This month we celebrate Autism. That’s right: celebrate. You see I have had the great privilege of teaching students with Autism and Aspergers for the past 12 years. Sure, it has been hard, but wonderful as well. I get to watch and learn how different types of mind work.
For me, the person who epitomises all that is great about Autism is Temple Grandin. I’m not going to give you a biography of her. If you do not know anything about her, then watch her Ted Video first. It will blow your mind.
There are three ‘aha’ moments I have had from listening, learning and reading about Temple Grandin and her work. Below are some quotes from Temple and my feelings on how they relate to me as a teacher:
- “More emphasis on the talent, less on the disability”: Many schools and teachers want to fix students with Autism. Instead we need to all celebrate student’s successes and find out what they do well.
- “You have got to keep autistic children engaged with the world. You cannot let them tune out”: I believe many parents and teachers let the label be an excuse. That does no service to the child that we are actually trying to help. Engaged is the key. And we wrongly assume that students with Autism cannot be engaged in our social world.
- “If I could snap my fingers and become non-autistic I would not do so. Autism is part of who I am”: Empathy is important in education, sympathy is not.
We are all capable of doing remarkable things in this world. And in April, we celebrate Autism.
How are you going to celebrate Autism Awareness Month? What can we learn from our children with Autism?
image credit: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/images/pubs/brain-structures-autism.gif
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Tags: AspergerSyndrome, Autism, Autism spectrum, Disorders, Mental Health, Neurodevelopmental
I love the first one, and think in general, we need to do more to celebrate all of our children’s talents.