Mama Slob-san's

Leftist Blogger wants to practice writing and exorcising her gaseous build up.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Teddy's Turn

Teddy's Turn
I ran across this story at Autism Diva's blog, who found it at MOM-NOS' blog. A very important story about an 11 year old boy who attempted to share his story with the class when the teacher brought up Autism. She pulled him aside and told him it was personal and to keep it to himself. The principal justified the censoring by citing other students' privacy might by violated by Teddy sharing his own story.
http://media.phillyburbs.com/bcct/slideshows/teddysturn/
This is the slideshow Teddy created and the next link is the news article about the situation.
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/111-04152007-1330719.html

"“I'd tell them I'm one of the kids with autism and sometimes kids with autism get picked on,” Teddy explained recently in his family's Newtown Township kitchen. “It's not their fault; it's just because they have autism.”

The fifth-grader asked his mom about talking about autism at his school, Goodnoe Elementary. He thought April would be the perfect time since its autism awareness month.

What an awesome idea, Irene Willis told her son. After all, when Teddy spoke about his disability in his social skills class in February, he made a new friend. He also wrote about his autism for a school report.
[snip]
“I just want people to treat me better, like one of the other normal kids. If many people knew about autism, then they might think about what the person's good at and not what the person isn't good at.”

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Monday, April 16, 2007

Autism Awareness Month

I have mixed feelings about Autism Awareness month. There has been a crescendo of news stories and talk show dedications. However, there is mainly just one side to Autism being portrayed. That side is of the victimized parents and families of Autistic people. Autism is routinely referred to as a disease that is suffered. High profile advocates use damning metaphors like "tsunami"* and epidemic*.
Casual viewers and new parents see these portrayals on popular shows (Oprah, Dateline and The View) and are left mystified.
This weekend the Autism Awareness event was "the Walk". The fundraising goes to Autism Speaks, which seeks to cure and eradicate autism. That's not my interest. I want people to respect autistics and understand community members that may think and act differently from them. I want school districts to be proactive in training their teachers to teach autistic students.
Is that so much to ask for?
Maybe so.
Autism Diva shared this link to Big White Hat's blog, with his message to the autistic community. I think it belongs addressed to autism community too. http://bigwhitehat.com/?p=277



*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rollens
*http://en.epochtimes.com/news/6-2-27/38658.html

http://bigwhitehat.com/?p=277

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