This year, I am happy to participate in RJ Scott's blog hop to raise awareness for autism. Each post contains a fact about autism, many of which were new to me. Just reading through that list alone is an education, but I can also recommend the various articles that go with each of those facts.
Here is the fact I was given: According to a 2012 survey, 27% of children with autism have been excluded from school.
I am shocked! One in 3 children with autism has experienced a level of exclusion that is normally reserved for severe transgressions against school rules. One in 3 children from an already vulnerable group have been made to feel even more vulnerable by the very people who should be teaching and protecting them.
And why?
I suspect the biggest reasons to be fear and uncertainty - about the correct way to handle things, incompetence - in the face of a condition that can be difficult to manage, and prejudice - against those who are different from the "norm".
Indeed, you could argue that some form of prejudice is behind all of them. And I speak from personal experience. As a physically handicapped person (Thalidomide) with shorter arms and no thumbs, I have faced prejudice all my life.
It started small.
When I was maybe four, I wasn't yet in school, I asked my mother for a pair of scissors because I wanted to cut a picture out of a magazine so I could add it to my scrap book. My mother told me I couldn't have them, they were too dangerous for me. I didn't get it. I did everything else the other kids in the neighborhood did, why not use scissors? Much later I asked my mother why she denied me those scissors (she couldn't believe I remembered it), and she said she thought I wouldn't be able to handle them. Translation: she didn't know how to teach me and couldn't imagine how I'd manage, so she assumed I was incapable. Needless to say, it was totally unjustified prejudice and I can handle scissors just fine.
Then it got more noticeable.
People in the streets have always stared at me. Sometimes they still do. Many of them have no idea how to deal with me. Needless to say, these days I stare back until they're embarrassed and look away. Back then, many of them started to laugh when they saw me. Adults as well as children (who learned it from their parents). Some even pointed at me and laughed. Why? Because they didn't know how to react to someone who was so obviously different.
As for the exclusion from school?
While I have never actually been excluded, there were discussions. All from well-meaning adults who thought they "knew better" and decided I'd be better off in a "special school" for my own protection. Translation: they didn't want to deal with me. Yes, they may have thought of it as "in the kid's best interest". But you know what? Even back then that kid, me, knew that I had to make them face the difference. Get them used to the fact I was perfectly able to cope. Fight for my right to be seen and accepted, and not pushed away into a convenient "corner" so I didn't remind them of their own inadequacies or didn't make their lives more difficult.
And even if I hadn't been able to cope, and even if some of those autistic children need more attention or a different kind of approach than the majority? Who says it is right to just push them away? They are a part of society just like everyone else and all of us are better off having them around and learning that diversity is a good thing. It opens up new perspectives, makes us think about ourselves, and helps us become better, more educated people.
To celebrate autism awareness, and the differences in all of us, I'll give away an e-copy of
Garnets of Destiny 1, or one of my other published books if you prefer. Leave a comment here by April 30, and I'll announce the winner on May 1.
