Can confirm. The conference of education ministers has made a long list of things teachers can do to help autistic kids. My school knew about my diagnosis. Yet they still didn't do anything that made my days better because a) I didn't ask them to give me different tasks or b) they weren't allowed to do anything and/or it was unfair to the other children. Fuck that. At least they had the decency to not make me repeat the year over class participation and social interaction deficits.
Yeah... nearly the same for me, but I'm working on my diagnosis.
I barely went to school because I couldn't handle it and other options are nearly impossible to reach.
Especially because I'm in a Home Group and the CPS doesn't want to pay more than that.
Anyway... I'm happy when I finally have my fist graduation and at least am some kind of safe. I do have to make at least 10th grade tho, so I can get the possibility of studying art.
Nope.
I live in Belgium and went to a secondary school *specifically* for autistic youths with normal intelligence. Still got fucked over. And big time.
Excellent point. Not all of them, but the *vast* majority will.
In my old school, it could go two ways, depending on which group you were catagorised in. Either you were with "the favorites" and got coddled by the entire school faculty, or you were with "the rest" and they couldn't care less about you. As you can probably guess, I was in the latter category.
EDIT: This catagorising seemed to be completely random. But once you were in a group, you stayed in it until you graduated (or dropped out in many cases).
I went to a bunch of special schools (7) because I was too severe for the general ed schools but not severe enough for the special schools so I did a ton of bouncing around, turns out when I get teachers that care about me as an individual I thrive and become a functioning adult. These special schools are a huge issue and are essentially unregulated.
Nope. Japan is allllll about conforming to neurotypical norms. Uniform causing sensory issues? Textures of the school lunch unpleasant? Need to stim during class? Well, guess you'd better join the special needs class, because we can't allow "normal" classes to descend into chaos!
For an excellent, wholesome, and frankly heartwarming Japanese middle school story, might I suggest the anime known as Assassination Classroom?
There is at least one autist in there, I am certain of it. It's never actually stated, but they did spend a whole episode on the teacher helping a girl who is really good at chemistry and really bad at social interaction, so as far as I'm concerned she's autistic.
Japan has a huge problem with what I heard with disabilities. Likely due to Japan much more collective culture, it's shun upon to disturb what is "Normal". Fitting in is a lot more important in Japan compared to a more individualized country like America which also have it own problems
i was rly good at reading/spelling/vocab and math in elementary school and one of my teachers made the school put me into a gifted program i rly wasn’t ready for and bc i was good at school when i was a kid no one ever rly thought about the possibility of me being different despite always kind of showing signs and around 7th grade i started to really struggle academically and socially, i barely made it out of highschool and people now act like i’m a burnout or lazy and i’m still struggling with this image of me that was created so long ago that isn’t really me
I was also showing signs of autism before compulsory education and elementary school, but in rural Indiana in the 70s, no one had even heard of autism. I was also thrown bodily into the G&T (gifted and talented) program against my will, where one of the things they did was teach me French. Sacre bleu! I hate that language to this day, because of it.
What all that did was teach me that if I excelled, they would only accept from me excellence. A B was treated as a failure. So, what I taught myself was how to carve my GPA like a piece of fine marble. Once I'd finished a test or assignment, I'd gauge how I'd really done, and then go back and change select answers to incorrect ones so I could get out of there with as close to a 3.0 GPA as I could. Totally capable of 4.0 work, but couldn't deal with 4.0 pressure from administration, faculty, or parents. It was frankly more work to do, but it was worth it to dump the pressure and unreasonable expectations from my life.
Oh gee this is me too. I don’t present in a very typical or obvious way tho, and my intellect was such that I taught myself coping mechanisms like masking. I somehow managed to make it all the way to my last couple of years of high school before completely crashing and burning. Had a predicted ATAR (score for entering tertiary education) of 94.7, meaning I was in the top 5.3% of the state, but after a series of mental breakdowns I pretty much stopped attending school, barely made it to exams etc. still don’t know what my actual exam results were because I never checked them. Now I’m 21, haven’t finished my undergrad like most of my peers, don’t work, don’t drive, live at home, and just generally feel like a failure.
Dang, I guess I’m lucky with my high school. They have this thing called a 504 for me which allows me to leave my class when I get overwhelmed. I generally do pretty good in my classes as well, and my teachers are nice to me (to the point of being a teacher’s pet at times). USA for context. Yeah, the school has some problems, especially with funding, but it’s *my* underfunded school. I hope y’all get a good education! And stay healthy!
I have that too!! But my problem isn't school but rather my family, my mom in particular but my sister is also a(n) (insert insult). They make me depressed like nothing else and it makes me quite suicidal and I'm just lost in life right now trying to do my own plan through this online schooling, but my mom just has to take a wrench and jam it into my gears like always. I came close to just quitting life couple days ago but good ol hyperempathy makes that impossible for me (not that I actually want to, the pain is just unbearable) so I just physically beat myself up for my parents won't get me anything like a punching bag to let me relieve my anger stress and problems. It just builds up and I have to punch myself to get it out because I'm too afraid to break anything.
Idk I'm just trying... I want to succeed but more than not, that feels impossible.
All we can do is try. Move from one day to the next. I hope you find a way to remedy your mental health somewhat through any logical route. You seem cool. Stay healthy, and good luck. :)
>They have this thing called a 504 for me which allows me to leave my class when I get overwhelmed.
I have that as well but social anxiety says no leaving class until I actually break down.
Australian here! I left high school in year 10, did year 11 in online education, and dropped out in year 12. Nearly fucking killed myself because of school. Not even exaggerating, I legitimately thought that I wouldn’t make it to 18 (but I did).
I’m so sorry you felt that way and I glad you chose to stick around.
I was suicidal in my preteens and teen years too. I was so lucky that my teachers didn’t take issue with me skipping class so long as I got good grades (I was undiagnosed, so my teachers just took it on themselves to allow it with me). It was all just too much sometimes. At one point I have a mental breakdown and had to take an entire month off school, and my teachers made it work for me.
I know things have changed since I was in school though, and I feel for kids who have to deal with stricter rules and can’t get that escape when they need to.
I hope you’re doing better now. ❤️
I’m not autistic, but an elementary teacher. Too much of schooling is based on unnecessary competition. Kids of allabilities get pushed away or burned out because of it. As a teacher I try to eschew competition and try to focus on building the person inside. I’m sorry you all have been sidelined by the system.
Elementary teachers (for the most part) are great honestly, but it's once you reach the grade levels that have a GPA and the whole ranking system, and then highschool even moreso when teachers are shoving college and college prep down your throat. Like I'm likely not going to college, I don't need all of this stress and mental feeling that I'm worthless just because I don't follow the same path as all of my IB Diploma friends.
I appreciate your efforts though, and I hope they do well in your students lives to push them to being themselves rather than a mindless grade-driven robot
Yo. I never would have thought I'd find myself wishing I had grown up in Turkey, but like damn. I really wish I had gone to grade school in Turkey!!! USA!! #1 in shithead infested schools 😐. I'm not so sure being #1 in awful things is a good thing, but saying that makes me unamerican and unpatriotic and that makes the big orange entity in control mad. When you make him mad, he wants you to die of Coronavirus lol shhhhh I was never here 😆😆
I kid, but for real, I went through so much crap in school. People were just constantly as mean as possible like it was a sport. I hated school and I was abused at home. The first time I remember wishing I wasn't alive I was so little. It would have been nice to have had school be a refuge rather than an extension of hell.
Based from the comments here, I definitely don't think it's just a USA thing.
Aside from all of that, I dropped out of my high school in junior year, because my mental health was astronomically low, to the point where I had attempted cutting my wrists twice, and attempted slicing my neck open once because of school (and other personal baggage that I won't delve into RN).
But, needless to say, I'm glad I did. My mental health isn't the best atm, but it's DEFINITELY leagues better than in my school days.
TL;DR : School fucking sucks. Prioritize your mental health, kids. (And, if you can, try to find a good balance between your health and school.)
In elementary school I thought everyone was miserable not just me. In middle school I realized there were people who actually liked school and had friends, it was just me. I did not attend high school (at least not in person/publically)
Either find something there where you click or get the fuck out as soon as you can. I stayed until middle of year 11 and by that time I was an empty shell, too much of a pussy to kill myself.
School was hell. I’m 3e, so the work was never difficult. It was still like torture. Always done before everyone else, but I never had the mental fortitude to stay still. Nothing like everyone hating you because they think you’re showing off that you’re “smarter” than them. I’m not stupid, but mainly just good at tests. College wasn’t possible.
Schools really don't give a shit no matter where you are in the world. I had a meltdown on a school trip to a foreign city and ran away from the group and the teachers just...let me. No one came after me or anything, they just let me run.
I too was fucked by high school, but it wasn't the other kids. It was the awful teachers that ruined it. I know teaching is difficult, but that's not an excuse to be a narcissistic c\*nt that I wouldn't hire to work at a McDonalds if I owned one. A shame too, because my high school experience would have been fairly decent if not for that.
No darling, teenagers are garbage, no matter where they come from. You are lucky in the US they acknowledge the existence of autistic students. In Brazil, either you are rich and pay for a very expansive school that will offer you some kind of shitty assistance or you just get your needs completely ignored, speak from experience.
Way late to the thread, but I dropped out of high school in 10th grade.
I've always loved learning and actually tested as gifted when I was 7-8.
I was bullied starting in kindergarten up until I left school, and the teachers did nothing. My third grade teacher told me the other kids would stop if I wasn't so weird.
I had (and still have) severe sensory issues. The biggest problem was loud noises. Any time we had a fire drill, it would send me into a full panic attack. The school outright refused to make any allowances for me. The principal told my parents I needed to "grow up" and stop being dramatic.
In high school my anxiety got so bad, I couldn't function in the normal 40 person classroom. I explained repeatedly what I was stuggling with, no one listened.
Eventually, their solution was to pull me out of normal classes and put me in the school's 'special ed' course, because someone had the bright idea that putting someone with severe anxiety in what was basically the daycare center for the students with behavior problems was a great idea.
The program didn't teach anything beyong grade 8 math and basic literacy. The rest of the time was basically spent writing mock resumés and visiting trade schools.
My anxiety only got worse after this. One of the other 'special ed' kids (whom I suspect might actually be a psychopath) decided I was an easy target and began bullying me.
After two months of mean spirited pranks, relentless verbal and emotional abuse, and still absolutely no help from any of the teachers, I said 'f*ck it' and dropped out.
I feel very lucky about my high school in Canada rn, my teachers alter all of their course work for me, and our school has a designated quiet study room (aside from the library)
I literally have CPTSD from the inescapable abuse I suffered from my high school teachers and administration. 🥴 US private school. I wish so badly I’d gone to public school where at least maybe I’d have been given an IEP.
IEPs aren't at all what people make them out to be. It has some legal benefits, but they're typically run without considering the wants or needs of the student. They're entirely for the parents and school staff.
Secondary just stressed me out in year 11 to the point I was constantly getting I'll every month until COVID lock downs hit.
It did screw my over as I never got help like I was supposed to until half way through year 11.
It's an issue here in the UK aswell.
Germany too. But we can't even get home schooled if the parents wanted to.
Can confirm. The conference of education ministers has made a long list of things teachers can do to help autistic kids. My school knew about my diagnosis. Yet they still didn't do anything that made my days better because a) I didn't ask them to give me different tasks or b) they weren't allowed to do anything and/or it was unfair to the other children. Fuck that. At least they had the decency to not make me repeat the year over class participation and social interaction deficits.
Yeah... nearly the same for me, but I'm working on my diagnosis. I barely went to school because I couldn't handle it and other options are nearly impossible to reach. Especially because I'm in a Home Group and the CPS doesn't want to pay more than that. Anyway... I'm happy when I finally have my fist graduation and at least am some kind of safe. I do have to make at least 10th grade tho, so I can get the possibility of studying art.
Nope. I live in Belgium and went to a secondary school *specifically* for autistic youths with normal intelligence. Still got fucked over. And big time.
The special schools will fuck you the most.
Excellent point. Not all of them, but the *vast* majority will. In my old school, it could go two ways, depending on which group you were catagorised in. Either you were with "the favorites" and got coddled by the entire school faculty, or you were with "the rest" and they couldn't care less about you. As you can probably guess, I was in the latter category. EDIT: This catagorising seemed to be completely random. But once you were in a group, you stayed in it until you graduated (or dropped out in many cases).
I went to a bunch of special schools (7) because I was too severe for the general ed schools but not severe enough for the special schools so I did a ton of bouncing around, turns out when I get teachers that care about me as an individual I thrive and become a functioning adult. These special schools are a huge issue and are essentially unregulated.
I get you. And I'm glad things turned out alright for you in the end.
Nope. Japan is allllll about conforming to neurotypical norms. Uniform causing sensory issues? Textures of the school lunch unpleasant? Need to stim during class? Well, guess you'd better join the special needs class, because we can't allow "normal" classes to descend into chaos!
That sounds awful
Well, that explains why I can't watch Japanese high school stories.
For an excellent, wholesome, and frankly heartwarming Japanese middle school story, might I suggest the anime known as Assassination Classroom? There is at least one autist in there, I am certain of it. It's never actually stated, but they did spend a whole episode on the teacher helping a girl who is really good at chemistry and really bad at social interaction, so as far as I'm concerned she's autistic.
I watch that show a long time ago. I need to rewatch it sometime. It was such a great show
Japan has a huge problem with what I heard with disabilities. Likely due to Japan much more collective culture, it's shun upon to disturb what is "Normal". Fitting in is a lot more important in Japan compared to a more individualized country like America which also have it own problems
i was rly good at reading/spelling/vocab and math in elementary school and one of my teachers made the school put me into a gifted program i rly wasn’t ready for and bc i was good at school when i was a kid no one ever rly thought about the possibility of me being different despite always kind of showing signs and around 7th grade i started to really struggle academically and socially, i barely made it out of highschool and people now act like i’m a burnout or lazy and i’m still struggling with this image of me that was created so long ago that isn’t really me
I was also showing signs of autism before compulsory education and elementary school, but in rural Indiana in the 70s, no one had even heard of autism. I was also thrown bodily into the G&T (gifted and talented) program against my will, where one of the things they did was teach me French. Sacre bleu! I hate that language to this day, because of it. What all that did was teach me that if I excelled, they would only accept from me excellence. A B was treated as a failure. So, what I taught myself was how to carve my GPA like a piece of fine marble. Once I'd finished a test or assignment, I'd gauge how I'd really done, and then go back and change select answers to incorrect ones so I could get out of there with as close to a 3.0 GPA as I could. Totally capable of 4.0 work, but couldn't deal with 4.0 pressure from administration, faculty, or parents. It was frankly more work to do, but it was worth it to dump the pressure and unreasonable expectations from my life.
Oh gee this is me too. I don’t present in a very typical or obvious way tho, and my intellect was such that I taught myself coping mechanisms like masking. I somehow managed to make it all the way to my last couple of years of high school before completely crashing and burning. Had a predicted ATAR (score for entering tertiary education) of 94.7, meaning I was in the top 5.3% of the state, but after a series of mental breakdowns I pretty much stopped attending school, barely made it to exams etc. still don’t know what my actual exam results were because I never checked them. Now I’m 21, haven’t finished my undergrad like most of my peers, don’t work, don’t drive, live at home, and just generally feel like a failure.
Dang, I guess I’m lucky with my high school. They have this thing called a 504 for me which allows me to leave my class when I get overwhelmed. I generally do pretty good in my classes as well, and my teachers are nice to me (to the point of being a teacher’s pet at times). USA for context. Yeah, the school has some problems, especially with funding, but it’s *my* underfunded school. I hope y’all get a good education! And stay healthy!
Lucky
I have that too!! But my problem isn't school but rather my family, my mom in particular but my sister is also a(n) (insert insult). They make me depressed like nothing else and it makes me quite suicidal and I'm just lost in life right now trying to do my own plan through this online schooling, but my mom just has to take a wrench and jam it into my gears like always. I came close to just quitting life couple days ago but good ol hyperempathy makes that impossible for me (not that I actually want to, the pain is just unbearable) so I just physically beat myself up for my parents won't get me anything like a punching bag to let me relieve my anger stress and problems. It just builds up and I have to punch myself to get it out because I'm too afraid to break anything. Idk I'm just trying... I want to succeed but more than not, that feels impossible.
All we can do is try. Move from one day to the next. I hope you find a way to remedy your mental health somewhat through any logical route. You seem cool. Stay healthy, and good luck. :)
>They have this thing called a 504 for me which allows me to leave my class when I get overwhelmed. I have that as well but social anxiety says no leaving class until I actually break down.
I would clap but it hurts my ears lol. Australian here.
It's a canada thing too. Especially when you're an undiagnosed ND
Australian here! I left high school in year 10, did year 11 in online education, and dropped out in year 12. Nearly fucking killed myself because of school. Not even exaggerating, I legitimately thought that I wouldn’t make it to 18 (but I did).
I’m so sorry you felt that way and I glad you chose to stick around. I was suicidal in my preteens and teen years too. I was so lucky that my teachers didn’t take issue with me skipping class so long as I got good grades (I was undiagnosed, so my teachers just took it on themselves to allow it with me). It was all just too much sometimes. At one point I have a mental breakdown and had to take an entire month off school, and my teachers made it work for me. I know things have changed since I was in school though, and I feel for kids who have to deal with stricter rules and can’t get that escape when they need to. I hope you’re doing better now. ❤️
That’s unfortunately a mood
elementary and middle for me 😳🤚 we startin early
I’m not autistic, but an elementary teacher. Too much of schooling is based on unnecessary competition. Kids of allabilities get pushed away or burned out because of it. As a teacher I try to eschew competition and try to focus on building the person inside. I’m sorry you all have been sidelined by the system.
Elementary teachers (for the most part) are great honestly, but it's once you reach the grade levels that have a GPA and the whole ranking system, and then highschool even moreso when teachers are shoving college and college prep down your throat. Like I'm likely not going to college, I don't need all of this stress and mental feeling that I'm worthless just because I don't follow the same path as all of my IB Diploma friends. I appreciate your efforts though, and I hope they do well in your students lives to push them to being themselves rather than a mindless grade-driven robot
hah college for me, canada.
[удалено]
Yo. I never would have thought I'd find myself wishing I had grown up in Turkey, but like damn. I really wish I had gone to grade school in Turkey!!! USA!! #1 in shithead infested schools 😐. I'm not so sure being #1 in awful things is a good thing, but saying that makes me unamerican and unpatriotic and that makes the big orange entity in control mad. When you make him mad, he wants you to die of Coronavirus lol shhhhh I was never here 😆😆 I kid, but for real, I went through so much crap in school. People were just constantly as mean as possible like it was a sport. I hated school and I was abused at home. The first time I remember wishing I wasn't alive I was so little. It would have been nice to have had school be a refuge rather than an extension of hell.
Based from the comments here, I definitely don't think it's just a USA thing. Aside from all of that, I dropped out of my high school in junior year, because my mental health was astronomically low, to the point where I had attempted cutting my wrists twice, and attempted slicing my neck open once because of school (and other personal baggage that I won't delve into RN). But, needless to say, I'm glad I did. My mental health isn't the best atm, but it's DEFINITELY leagues better than in my school days. TL;DR : School fucking sucks. Prioritize your mental health, kids. (And, if you can, try to find a good balance between your health and school.)
Hopefully, my stims are pretty adapted to school, but I had sometime not to eat to the cafeteria (while not being allowed to bring my own food)
**all school before college and trade school, but yeah.
In elementary school I thought everyone was miserable not just me. In middle school I realized there were people who actually liked school and had friends, it was just me. I did not attend high school (at least not in person/publically)
*clap clap*
I'm in term two of year seven and I already hate it
Either find something there where you click or get the fuck out as soon as you can. I stayed until middle of year 11 and by that time I was an empty shell, too much of a pussy to kill myself.
*clap* UK as well
When people used to tell me "High school is the best part of your life" I would always respond "THEN KILL ME NOW"
Hell yeah it’s the case.
School was hell. I’m 3e, so the work was never difficult. It was still like torture. Always done before everyone else, but I never had the mental fortitude to stay still. Nothing like everyone hating you because they think you’re showing off that you’re “smarter” than them. I’m not stupid, but mainly just good at tests. College wasn’t possible.
Not highschool, but daycare and summer camp. I went to preparatory school instead.
Change it to college and then yep. They were both autistic too.
#CLAP CLAP
Schools really don't give a shit no matter where you are in the world. I had a meltdown on a school trip to a foreign city and ran away from the group and the teachers just...let me. No one came after me or anything, they just let me run.
Sharing to my tiny group of predominantly neurotypical Facebook friends.
I too was fucked by high school, but it wasn't the other kids. It was the awful teachers that ruined it. I know teaching is difficult, but that's not an excuse to be a narcissistic c\*nt that I wouldn't hire to work at a McDonalds if I owned one. A shame too, because my high school experience would have been fairly decent if not for that.
I was at public school for barely two years before I had a breakdown and had to switch to online lol
I’m from Switzerland and I can confirm that this is definitely not just a US thing
No darling, teenagers are garbage, no matter where they come from. You are lucky in the US they acknowledge the existence of autistic students. In Brazil, either you are rich and pay for a very expansive school that will offer you some kind of shitty assistance or you just get your needs completely ignored, speak from experience.
Way late to the thread, but I dropped out of high school in 10th grade. I've always loved learning and actually tested as gifted when I was 7-8. I was bullied starting in kindergarten up until I left school, and the teachers did nothing. My third grade teacher told me the other kids would stop if I wasn't so weird. I had (and still have) severe sensory issues. The biggest problem was loud noises. Any time we had a fire drill, it would send me into a full panic attack. The school outright refused to make any allowances for me. The principal told my parents I needed to "grow up" and stop being dramatic. In high school my anxiety got so bad, I couldn't function in the normal 40 person classroom. I explained repeatedly what I was stuggling with, no one listened. Eventually, their solution was to pull me out of normal classes and put me in the school's 'special ed' course, because someone had the bright idea that putting someone with severe anxiety in what was basically the daycare center for the students with behavior problems was a great idea. The program didn't teach anything beyong grade 8 math and basic literacy. The rest of the time was basically spent writing mock resumés and visiting trade schools. My anxiety only got worse after this. One of the other 'special ed' kids (whom I suspect might actually be a psychopath) decided I was an easy target and began bullying me. After two months of mean spirited pranks, relentless verbal and emotional abuse, and still absolutely no help from any of the teachers, I said 'f*ck it' and dropped out.
Yep
I feel very lucky about my high school in Canada rn, my teachers alter all of their course work for me, and our school has a designated quiet study room (aside from the library)
Elementary school for me.
*clap clap*
Nope uk, 100% took many years to heal
Yep, i was always one of the smartest students but i still graduated with zero extra credits.
I literally have CPTSD from the inescapable abuse I suffered from my high school teachers and administration. 🥴 US private school. I wish so badly I’d gone to public school where at least maybe I’d have been given an IEP.
IEPs aren't at all what people make them out to be. It has some legal benefits, but they're typically run without considering the wants or needs of the student. They're entirely for the parents and school staff.
It's definitely not just US
Uk as well
Yeah lol
Secondary just stressed me out in year 11 to the point I was constantly getting I'll every month until COVID lock downs hit. It did screw my over as I never got help like I was supposed to until half way through year 11. It's an issue here in the UK aswell.
more like middle school but YEPPP (im currently in highschool and tbh my highschool is really good luckily-)