Originally posted by Nocturnal SubmissionView Post
I presume that TDD is a regular who decided to go incognito, as one or two others have done in the past when wishing to discuss what might be termed sensitive or personal issues.
I wondered that. The style seems somewhat familiar.
My impression likewise. I shared it with Mrs Lucy who reacted in the same way as I did - such a great thing to read from our perspective particularly. If TDD is a regular I can understand why they might have wanted to post anonymously, but I'm sure I'm not alone in believing it would have been received like this regardless.
I don't wish to be rude, or insensitive, or a plain cunt, but why would anyone wish to post a story about ASD anonymously?
Be proud of who your children are and embrace their unique gifts.
If anybody has anything negative to say, that's their problem.
Sure, but some people are less comfortable talking about personal stuff, and might feel awkward about talking about their kids. I get that.
I was interviewed recently about a project relating to autism, and I didn’t mention that my son had it - not at all because I was embarrassed, but cos I didn’t want him to see it one day and feel I’d invaded his privacy or used his ASD to sell something. Maybe that was over sensitive but I decided to do that in advance and stuck to it.
I dream happily of metro transit systems that don't exist and feel bereft when I awake to Dublin with no subway/Glasgow only having the wee circle line.
Apropos of nothing, it took me a long time to work out that the Glasgow underground was just two trains going in opposite directions. I had envisaged something far more grandoise, with multiple circular lines intersecting. The odd thing was, I think my imaginary version of the subway actually worked.
I wasn't a local, see, so getting to go on the clockwork orange was a bit exciting and mysterious.
More on topic, I had to break up a fight at my school's athletics day, between a boy with ASD and another boy who appears to just have been a thug in training. Days like that must be absolutely Hellish for people with ASD.
A lovely first - in both ways - post. I have had a fair bit to do with children on the spectrum and a reasonable amount of training about it. I am presently in a special school that predominately has children on the spectrum. I realised long ago, that the more experience I have with children with ASD etc. the less I know. I do, however, know a fair bit more than some schools. For instance, there seems to be a lot of unsubstantiated-by-evidence instruction on wall displays by school man. I have walked into classrooms that are so festooned with words, pictures and colours that it must be hellish for children with ASD.
Thought I’d share this, as the wife and I have cracked open the bubbly to celebrate - young master Lucy Waterman got his place at our wonderful local special school today. Was refused by Kent County Council earlier this year, we appealed and had a tribunal date set for October. YMLW was set to start at our nearby primary in September, which would have been, ok, fine - but this is what he needs and deserves. KCC rang Mrs Lucy this morning to tell her and she was in tears down the phone. I feel like I did when I got my place at uni, or my first writing job that let me go full time - this is a life changing moment.
This is excellent news. I hope both of you continue to be like dogs with a bone to get what your son deserves and is entitled to. Sadly you have to know more than the experts to get things in the UK education system.
Thanks all - AE, you’re absolutely right about how hard and smart you have to fight, and I must give a lot of the credit to Mrs Lucy, who has led from the front and fought less like a dog than like a mighty tigress.
Excellent news, LW, although it should be tempered by the fact that they employ yahoos like me in special schools so never take your eyes off them. Not for one minute.
On a more serious note, I have to mildly take exception to this
Sadly you have to know more than the experts to get things in the UK education system.
No, you don't have to know more than the experts in general. As LW says, it was Kent council that he was appealing against and they, like any councils, are not experts on autism-friendly practice in education like, for instance, his local special school is, I am sure. To be fair, we don't know what funding issues etc. they are up against although it is entirely possible that they haven't acted appropriately. As I say though, I wouldn't have the council down as 'experts'. Even when I was fully immersed in study about education in my degree (including quite a lot on SEN) and when I started as a teacher, I would still defer to my son's teacher as the expert on his teacher. In any area, we shouldn't undermine experts in the field - let's not forget Gove's "people have had enough of experts" - and especially in education where there has been a decades long campaign from governments of all stripe to devalue educationalists and teachers.
I appreciate, AE, that you of all people don't want those who work with children directly undermined and that it was probably clumsy phrasing but I think it bears clarifying.
Yes, BE - the special school were fully behind us under the counter - at least, that was our reading. And I’m sure AE sees that you both are coming from the same place.
Comment