Certifiable
As if it wasn’t enough that I share my home with Autism, I seem to be moving towards a career in it as well.
This week I am working in a special Autism unit in a Yorkshire school. In my class there are half a dozen kids with Autistic Spectrum Disorders, a lead teacher and a team of three assistant teachers (that’s me, that is!)
Special Education is to 21st Century teaching what fresh baked bread is to a Big Mac Meal. It is the basic stuff of nutrition without any junk additives or excessive marketing to convince us that we want to eat the garbage.
There is a profound lesson to be learned in the first five minutes – a crucial moment during which a teacher in a mainstream school can be failed (and ruined) by OFSTED if the lesson doesn’t begin with a brisk and engaging opening activity. In the mainstream school the teacher must take command, set the appropriate tone for a learning environment and engage every child in the room – all within seconds.
Ever tried to engage and hurry one child with Autism?
A register of six takes 30 minutes. By “mainstream” educational standards, registration is a legal formality to be squeezed in around the “important” stuff. In an Autism unit, it is an educational activity in its own right. And it is this attention to detail that makes it possible to engage with and educate ASD kids in the first place.
At last! A sector of the English education system that actually begins with what the children need!
Congrats! (By the way, friend of your wife’s…frequent reader of your blog though.) I’m sure that your background with an autisic child and in education will make your involvement so valuable. I wish you nothing but the best as this progresses.
Comment by Drie — September 27, 2005 @ 4:54 pm
God bless in this venture, G.
I think you are eminently well experienced for it
May it help get your harder times with your own son into perspective and bring you opportunities for extra support and training.
May you, who have been blessed, become a blessing for others
Comment by +hep — September 27, 2005 @ 10:33 pm
May it help get your harder times with your own son into perspective
I know you’re only intending to be kind, but I have to say that patronising comments like this one genuinely don’t help. Hard times are hard. Far, far harder than ‘normal’ people in ‘normal families’ can ever understand.
It’s not that the hard times are out of perspective for us that’s the problem. It’s that people who aren’t involved can be so dismissive of the difficulties. Really, it’s out of perspective for them. But then – it can be. They don’t have to live it.
Comment by Darling Wifey — September 28, 2005 @ 3:04 pm
Good on ya, G.
Comment by Busyknitter — September 28, 2005 @ 7:16 pm
Thats great Gareth, I hope you enjoy it.
Comment by ali — September 28, 2005 @ 7:54 pm
These are helpful words to remind me what’s important. Right now I’m feeling frustrated at the lack of integration for youngest in her new level of autism class (grades 4-8). I realize that maybe I’m pushing too hard and should let the teacher set the pace. . . .
Comment by Ancarett — September 28, 2005 @ 9:15 pm
sorry you feel patronised. I didn’t mean to suggest your perspectives were restricted, quite the opposite.
Comment by hephzibah — September 29, 2005 @ 12:06 am
Round pegs, round holes…I do hope so. Sounds definitely promising
Comment by Kathryn — October 1, 2005 @ 8:32 pm