In school, special programs or a good educator who helped?

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It seems that the schools never had good ideas, those latest canned programs from cutting edge research with the cute acronynms. never, ever helped my aspy and autie. My kids' successes came from the times that they met good people. Those people were rare but made life long positive differences with my kids.

None that I know of...none for me and none for my kids.

I never even had a chance, my parents knew there was something different about me but they did nothing, so school couldn't have been more miserable or a bigger waste of time for me.

Well, Yog, when the school gets the kid labelled and tries to help they usually screw it up, at least, in my kids' cases.

I really cant think of a way school could have been worse for me, at least if they tried to help it would have been a nice gesture!

It could have been. They are using my children as a guinea pig for figuring out the "right" way to teach them and the right therapies. I had no help at all and it was horrible...but it's horrible for my kids too. I don't think it makes a difference.

Yog, you're right. I was insensitive. It's horrible to be aspy and have people just lable you weird and a behavior problem. When my son got really anxious at school, he just didn't move. He was too freaked out. The teacher thought that he was being disobedient and sent him to sit in the corner for the rest of the day. When he got home, he burst into tears and couldn't stop crying. He would never intentionally defy a teacher.

Seeing these posts makes me glad I attended school in an era before these diagnoses became entrenched in the education system. My first grade teacher saw me as someone with potential despite whatever was wrong with me. I credit her and my mom with whatever I was able to accomplish.

The closest thing to a favor I've gotten from anyone in the public school system was when they made it clear that they did not want students who didn't come out of a cookie cutter, and would take whatever actions were necessary to get rid of them. At that point, we quit wasting our time with false hopes, withdrew our kid, and proceeded to home school him.

I'm sure that there must be some districts which have appropriate programs for aspie kids, but definitely they aren't in my area.

Well I'm not asking to be shot up with drugs or anything, it just coulda been really nice if people went a little easy on me. I mean the AS wasn't even the only thing. I had, and still have, serious problems with my legs and I was, and still am, in constant pain. I couldn't, and still cant, run or jump or walk too much, but do you think my PE teachers went easy on me? Hell no they didn't. The only class that didn't give homework and I couldn't even pass that.
But I'll tell you one thing that worked, the only school I didn't hate intensely. Of coarse, I never got a chance to go to this school until my senior year in high school, but its a school that they send juniors and seniors to make up credits fast. I got to work at my own pace, I didn't have to take order, I could work on what assignments I chose, I got to listen to my music in class (which was more important to me than anything) and wear my hat, they didn't give homework, and it was a small campus and on top of that I didn't have to carry any books around, because all the books stayed in the classroom, so for my legs that was the most painless school year of my life.
If I got to go to a school like that every year, my life up till now would have been exponentially better.

Heh, trust me, I'm the last guy to ever accuse anyone of being insensitive. I just would have felt better if my parents at least told me about it instead of leaving me in the dark, leaving me to believe it was my fault I was an outcast and I couldn't do good in school and all the other things about me that made life suck, and they sure as hell didn't have to punish me so much for failing classes and making me feel like an idiot because I didn't know why I was getting such terrible grades.

The only teacher that nurtured my potential was my 4th grade teacher. She took me to a bookstore after school and bought me a couple of intriguing books. All my experiences with school programs were bad. The later ones grouped me in with delinquents and other low IQ individuals, and that just made me feel as if I was being punished. I graduated HS approximately five years before AS was given validation.

Well, I graduated highschool roughly about the time English speaking countries found out about AS. About 14 years before it became a valid diagnosis.

My MOTHER was enamored with two "teachers". ONE apparently at least respected me. My mother said she went out of her way to come to our house and tell her I was a great an intelligent kid. Oddly, I don't remember specifics about her. Another was really a LOUSY "teacher", and the one that had me dumb down everything for the class, I still remember HATING that, and had NO emotion when I heard she was hit by a car. Today, she works at meager jobs for minimum wage. Another was one I hated and my mother recently revealed that that "teacher" was a new one and actually apologized AFTER the year for being such a bad math "teacher".

I guess I should be happier. MY problem was just burned/untapped potential. Heck, in a military school, I did just so/so, and I WANTED OUT! I was tricked. My mother said if I brought my grades up, she would take me out. SO, I made the honor roll. It was a small school, so they had a plaque in front of the school with the top 5% of the people in the school. And my name was on it. It stayed on it for the whole year. I say that not to brag, or to say that I have pride in it. It wasn't like I earned a doctorate in nuclear physics, or neural surgery, at a prestigious university. It DOES, however, show how I was doing things well below my ability. I was just BORED!

But most schools just STINK! And it doesn't matter WHAT their reputation is like. I have seen some schools that were supposed to be the best in their nation, and some say are best in the world, that AREN'T!

My mother knew that I was different, but she just accounted that as a result of my intelligence . . . *sighs*

My mom didn't do anything for me in this regard. She knew that my IQ was in the superior range, but she never sought out any alternatives that fit me. I was pretty pissed at her for remarrying and making me accept a bully into my homelife. Imagine spending all your time in public situations. That's what it was like for me from grades 7th through 12th. If I stepped into a time machine that went back to that era, the best decision I could've made woul've been to move in with accommodating relatives.

Yeah, you know what was really damn annoying was hearing ever damn year about how damn smart I am but for some mysterious reason I was getting terrible grades. Connect the freakin dots people!
I mean, there was a big difference between me and all the other kids who were failing. They were idiots and I was one of the smartest kids in the school, and I got great test scores but simply didnt do my other work. So whats the damn mystery?