right and why should I ruin my life and reputation
because these people are jerk offs

Let it go and make the best of what we all got. A human life.
Value Life. Give Help where help is needed if able to give.

Om mani padme hum...



SabbraCadabra
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Apr 2008
Age: 40
Gender: Male
Posts: 7,694
Location: Michigan

08 Apr 2021, 12:36 am

My accommodations were that I had one teacher (for two years) who had to sign a slip that said I was behaving myself, otherwise I wouldn't be allowed to play Nintendo when I got home.


_________________
I'm looking for Someone to change my life. I'm looking for a Miracle in my life.


HeroOfHyrule
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 May 2020
Age: 22
Gender: Male
Posts: 9,247

08 Apr 2021, 12:49 am

I was only diagnosed with ADHD as a kid, and I actually still don't have an ASD diagnosis.

When I was in early elementary school I was in special ed. for awhile, where I worked 1-on-1 and in small groups with various teachers. After that I went to classes to help me with math and reading, and had some sessions with this teacher to help me develop my motor skills and to learn some tasks of daily living, like tying my shoes. I also was given a "wiggle seat" sometimes, which was this rubber cushion that you could shift your weight on and that they gave to kids with ASD/ADHD/sensory issues when they were fidgeting/stimming a lot.

After the 4th/5th grade I didn't really get any accommodations or assistance, even though I probably should have.

Things I think would have helped me in middle/high school would have been having extra help with math, having more time to finish assignments, and being given more time between classes to get to them (and maybe even someone to help me find my classes at first).



Losty
Butterfly
Butterfly

Joined: 31 Jan 2017
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Posts: 14
Location: Sunny Coast Australia

08 Apr 2021, 6:12 am

I was not diagnosed as kid but was flaged in my first year primary school where had to go to a small special ed group 2-3 afternoons week problem was I figured what made me stand out as differant and started mirror more popular kids and than was able mask my way though rest of my schooling years so got no futher help.



Nosho
Butterfly
Butterfly

User avatar

Joined: 8 Apr 2021
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 14
Location: Rochester, NY

08 Apr 2021, 3:00 pm

TomBarclay wrote:
I was in elementary school in the mid 1960's. The first day of my "2nd third grade", I received a large cardboard box (open on one side) where my desk was placed into, that is where I stayed that year. School never got much better after that.


Seriously? Doesn't seem much better than what they were doing back in 2000 here in Upstate New York,

When I was taken off my ADHD meds back in 1999/2000 at the age of 13 during the DARE campaign, and when the whole "Ritalin is cocaine for kids" thing was going on, I got really, really bad in school.. My autism, tourette's, and ADHD all flare eachother up BAD when I'm off my meds (methadone/amphetamine, only amphetamine at the time, I didn't develop major akathisia until later.) I was on the street using illicit substances for a long time after I dropped out, until I actually got some real attention and health care.

Where I went, they had nothing for special needs kids except an unused classroom with a security guard. We had almost no curriculum.. There was a substitute teacher in training who was in the classroom all the time, but his only task was to hand us work meant for kids several grades below us, and to make sure we did it.. so we got zero education really.

To add insult to injury, my entire time growing up, they were against medicating these issues, and where I went and got diagnosed with Hypogonadism, ASD, a dysfunctional prefrontal cortex, ADHD, and Tourette's with severe akathisia, they wouldn't treat any of it.. Their prime directive was getting kids with ASD on disability checks, for some reason.. That's how I wound up on the street, abusing, and almost committed suicide.. I'm way better now though, and studying from home.

Maybe I'm just being a conspiracy theorist, but I ran in to a lot of people like me on the street and in prison during my rebellious 20's... I dunno man. I'm just glad I'm alive and kids these days have a better chance. The laws are much more fair, science has made a lot of progress, and health care is getting better.



Nosho
Butterfly
Butterfly

User avatar

Joined: 8 Apr 2021
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 14
Location: Rochester, NY

08 Apr 2021, 3:18 pm

funeralxempire wrote:
TomBarclay wrote:
How do you deal with the anger and resentment that stems from being mistreated by the educational system back then? I become very upset when I think back on how poorly I was treated.


Substance abuse.


Medication***

Semantics can eat a chode. I've had this argument with my counselor at the methadone clinic already. It's not considered abuse if it increases your quality of life, and you have the ability to quit using it should it be putting your life in danger. Addiction is a choice, not a disease.

Drug war propaganda can go die in a hole.

It's like the difference between someone with a good job, family, plenty of money, and a brain that produces the right amount of dopamine for its receptors using heroin to nod out every night, constantly winding up in the back of ambulances, compared to me, who has to use opioids just to be able to keep his limbs still and achieve REM sleep.

I told my counselor if I hear the term "substance use/abuse disorder" one more time, I'm going to hit whatever mouth I hear it come out of..



Lost_dragon
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 May 2017
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,738
Location: England

08 Apr 2021, 4:18 pm

*Sigh*

The education system has certainly improved over the years...but it's still got a long way to go. I'm glad I grew up in a time where I was allowed to be left-handed and left alone for it (except for the curious kids around me who kept asking questions about me being left-handed). Still, I never had to endure a dunce hat or being spanked by a teacher. It's sad that's where the bar is.

I was never diagnosed as anything...but I certainly had issues and the people around me knew it. Unfortunately many of my teachers were the type to 'not believe in labels' and actively discouraged me from getting help. That I didn't need such things weighing me down, and that I just needed to try harder. :roll:

Except for my selective mutism, which I did receive help for. People kept an eye on my development and I had to do a bunch of tests such as tests on physical strength. I was seen as odd and lazy, so the school sent me off to therapy. Unfortunately the counsellor was emotionally abusive and the whole experience just left me more confused and with more issues than when I walked in.

I was often told that I was too smart and capable to have the issues I do, and that I was probably just confused or attention seeking. To stop being so lazy. Sometimes I'd even get told things like I'm making women look bad because I was struggling, as if I was meant to represent all women or that my gender had anything to do with it.

Generally I wasn't taken seriously because I 'didn't seem like the type' to have issues. I always felt incredibly annoyed when I was told that and felt like replying back 'What? Do you mean because I'm not a disruptive and impulsive five year old boy? Is that what you picture?"

At one point I did get extra time on exams, but then they decided to take it away for me because they decided that I'd improved enough to no longer benefit from having accommodations.

I tried to look into accommodations in university, but they didn't cover them since my course wasn't eligible for covering diagnostic costs. The private price was costly and it felt like a maze trying to get anywhere at all. So I gave up. I decided it wasn't worth it. Frankly I don't know what I am, but I do know that I've been passed around and been treated as an oddity. Yet also told that I'm too normal to complain about such things. I have my speculations.

I saw a Tiktok video recently which was fairly relatable, it said "It sucks being vaguely neurodivergent, because it's basically * I sure am experiencing symptoms here, sure am experiencing experiences! * but not having the words to describe any of that" which sums up how I feel. Am I autistic? I might be on the edge of that, but I'd guess no. Socially anxious? Most likely yes. ADD? I've been told that I come across that way before. Just highly sensitive? A possibility. Dyscalculic? Probably but no one will give me the time of day. Some other visual processing disorder? Possibly.

I've basically just accepted not knowing at this point. The whole process feels like being stuck in a circular maze sometimes.


_________________
24. Possibly B.A.P.


funeralxempire
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 27 Oct 2014
Age: 39
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 25,184
Location: Right over your left shoulder

08 Apr 2021, 4:29 pm

Nosho wrote:
funeralxempire wrote:
TomBarclay wrote:
How do you deal with the anger and resentment that stems from being mistreated by the educational system back then? I become very upset when I think back on how poorly I was treated.


Substance abuse.


Medication***

Semantics can eat a chode. I've had this argument with my counselor at the methadone clinic already. It's not considered abuse if it increases your quality of life, and you have the ability to quit using it should it be putting your life in danger. Addiction is a choice, not a disease.

Drug war propaganda can go die in a hole.

It's like the difference between someone with a good job, family, plenty of money, and a brain that produces the right amount of dopamine for its receptors using heroin to nod out every night, constantly winding up in the back of ambulances, compared to me, who has to use opioids just to be able to keep his limbs still and achieve REM sleep.

I told my counselor if I hear the term "substance use/abuse disorder" one more time, I'm going to hit whatever mouth I hear it come out of..


Don't project the nature of your usage on to me or other people pl0x.

You're welcome to not like to have the term substance abuse used to refer to your consumption but I understand that there's been periods where my usage was quite intentionally self-destructive.


_________________
"If you stick a knife in my back 9 inches and pull it out 6 inches, there's no progress. If you pull it all the way out, that's not progress. The progress is healing the wound that the blow made... and they won't even admit the knife is there." Malcolm X
戦争ではなく戦争と戦う