Login to Change.org
Create an Account
Brett Miller
Ballwin, MO
Recent Activity
-
Brett commented on the article |Kristina,
It's been a joy and honor to get to know you (and Jim and Charlie) through your writing and our personal correspondence. You can bet I'll keep following you on your road with Charlie.
Brett
-
Brett commented on the article |Like Sharon, I think the joke is on the "mean girls." (And, yes, I think it is funny in the 'dark' way in which I think it was intended.)
Taken to an extreme, I think the people who should be most offended are girls named Caitlyn (however it is spelled), since they are being lampooned as stereoptypes.
I also think it is worth mentioning that in the scene Lisa doesn't dignify the question ("Do you even know how lame you are?") with an answer.
I don't think the joke has anything to do with disabilities (unless you consider being a "mean girl" a disability). -
Brett commented on the article |What you describe here is true meanness, not the "mean" that is discussed in the article. Completely uncalled for. (Unless, of course, your goal is to give students a taste of the "real world" and a life filled with mean and spiteful bosses.)
-
Brett commented on the article |
These findings also mirror our experiences.
The most effective teachers are always the ones that challenge us. Unfortunately, many people get into a habit of too much sympathy themselves, so when they see a teacher being "mean" they don't understand it as being a good, challenging teacher. (There are, of course and unfortunately, truly mean teachers, but that is another topic for another day.)
When that same teacher is just as "mean" to a non-disabled student, they are praised for challenging the student. (I would be willing to bet that if those teachers showed "sympathy" to a non-disabled student, they would likely be fired for being ineffective and not challenging their students.)
Just one more riff on the theme that autistic children are, first and foremost, children. Along those lines, autistic students are, first and foremost, students. Just different types of students. -
Brett commented on the article |When people ask me questions like that, my response is something along the lines of, "In the 'real world' of work, accomodations are made every day for employees, autistic or not."
Want to listen to music while you work? Sure, just make sure you wear headphones.
Want to personalize your space with pictures of your family? Just don't go overboard.
Need a more comfortable chair? Just talk to the supply guys.
etc. etc.
School systems that use this as an excuse to not 'accomodate' a student - any student - are lazy, plain and simple. Teachers that use this excuse are either hopelessly out of touch with the real world or tragically incompetent. -
Brett signed the petition | -
Brett commented on the article |Kristina,
You ask, "Would we all be found to have "autistic symptoms"?" The short answer, I believe, is "yes".
Last April, as part of my thinking about Autism Awareness month, I considered the same basic question, and came up with a little longer answer (sorry for the long excerpt, but it seemed appropriate here):
- - -- --- -----
Maybe it’s because I’ve been around autism for so long now, but I can’t understand why anyone would find it so surprising that a possible “cause” of autism is a complex interaction of genes. ... You might as well ask questions like, “What is the cause of introversion? Extroversion? Natural athletic ability?”
I can hear many people saying something along the lines of, “But those ‘conditions’ are normal.” Are they? I mean, in a statistical sense, are they really ‘normal’? I would say no.
If you look at the introvert/extrovert question, I would guess (yes, I’m guessing, no science here) the bell curve of this spectrum would have a few at either end and the rest (you guessed it) within two standard deviations of the mean. Same for athletic abilities.
If we look at autism in this way, as a spectrum across all people (and not just those we currently refer to as autistic), I propose that we might see something similar. On the left side of the bell curve, you would have those that are very non-autistic, the incredibly sociable communicative, etc etc. On the right side, you would have those that are very autistic (what we now simply call autistic).
And in the middle, within two standard deviations, would be the vast majority of us showing our mix of autistic and non-autistic traits.
----- --- -- - - -
Brett signed the petition |
