Comments on: What is education?

By: Marcie

Marcie — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 13:00:01 +0000

When I read Tony Atwood’s “Asperger Syndrome”, I was struck, not by the descriptions, but by the example of what/how to teach Aspie kids social skills. I was struck because he described exactly what someone should have taught me, but everyone just *assumed* I would pick up automatically. I definitely don’t think I should have been keep behind academically for that (I was academically at the head of the class). But what I do think is every person (nt, autie, aspie, etc.) could greatly benefit from a social skills class. But I guess that would just costs to much…

By: Club 166

Club 166 — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 10:52:22 +0000

And then you have our problem, in which our guy’s new school refuses to work on academics until our son has mastered social niceties.

Put our district down for doing that, too. The only reason Buddy Boy learned anything was because my wife, Liz, worked with him before and after school on academic subjects.

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 04:08:02 +0000

This was the situation my son was in for a long time. He made no progress on any academic and IEP goals for a couple of years because it was always “he has to get these behaviors under control first.” The behaviors got worse and worse and he got more and more bored…….

By: VAB

VAB — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 04:01:06 +0000

And then you have our problem, in which our guy’s new school refuses to work on academics until our son has mastered social niceties. They pull him out of class for endless talks with counselors and infantile social-skills sessions, and then complain that he lack self confidence. They refuse to accept the idea that, if they indulged his geeky disposition and let him work on science, math and English, he would feel comfortable enough that his social behavior would improve. — Which just goes to show that you can’t please all of the people all of the time.

By: Autism Vox » This Is Not Education

Autism Vox » This Is Not Education — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 03:01:13 +0000

[...] This post is the unfortunate coda to the previous one, What is Education?. An article entitled School accused of improperly restraining special-needs students in the March 12th Gazette (Colorado Springs) reports that special needs students at Will Rogers Elementary were improperly restrained, forced into “time-out” seclusion, and, well, more that you can read below. [...]

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 02:12:32 +0000

Not sure we should complete that thought …….

By: Club 166

Club 166 — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 02:09:33 +0000

Please pardon my sarcasm, but if the student had been successful in her suicide attempt, wouldn’t that make her completely incapable of academic progress?

You’ll have to pardon mine, but if she had been successful, then she wouldn’t be costing the school district anything…

By: Jen

Jen — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 01:49:20 +0000

Hhmm… maybe it’s just me, but I’d say a student who stopped studying, was cutting herself, and tried commit suicide does indeed have an issue that adversely affects her education. Please pardon my sarcasm, but if the student had been successful in her suicide attempt, wouldn’t that make her completely incapable of academic progress? I’d say she would be completely incapable of leading an adult life at all, let alone leading an adult life that would be independent and successful.
From a standpoint of resources, it makes even more sense, at least to me, that this child get some services. I would speculate, that the likelihood of a person holding a job, and therefore being a taxpayer, is frequently related to that person’s social skills. While I don’t mean to say that a person with poor social skills is completely out of luck, and will never hold a job, I do believe that in many cases, better social skills correlate with more successful employment.

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 00:28:31 +0000

I was very struck by the description of the AS student in the article; it made me think of a tendency I’ve noted to equate academic success with “mainstreamability” (word?…..). I recall conversations with parents who would be eager to say a child is doing “so well” and the district then cuts services….

By: Lisa/Jedi

Lisa/Jedi — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 23:52:33 +0000

We are fortunate that Brendan’s school (& so far, school district) understand that his acedemics falter when his other needs are not accomodated. If this poor kid doesn’t qualify as “disabled” then who does? Whose resources are she “depleting”? Are they interested in giving her a chance for success in life or what? I thought that that’s what providing an education was all about…