Do you think this was inappropriate or appropriate?

[Tiapet]

Came across this on twitter the other day:

A teacher gave an assignment to the students of their class to "write an essay on how people with Aspergers should be treated in light of Newtown." This was locally.

Now also consider, one of the students in this class has a brother who has Autism and the teacher knows this.

I would also like to know has anyone seen any dramatic changes in these past few days in how your children are being dealt with in school with any behaviors? I know I have. Mr. Busy had an incident, not a violent one in any way, but he made an inappropriate comment to another child in conversation and he was written up and now has ISS due to it. Previously this would have been dealt with very differently. He should have not said it, this I stand behind but the school is acting much more harshly across the board on EVERYTHING no matter how small it is and I'm wondering if anyone else is seeing this in their schools too?

 

[DaisyFace]

Hmmm...

I'd be leary of that assignment for sure. It makes me wonder what the discussion was in the classroom before this was assigned? Was there a lot of negative talk about Aspergers? Was there an ignorant comment or two? Did the teacher give the assignment in an effort to teach a little more about Aspergers and Austism and foster understanding? or is the teacher jumping on a nasty bandwagon about excluding people with Austism and Aspergers?

 

[InsaneCdn]

I'd be calling "somebody" on that one.

There's no possible way a classroom teacher understands even a tiny fraction of the picture of what Aspie and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) people are like... even IF the teacher has an Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) sibling, which is unlikely.

 

[SuZir]

A teacher gave an assignment to the students of their class to "write an essay on how people with Aspergers should be treated in light of Newtown." This was locally.

Seriously? Wow! Did they also have an assignment to write an essay "how should USA deal with Norweigians in light of Anders Behring Breivik's actions" or "how people with Asian ethnicity should be treated in light of Virginia Tech?"


Yes, I think that is very inappropriate. (I assume this wasn't medication school or any schooling for future counsellors/therapists.)

 

[BusynMember]

No, because the Aspergers, if he even had it, didn't cause the massacre. He obviously had far worse issues and demons than that. The teacher is ignorant.

 

[Tiapet]

I thought it highly in appropriate and most of the responses said so to. The mom of the child said she had a mind to write the assignment herself and email it in to the teacher. Another response was "treat them exactly like any other child!".

 

[DammitJanet]

What grade was this and when did the school suddenly teach a seminar on understanding mental illness and special needs of their fellow students?

I would be surprised if they could get any kids to have more than the ability to understand that the two words are spelled differently (aspergers and autism) in the amount of time since they have been back at school. They certainly havent had time to understand the differences. They havent had time to understand why Aspergers most likely isnt the root cause here. Good lord. And also, arent all the professionals telling parents to limit kids contact with watching all the media about this stuff? So how on earth are they even supposed to know about it in the first place!

 

[TerryJ2]

Wish I were that kid's mom ... I'd be typing my own essay so fast!

 

[muttmeister]

First of all, I'd like to know the age of the class involved.

Then I'd like to know what led up to this assignment. It is entirely possible, given the news coverage, that the kids were blaming the fact that the kid supposedly had Aspergers and the teacher was trying to clear up some misunderstanding.

Then I'd like to know what discussion was given before the assignment. In a school setting, only so much can be covered and it has to be age appropriate but it is possible that they discussed NOT automatically looking for the "weirdness" in people and NOT bullying people who are different than you.

I don't think, with the info you've given here, that we can possibly know if it was appropriate or inappropriate. A lot of us with kids with problems are super-sensitive about anything that happens. Maybe, as in many other situations, we need all of the information before we make a judgement.

 

[DammitJanet]

True Mutt. That is one reason I wanted to know the ages. If it was middle school or younger, I dont know that they could possibly understand this quickly. Now having an in school session wouldnt be a bad idea about differences.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Given that i KNOW kids who have been the recipient of teacher-lead bullying that was dressed up as an assignment.. I'd be extremely wary. Maybe this and maybe that... sure, this might have been well-intentioned. But in my experience... it would be dangerous, one way or the other.

 

[Tiapet]

I don't know the age of the child. I don't know under what circumstances either, she didn't say. What I can say is that if she was posting this as a concern, she would know best (and probably already had discussed with her child the circumstances) as her and her husband used to facilitate a support group for Aspergers in the area (now defunct as they just didn't have time for it having 5 children). They've been inundated with emails begging them to restart the group, by the way, since this shooting and the group hasn't existed for a few years!

So, while I will reserve judgement of teacher on one hand, on the other I trust this mom in making a judgement that she thinks it was inappropriately given out.

 

[HaoZi]

I ran into one cop in our area today who said he is grossly disappointed in how the media is portraying Asperger's in light of the shooting and how there must be a lot more than they're telling us. I was glad to hear that from someone like him.

 

[DownTheRabbitHole]

The other part of your post touched on a subject of growing concern with me. I would like to believe that the CT tragedy would bring much needed attention and review of the current insurance policies and practices with medical health coverage but I fear its going to result in schools being less tolerant of kids with behavioral problems.

Crossing my fingers that I won't have to experience less tolerant school admin too soon or ever (a girl can dream) but I sense changes in schools are coming and that they're not likely to result in helping difficult child's. I can only hope I'm mistaken.