I have just spent the last three hours trying to add music to this blog (suggestions welcome!). I have yet to find a way to let you in on the musical inspirations I write with. Ah, well...I'll keep trying.
I witnessed an injustice the other day. My mind constantly wanders back to the incident - perhaps I need to write this down so that I can move on? In one of my classes there is a student that is very much like my own son. (For those who don't know, my son has an autism spectrum disorder - Asperger Syndrome). Extremely socially awkward, speaks out of turn, when he does speak, it is usually way off base. Then there is also the stereotypical "jock" student; loud, obnoxious, makes sure everyone notices him...you know the one. Granted, it can be annoying when the student speaks out of turn and throws the lecture off course but I recognize the attemps he is making as trying to fit in. I see my own son do these same things daily. And every class, my heart breaks a little more at how the other students snicker and roll their eyes behind his back. I see my own child facing these situations as he grows older. This student has gotten better, at the behest of the instructor, in raising his hand before he speaks. He did so in the last class, the teacher called on him and he began to speak. As he spoke, a few students groaned. The "jock" sat up and said, "Hey, dude, why don't you just shut up?" Long story short, the teacher diffused the situation, let the other student continue to speak, but once he did, he left the room. The teacher admonished the class about accepting differences in others and "jock" admits he should apologize. He chases the kid down and does so, bringing him back to class. Now...after that lengthy description, what I need to say is you never know the situations of people you may make fun of. Perhaps this student has fought tooth and nail to get where he is, battling the confines of a disability he refused to accept. In that respect, he should be a hero. I just see the future my child is facing in this. Will somone be so intolerant of him and his disability that they lash out at him in a class full of his peers? Will they hurt his feelings so profoundly that he may never recover? I do my best to swallow the fear I have of the future and teach him now how to protect himself against life's unfairness. Are my lessons getting through? Only time will tell.
I'm glad you mentioned this--is this student in our "other" class (though this situation didn't happen there, I'm happy to say)? He's a sweet, intelligent person, and he deserves to be treated well. I think our class handles this well--at least, I hope it does. I haven't noticed any bad behavior!
ReplyDeleteIt's important to be sensitive to the differences in all of us and to be tolerant of those differences.
K. Smith
Eng. 226
Oh, no. Not the same student and not our class. I can say that particular class does extremely well in that situation for sure! Although I had guessed that our student was somewhere on the spectrum as well, I think he is not as severe as the one I am referring to. We should all celebrate our differences. This is how we have always taught our son when he started questioning why he was "different" from other people. The world would be a very boring place if we were all the same.
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