xmlns:og='http://ogp.me/ns#' Yeah. Good Times.: More on the unfairness of autism

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

More on the unfairness of autism

A dear friend of mine (insert waving emoticon here) pointed me to this site and asked me my opinion: Rethink Autism. I said I thought it was a great resource for folks who live in places with shitty school districts; who get no services and whatever they do get, it's mostly crap, so they're forced to do all the work themselves. That wasn't the case for us, though, since we're in a pretty good district, we've gotten some excellent services, I was never forced to do any of the work myself, which is REALLY good for the boy since I'm the world's most shittiest teacher. Seriously, if there was an award for "People Who Should Never Go Into the Education Profession" I would win it, hands fucking down. (I don't say this to disparage myself, it's something I learned about myself a long time ago. I'm just a bad teacher, but that's okay, because I'm good at other things. It's like I tell my clients: you can't be good at EVERYTHING; you're good at what you do and you're not a bookkeeper, that's why you hire me; it's nothing to be ashamed of.)

At any rate, it got me thinking, as things often do... how fucking unfair is THAT? We're lucky enough to be able to afford to live in this area (kinda) which means we have access to some good services, some of the best around, I would say. But what about the folks living in the woods of Kentucky, where there's one school for all the kids in a 50 mile radius? They get shit for services, there's nothing even for them to fight for, really, and it's just because of where they live? That's not fair. Their kid still has autism, s/he still needs excellent services, it isn't fair that they don't have access to the same services that we do. And if they don't have access, their parents are forced to learn it and do it themselves, but what if they're like me and should win awards for being shitty? That just sucks for everybody involved!

I'm not entirely sure what I think should be done about this, I just wanted to point out the general suckiness of the whole thing. I'm glad for the internet, at least, because now I have friends who live in the woods of Kentucky and have kids with autism. Hi!



3 comments:

Nobodyspecial said...

I think this kind of unfair falls under the "life is unfair" category. Autistic kids are not the only ones who suffer from insufficient care or distance from civilization.

jillsmo said...

That's true, but when they suffer, they suffer much worse. if these kids don't get intensive services as early as possible the prognosis for the rest of their lives is not good. it's like a regular kid, only much more dramatic

Anonymous said...

Hear hear @ the post. I guess we kind of fall into that category, we get shitty services and barely any help and I'm in WAAAAY over my head. **runs away screaming**

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